What evidence is there that there was actually a world flood?

Answer 1

Since the vast majority of scientists would not agree that Noah's Flood as related in The Bible is literally true, the 'scientific position' would be that there is no scientific proof for the event because it did not happen.

However, many people coming usually from either a religious (usually fundamentalist Christian, or sometimes Islamic or Jewish) or alternative history perspective have attempted to prove that the Flood occurred using scientific, or pseudoscientific, means.

The evidence produced in this way is of various types. Some have attempted to find the remains of Noah's ark on or around Mount Ararat as described in the Bible; many have claimed to have discovered the vessel, in various locations, using satellite imagery, exploration, or local knowledge. Although some intriguing shapes have been found, and unconfirmed reports have claimed to have taken samples showing e.g. wood of a great age, generally these discoveries turn out to be natural formations or hoaxes. A quick Google for 'Noah's ark found' will show you many examples of this.

Others have drawn upon the universality of the Flood myth in worldwide cultures as showing that a global Flood must have occurred in antiquity. However, there are many more likely alternative explanations for these similar myths, which would include ancient traditions of localised flooding, rather than global (we do know that flooding was widespread at the end of the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago); or common origins for some of the stories; the archetypal cultural fear of cataclysmic floods.

The trouble with all of these sorts of arguments, especially if we are to consider them 'scientific', is twofold.

First, most people who contend that the Flood occurred have already concluded that such an event happened, and simply look for evidence which supports their conviction. This is not a scientific approach, which would instead work the opposite way around (i.e. gather evidence, then theorise as to an explanation).

Second, the issue is not simply that the evidence is poor that the Flood did happen; in actual fact, much of what we know about the Earth, its history and its ecosystems shows us that a global Flood as described in the Bible is impossible. The idea of a Flood is incompatible with what we know about, for instance, freshwater vs. saltwater-dwelling animals and environments (a global Flood would not result in what we see of these delicately balanced systems); what we know of the patterns of extinction in the world (i.e. that species have appeared and disappeared throughout the fossil record, with no one event wiping out most of life on Earth); what we know about molecular Biology and genetic inheritance (species today do not originate from two or a small number of ancestors within the last few thousand years); and many other similar objections.

For resources which claim to have scientific evidence for Noah's Flood, see for instance Answers In Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org).

For an excellent discussion of the sceptical approach to the Flood, see the TalkOrigins discussion (http:/www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html).

Answer 2

A:There is no scientific evidence that there ever was a worldwide flood. However those who seek to shore up faith in the Bible attempt to reinterpret the geological and radiological evidence in such a way as to claim support for a great flood just a few thousand years ago. These attempts include caliming that the sedimentary rocks were laid down by the flood, although such a claim refutes all known science. To bolster such claims, some even say that the half-lives of all radioisotopes changed dramatically and synchronously at the same time as the flood, something physicists say is impossible.

The relevant evidence is that there simply is not enough water in the world to cover the land to the top of the highest mountains. But this is something the ancients who developed the legend of Noah's Flood could not have known.

There is evidence of a great flood that must have seemed to be a worldwide event, sent to destroy mankind. Ian Wilson (Before the Flood) presents a well argued case that this event was the inundation of what is now the Black Sea. There is evidence that rising ocean levels at the end of the Younger Dryas, around 5200 BCE, caused the Mediterranean Sea to breach the Bosphorus and flood the former fertile, low-lying plain. Wilson finds much physical and anthropological evidence that several later flood legends were folk memories of this great flood.