Water, Water, Everywhere

I’ve just about beaten Noah and his Ark to death, but haven’t said anything about the Biblical Flood, so here goes.

The Bible says that the mountains were covered, but if we include the Himalayas, we are talking 30,000 feet. I don’t believe humans can survive above 15,000, so I’m using that as the height of the flood. For the few who don’t realize it, this means that the entire Earth, including the oceans, will be covered by an additional 15,000 foot deep blanket of water. First, of course, we must ask, where the Hell did that much water come from? Certainly not from anywhere here on Earth. It has been suggested that comets crashing into our planet might have brought the water, but that would require either a very large comet, which would certainly eliminate life on our world, or a heck of a lot of small ones, which would also cause a lot of damage.

Besides, the bible tells us that it rained forty nights and forty days, which was the source of Flood. To dump 15,000 feet of precipitation in 40 days means an average rainfall of 3 Inches per minute!!! WoW!

The Bible also says that after about a year, the water had vanished, but where could it go? Perhaps some small amount would sink into the soil and underground caverns, but that would be a drop in the bucket, so to speak. Evaporation might account for another inch or two, but once the atmosphere is saturated, it would just return as rain.

Sorry to say it, Bible literalists, but the whole story of the flood is a myth. It’s exactly the kind of impossible tale you would expect to be made up by a clan of superstitious, ignorant sheep and goat herders who knew nothing about the workings of the natural world, or just how large our planet is or the uncountable numbers of animals it contains. And they had plenty of similar legends from earlier civilizations on which to base their own particular fairy tale.