Why I Am No Longer Christian

#5a: The Flood Didn't Happen, Part 1

No respected biologist, geologist, or archaeologist today believes that a worldwide flood once wiped out most life on Earth. That is because there is no scientific evidence that points towards a flood of such magnitude within human history (or at all, for that matter). Indeed, looking deeper into the story of Noah's Ark shows that the entire story is physically and scientifically impossible.

The story of the Flood stretches across several chapters: Genesis 6:5-22, 7, 8, and 9:1-17. In it, God sees that humans have become extremely wicked, and he regrets making them, so he vows to destroy all life on Earth — all life except for Noah and his family, for they are the only truly righteous people left in his eyes. So he tells Noah to build a boat and bring pairs of animals with him onto the boat to save them from total annihilation. Noah does so. He, his family, and the animals live on the boat for hundreds of days. Finally, the floodwaters recede, the survivors come back to dry land, and God promises that he will never do such a thing ever again. Then he creates a rainbow to put in the sky after the rains to remind him of his promise.

Let's dive into the surface-level problems with this myth, and then we will take a closer look at the physical and scientific impossibility of the story.

First of all, how could God regret something? Wouldn't he have foreseen that humans would become wicked and that he would choose to wipe them (and every other living thing) off the face of the Earth? So why is he upset? He knew it was coming. If he didn't want it to happen, he's God — he has unimaginable power, greater than we can imagine. He could've stopped it from happening, or created beings that wouldn't turn wicked but still would have free will, or any number of other solutions. Instead, he decided to wipe every life off the planet, except for a few, for the mistakes of some puny humans, just to have humankind become wicked again and require the sacrifice of himself incarnate as his son to give them a chance to have a relationship with him again.

For another, slightly lesser problem, what about Noah's wife and his sons' wives? How come we aren't told their names, but we're given Noah's name and his sons' names (Shem, Ham, Japheth)? You would think that if Noah's family was so righteous and important, all their names would be given, especially if men and women are equally important in the eyes of God.

Next, what about the rainbow? God specifically says that rainbow was created so that he "will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures" (Genesis 9:16) and remember that he promised never to wipe out life on Earth with a flood again. People might try to argue that it was to remind life on Earth of the promise, but no mention is made of that; its only biblically stated purpose is to remind God. But why would an all-knowing deity need a reminder of a promise that he made?

Most of all, why do the details keep changing? First, God asks for two of each animal (Genesis 6:19-20), but then he asks for seven pairs of every "clean animal," seven pairs of each bird, and one pair of every "unclean animal" (Genesis 7:2-3). Noah and his family get into the ark seven days before the floodwaters rise (Genesis 7:6-10), but later, we're told they get into the ark the very same day as when the flood began (Genesis 7:11-16). Which is it? (I will discuss these and other biblical contradictions in greater length in Chapter 25.)

Those problems aside, diving deeper into the Flood myth shows that the surface level cracks are really irreparable fissures that lead to the entire thing falling apart. We will delve into those in part 2.