Noah's Flood


Lost Boy
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Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

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Personally--I don't really care.

Not in a sense of "I could care less about the story", but more so that it doesn't matter to me whether or not it was a small flood, a big flood, an all encompassing flood, or even a metaphorical flood.

Would the answer of did it truly covered the whole earth change the message of the story? To me, it doesn't. So I don't focus on the logistics. 

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Dunno.  I'm not exactly hung up on various origin questions like this.  Age of the earth, creation story, details of Adam & Eve & the garden, the great flood - I just don't know.  I may have opinions or speculate, but I scarcely consider them even a belief.

I think of it this way: I figure science and physics supports the notion that a worldwide flood didn't happen, and the biblical account is either allegorical or heavily symbolic.  If I get to heaven and find out no, it really happened, and all the animals and humans are descended from the ark, etc, I won't be saying "Nope, sorry, can't believe it.  I refuse entrance."

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33 minutes ago, Lost Boy said:

Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

Judging by the importance of the symbolism of baptism by immersion, and the baptism of fire, I believe it literally covered the whole earth.

And we know nothing of the geography back then. The earth may have been much more flat with a lot less sea tranches. What would happen to all the ocean water if ever sea trench closed up? What about just the Marianas Trench?

It isn’t to far fetched for me to believe it was a complete flood

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Personally, no I don't believe the flood was global. The compelling thing for me is that such a catastrophic, global event within the last 10000 years would have left some marks (erosion and deposition) on the planet. There is just no evidence for such an event.

I recently became aware of Elder Widtsoe's attempted explanation. I guess he hypothesized some kind of local flood where Noah lived, and rain simultaneously over the rest of the planet, so that the entire planet was "wet" for at least a brief time. I don't know if it is the right explanation, but it shows that even apostles have wrestled with this question without believing that the flood was global.

FWIW, I have liked Ben Spackman's explanations and discussions. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/benjaminthescribe/2018/02/gospel-doctrine-lesson-6-moses-819-30-genesis-65-22-71-10/ for example).

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Guest MormonGator
2 hours ago, Lost Boy said:

Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

To me, I don't care one way or the other.  There are people whom I like and respect that think it was a metaphor, and there are people whom I like and respect that think it literally happened. 

I've noticed that some Christians (some, hopefully not you) use it as a measuring pole to feel superior to others. They seem to say "Yes, I'm a Christian, but I'm not like those people who believe in a literal flood. Fools!" 

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15 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

To me, I don't care one way or the other.  There are people whom I like and respect that think it was a metaphor, and there are people whom I like and respect that think it literally happened. 

I've noticed that some Christians (some, hopefully not you) use it as a measuring pole to feel superior to others. They seem to say "Yes, I'm a Christian, but I'm not like those people who believe in a literal flood. Fools!" 

I don't care if someone believes it literally or metaphorically.  I wasn't there.  I can't prove it one way or the other.  I do feel that God uses many natural means to achieve his purposes.....  things that can easily be explained as a natural occurrence.  I feel he is a God of logic and obeys the laws of nature.

Being an engineer by trade, I can't explain a flood that covered the entire earth. You would have to have land that is essentially all flat and just above sea level.   There isn't enough water on the planet to cover a 1000 ft mountain let alone a 30k tall mountain.  So assume the land was flat...  ok...  Then God made all the mountains in the course of a few Earth days.  It does not make any logical sense to me.

Could it have been completely covered?  I don't know, but science would suggest no.

What I don't care for are people that can't open their minds to other possibilities.  In other words if I told someone I believe a certain way and they flat out tell me I am wrong.

Edited by Lost Boy
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2 hours ago, Lost Boy said:

Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

Yes it definitely covered the whole earth. Plenty of evidence also.

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1 minute ago, Lost Boy said:

Being an engineer by trade, I can't explain a flood that covered the entire earth. You would have to have land that is essentially all flat and just above sea level.   There isn't enough water on the planet to cover a 1000 ft mountain let alone a 30k tall mountain.  So assume the land was flat...  ok...  Then God made all the mountains in the course of a few Earth days.  It does not make any logical sense to me.

