story of noah and the references from those in the NTestament add to discrediting the bible

that there are so many flood stories, more so challenges the story of the flood, as it shows that it was a largely distributed legend. in examining if it helps the story or not, it is best to examine the timeline, and that shows it doen't help.... "The story of an ancient flood is more ancient than Genesis, says Professor Toumey. A passage from the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh, among the world's oldest known literature, tells of a man named Ziusudra surviving a great flood. The Babylonian version of that story says Utnapishtum survives the flood. The plot was reworked and the name again changed, this time to Noah, in the version in the book of Genesis." the story appears to have originated out of a pagan religion. could it have been only first known about from a pagan religion, but was noah all along? possible, but it doesn't help give creditbility that it is first known to be a pagan religion. -------------- the carbon dating point is questionable. the wiki link i provided shows a carbon dating from the early 1900s that was later established by two other independant sources to be from 600 ish AD. there the Noah's Ark Ministries International team around 2007 that has been said to have carbon dated the site, and put it at the right age of Noah. however, they admit that they have not had independant tests done..... "The next step in the discovery, says Wei, is to coordinate with scientists, researchers, and the Turkish government to conduct further studies on the site." and the local governmet does not know how it would have been possible for them to transport the wood that is said to be discoverd from Turkey to China, given how guarded the area is. they started an investigation, but the lead investigator was found to be missing,with his peronal belongs and effects found, with him no where in site. the local government welcomes the find, explicitly, as a boost to tourism. you can see that the issue is shrouded in controversy. something as simple as radio dating should have been corroberated by now, and i dont see it, and there are too many other open questions and utierior motives to suspect this is all a hoax. (not just the local government's self interest, but the fact that it's "noah's ark ministries" and they have been looking for so long, should be troubled by their self interest) as to the other comments that you wanted me to respond to, i dont know what you are referring to? it is above my pay grade to ask whether God should have committed such a genocide. it strikes me as not something God would do, but i cannot be the best judge of that. i would also suspect, that if we examined the area of that mountain, that it would not be possible for there to have been such a large flood, as i doubt it is an area that could be self contained, where water wouldn't get other places. and, i doubt that the geology supports the argument there was such a monumental flood. especially when we look at the water needing to be at or above mountain level for the ship to come to rest on. the putative discovery does put the boat on the mountain, and the bible itself says it was up to the mountain tops.