The Biblical Flood account is historical

Thanks Pro, on to rebuttals. 1. Scientific- Polystyrene Fossils-other fossils Pro’s evidence that is rather limited. I presented overwhelming worldwide evidences, and Pro presented somewhat confusingly written account of a common geological occurrence, presented as a bit of a straw-man argument. First of all, it’s polystrate, not polystyrene, unless we are talking about big foam dinosaurs. You won’t find that term in geological handbooks. You’ll only find it in creationist books, which is why both of the sources you give are indeed creationist publications, but I won’t hold that against you. The reasonable, scientific explanation for these fossils is that they were not formed all at once by a flood (which is just impossible), but rather are formed by periods of accelerated sedimentation. The forming of fossils is not always a peaceful, long-term affair. Rivers flood, volcanos explode, storms rage, tidal waves wash, etc. etc. There are plenty of ways such fossils can form, and indeed such fossils are common. Vertical trees are simply buried by flooding rivers. Indeed, if the trees remain vertical, how could they have been formed by rushing waters? Fossil polystrate trees are only found in coarse grained rock, not in the fine grained. The sediments didn’t settle fast enough to bury the trees before they rotted; from the oft-quoted work of geologist F.M. Broadhurst: “The most likely explanation of the apparent absence of such trees from these sediments is that the latter accumulated too slowly; any trees decayed and collapsed before they could be enclosed by sediments.” This means that the creationist flood theory can’t explain why trees are found upright, and why trees are found in some rocks, and not in others. If you want to play the fossil game, well, if we had undergone a massive flood, why wouldn’t the fossil record have a huge band of rich fossils all around the globe? 2) Historical/Cultural evidence Pro’s proof for the historicity of the flood essentially boils down to this: because other cultures have a flood story it must be true. To use this tautology, every culture also has stories about flying dragons, vampires, Atlantis, a resurrection, wizards, witches, giants, sea monsters, battling gods, a garden paradise, and…yes, a great flood. What is more likely: that these things are repeated and therefore must be true, or that they are common myths? Take the flood example. The Old Testament flood is said to have happened in 2348 BC. What’s troublesome about this is that the exact same story was written in the Epic of Gilgamesh, some 400 years before that. Gilgamesh details a mystical garden, in which Enkidu and Shamhat (male/female) are created from soil by a god, and live among animals. Enkidu is tempted by Shamhat to eat food, is shamed by nakedness, and is banished from the garden. A snake steals a plant of immortality from Enkidu. Later a flood account is described: Epic of Gilgamesh Genesis All the living beings that I had I loaded on it, I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts and animals of the field… (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI) I sent out a dove, and let her go. The dove flew hither and thither, but as there was no resting-place for her, she returned. Then I sent out a swallow, and let her go. The swallow flew hither and thither, but as there was no resting-place for her she also returned. Then I sent out a raven, and let her go. The raven flew away and saw the abatement of the waters. She settled down to feed, went away, and returned no more. (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI) To Mount Nisir the ship drifted. On Mount Nisir the boat stuck fast and it did not slip away. [...] Then I let everything go out unto the four winds, and I offered a sacrifice. I poured out a libation upon the peak of the mountain. [...] The gods gathered like flies around the sacrifice. (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI) ...Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind... (Genesis 7:13-14)) Noah ... sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. (Genesis 8:6-12) ...on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat [...] Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma ... (Genesis 8:4 and Genesis 8:20-21) So what is more likely? That this is a traditional ancient oral story, or that it’s an account of a historical event, apparently, with overwhelming evidence against it? Sources http://ncse.com... http://98.131.162.170//tynbul/library/TynBull_1967_18_01_Millard_BabylonianGenesis.pdf http://www.auss.info...