For what it's worth, Church materials do teach that the flood was literal, and that it immersed the entire earth.  It is currently a part of our doctrine:

Quote

Not everyone throughout the modern world, however, accepts the story of Noah and the Flood. Many totally disbelieve the story, seeing it as a simple myth or fiction. Typical of some modern scholars, one author recently discounted the events of the Flood by using such terms as “implausible,” “unacceptable,” and “impossible”; he stated that believers who would hope to provide geologic or other evidence regarding the historicity of the Flood “can be given no assurance that their effort, however sustained, will be successful.”1 Another author titled his book The Noah’s Ark Nonsense,2revealing his disbelief that the Flood actually took place.

Still other people accept parts of the Flood story, acknowledging that there may have been a local, charismatic preacher, such as Noah, and a localized flood that covered only a specific area of the world, such as the region of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers or perhaps even the whole of Mesopotamia. Yet these people do not believe in a worldwide or global flood. Both of these groups—those who totally deny the historicity of Noah and the Flood and those who accept parts of the story—are persuaded in their disbelief by the way they interpret modern science. They rely upon geological considerations and theories that postulate it would be impossible for a flood to cover earth’s highest mountains, that the geologic evidence (primarily in the fields of stratigraphy and sedimentation) does not indicate a worldwide flood occurred any time during the earth’s existence.

There is a third group of people—those who accept the literal message of the Bible regarding Noah, the ark, and the Deluge. Latter-day Saints belong to this group. In spite of the world’s arguments against the historicity of the Flood, and despite the supposed lack of geologic evidence, we Latter-day Saints believe that Noah was an actual man, a prophet of God, who preached repentance and raised a voice of warning, built an ark, gathered his family and a host of animals onto the ark, and floated safely away as waters covered the entire earth. We are assured that these events actually occurred by the multiple testimonies of God’s prophets.

(Ensign - Jan. 1998) emphasis added

But the Bible . . . simply tells that ‘all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.’ That is, the earth was immersed. It was a period of baptism.

(John Taylor, in Journal of Discourses, 26:74–75.) as quoted in (Old Testament Student Manual)
 

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I'm certain I could find other resources as well, but it is apparent to me that LDS doctrine is that the flood was literal and covered the entire earth.  Although I can't explain all the details, I believe it to be true.  I can't fully explain or understand how the atonement of Jesus Christ actually works to pay the price for sin either, but I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it does.

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19 minutes ago, Lost Boy said:

I don't care if someone believes it literally or metaphorically.  I wasn't there.  I can't prove it one way or the other.  I do feel that God uses many natural means to achieve his purposes.....  things that can easily be explained as a natural occurrence.  I feel he is a God of logic and obeys the laws of nature.

Being an engineer by trade, I can't explain a flood that covered the entire earth. You would have to have land that is essentially all flat and just above sea level.   There isn't enough water on the planet to cover a 1000 ft mountain let alone a 30k tall mountain.  So assume the land was flat...  ok...  Then God made all the mountains in the course of a few Earth days.  It does not make any logical sense to me.

Could it have been completely covered?  I don't know, but science would suggest no.

What I don't care for are people that can't open their minds to other possibilities.  In other words if I told someone I believe a certain way and they flat out tell me I am wrong.

I agree with you, more or less.

Edited by MormonGator
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3 hours ago, Lost Boy said:

Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

I've had more thoughts about the ark itself than where it was floating.  I may have to visit this place in Kentucky someday.

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3 hours ago, Lost Boy said:

Do you believe a flood covered the entire Earth?  I have never been able to accept this.  I could accept that Noah was in a flood and found himself swept out to sea, but a flood that covered all the earth??  No.

What is your thought on this?

The flood absolutely covered the entire world as we know it, I once had a surreal dream where I witnessed all of the animals hop on the Ark with Noah himself. I felt the spirit was speaking to me through my dreams. 

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On 5/3/2018 at 9:59 PM, MarginOfError said:

No way. 

Also, I reject the notion that geological events constitute doctrine.

Interesting story with important principles...absolutely. 

Literal events...there isn't sufficient evidence to suggest it would even be possible, let alone that it actually happened.

