The literal interpretation of the flood,as reported in the Christian NIV bible, could have happened.

Opening Argument Imagine its the year 400 A.D. and I tell you in the future one day, I will be able to get from Jerusalem to Athens in only a few hours with a special vehicle that flys. I will be able to talk to you while I'm on the opposite end of the Earth. Imagine I will be able to use a machine to record all sight and sound which I will then play back anytime I like! I doubt your mind would accept such a notion in 400 A.D. Now of course the opposite is true; I am asking you to fathom an awesome past event. My debate is simply to say that it COULD have happened, though I believe it did happen. I won't ask you to stretch your understanding that far but rather just that it MIGHT have. There is evidence to suggest that it did happen and there is such that suggest it did not. My debate is to lend credit that it could have happened. CONS (A) Con says it was flooded to the highest mountain and we need 5 times as much water. I Negate/Pros Rebuttal. Scientifically speaking the Earth can not have a global flood now. Scientifically speaking the current condition and that of the Earth 6500 years ago could have been entirely different. You can't use the current condition of the Earth to argue against a past happening. If the world was smoother back then and there was more underground water table then you would only need the amount we have now, not 5 times, to flood the Earth. The Bible suggest the water came from under the ground (Genesis 7:11 on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth) It would not be unlikely that there was much more water under the ground than currently. The receding water would create enormous pressure (not atmospheric) which would in fact raise the mountains that we know today. Further your argument simply lends credit to a biblical literalist in that it fails to address the condition of the Earth prior to the flood and you have done nothing except support a world wide flood would be impossible now. This lends credit because a Bible literalist believes that God promised to never flood the Earth and that he has set boundaries the water can not pass. Psalms104:6-9 Thus evidence that a world wide flood can not happen now is simply a testament to the bible literalist. Scientifically speaking no one knows what the geography of the Earth was like prior to 4500 BC, its just speculation. CONS (B) Con says the boat could not sail and technology may have not been available I Negate/Pros Rebuttal. There is no indication in the account that the boat sailed, most Biblical Literalist believe it was anchored and likely built high up on a mountain. Much technology has been lost from past civilizations, it would not be difficult to imagine some sophisticated technology we don't know about. Technology has repeatedly been lost through wars, disease, natural events and time when studying past cultures. From a bible literalist view people lived 500 plus years and would certainly create technology faster than now in addition to likely being more intelligent as poor genetic mutations have not began to harm our species to the extent they have today. Of course that can all be argued separately. In summary this argument is pure speculation, not scientific. No one knows for certain the amount of technology available to an individual 6500 years ago. If we look at the Maya civilization they had extensive knowledge of architecture, mathematics, astronomy. They could calculate the solar year with much greater accuracy than the Georgian Calendar used in Europe thousands of years later. The maya civilization was mostly lost prior to the Spanish coming. This lends credit that Noah may have had extensive knowledge not known to us and if he had certainly a large flood would destroy any evidence of that technology. http://en.wikipedia.org... PROS circumstantial evidence supporting a flood; I won't put too much, since there's just TONS of evidence to support it. I will just list the most significant ones in my opinion. A)World -Wide flood accounts There are numerous stories (over 200) of a worldwide flood found in many different cultures and countries. The account of the flood is told by the Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, Mexicans, Hawaiians, and numerous other countries. Although these stories are not the exact same as found in the Bible, the basic story is the same. Although it is impossible that all the differing accounts are true, they all do have core events that point to a historical basis. Along with the numerous stories of a worldwide flood are the historical documents that have been discovered by archaeology. Ancient clay tablets speak about a flood so large that it covered the entire earth, with 28 talking about an ark; 30 that mention a Deity; 30 tablets that speak about a large ship that came to rest upon a mountain top; and other tablets that mention how birds were used to test if the waters were receding. If nothing else, all the different accounts of a worldwide flood shows that there was a common origin they came from. B)Mass Extinction Scientifically speaking we know that there have been mass extinctions of animals in the past. There are large amounts of fossilized animal bones found in sedimentary. Scientifically speaking no one knows how the mass extinctions were caused. The flood is certainly a legitimate explanation when we look at other explanations. The most plausible theories include a global catastrophe. There isn't a much better explanation for the mass death and fossilization of animals contained with in sedimentary rocks than a massive global flood. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu... C)Huge Oil, Natural Gas, Coal deposits If a global flood occurred we would expect to see massive amounts of oil, natural gas, and coal deposits formed with dead carbon based life forms (plant and animal) under enormous pressure. D)Mid-Ocean Ridges Enormous Ocean Ridges evidence massive earthquakes and tectonic movement which could have been an avenue for the "springs from the great deep" to flood the Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org...