Here we are so easily doubting the Book of Mormon’s God of mighty miracles, a being whom the scriptures testify has the knowledge, wisdom and power to be able to instantaneously resurrect, to glorious, immortality multiple billions of human beings whose bodies crumbled to nothing but dust thousands of years ago. For an omniscient and omnipotent being of such tremendous capacity, the production of a mere global flood would be child’s play by comparison.

I’m amazed at the number of individuals here who, while likely professing to being believing members of the Church, so casually disbelieve the reality of an event that God himself testified to as being a real historical reality. Believing in the universal glorious resurrection of the human race, while disbelieving the many prophetic testimonies concerning the global flood of Noah’s day is truly like straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel. That is unless such individuals also deny the reality of the universal resurrection from death to glorious immortality. In that case, at least they would be being consistent.

Edited by Jersey Boy
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I believe that there was a literal flood, but our understanding of science and the evidence we have in it currently does not support that thought with evidence.

In some ancient stories, the earth used to have no rain.  Instead a mist or fog arose each day and provided water for the plants.

If this is similar to what happened, an incident which changed the fabric of the earth could have caused something that created water to rain for many days in an atmospheric change.

But, as we have no evidence of such things having occurred, at least with our current dating methods.  WE DO have evidence of oceans and waters covering what we now see as dry land, but whatever happened to these we do not know...and evidence points to these waters having been millions (or billions) of years ago. 

Who knows, what may be oceans now may have once been dry land and had people living on them...and when rains came it flooded those areas and they all died.  We don't know that much about the bottom of the ocean in many areas since it is still beyond our science to really explore (much like the depths of space, the depths of the ocean are still something that are basically uninhabitable and beyond our reach.  We don't know how the flood happened and the timeline associated with it.  We have almost no information at all regarding it.

We have a short few paragraphs that discuss this flood and that gives us almost no understanding of how it happened or all that occurred with it.  Without any scientific evidence to point out what happened or how it occurred, we have no idea exactly how this proceeded.

I believe it is a LITERAL event, but due to lack of our current understanding and the details of the story being lacking, we are not currently able to understand or see it.

I think that in the future when science advances our understanding and the Lord comes to enlighten our minds and spirits, we will eventually be able to see how it occurred literally and piece together faith and science together.

Edited by JohnsonJones
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I’ll just leave this here

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1998/01/the-flood-and-the-tower-of-babel?lang=eng

“There is a... group of people—those who accept the literal message of the Bibleregarding Noah, the ark, and the Deluge. Latter-day Saints belong to this group. In spite of the world’s arguments against the historicity of the Flood, and despite the supposed lack of geologic evidence, we Latter-day Saints believe that Noah was an actual man, a prophet of God, who preached repentance and raised a voice of warning, built an ark, gathered his family and a host of animals onto the ark, and floated safely away as waters covered the entire earth. We are assured that these events actually occurred by the multiple testimonies of God’s prophets.”

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5 minutes ago, person0 said:

That is the same article and same quote I listed and linked a few hours ago.  It's nice that we agree, though.  😀

Must have missed it :)

here is another 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1980/09/the-gospel-and-the-scientific-view-how-earth-came-to-be?lang=eng

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10 hours ago, Lost Boy said:

Being an engineer by trade, I can't explain a flood that covered the entire earth. You would have to have land that is essentially all flat and just above sea level.   

I’m in the “I don’t care” camp.  There are many things I don’t know.  Engineer or not, there are also many miracles and events from Scripture that can’t be explained.  Why accept some and not others? 

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I believe the flood covered the whole Earth. I don't have a problem with scientific evidence that may show it couldn't happen because God can do many things that shouldn't happen (stopping the movement of the Earth with Joshua, the Brother of Jared removing the Mountain Zerin, Christ commanding the storm to stop, Christ causing a 4 day old corpse to stand back up and become alive again etc.) God understands laws that we have no comprehension of, and personally I am satisfied that if he could do all those other miracles, he could cover the Earth in a flood. However, I don't think our salvation hangs on this doctrine, so I don't mind my friends who struggle with it, as I have things I struggle with to.

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