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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2006
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Claim CG201:

Many cultures around the world have flood myths, indicating the universality of the Flood.

Source:

LaHaye, Tim, and John Morris, 1976. The Ark on Ararat. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc., pp. 231-241.
Brown, Walt, 1995. In the Beginning: Compelling evidence for creation and the Flood. Phoenix, AZ: Center for Scientific Creation, p. 35.

Response:

  1. Flood myths are widespread, but they are not all the same myth. They differ in many important aspects, including
    If the world's flood myths arose from a common source, then we would expect evidence of common descent. An analysis of their similarities and differences should show either a branching tree such as the evolutionary tree of life, or, if the original biblical myth was preserved unchanged, the differences should be greater the further one gets from Babylon. Neither pattern matches the evidence. Flood myths are best explained by repeated independent origins with some local spread and some spread by missionaries. The biblical flood myth in particular has close parallels only to other myths from the same region, with which it probably shares a common source, and to versions spread to other cultures by missionaries (Isaak 2002).

  2. Flood myths are likely common because floods are common; the commonness of the myth in no way implies a global flood. Myths about snakes are even more common than myths about floods, but that does not mean there was once one snake surrounding the entire earth.

References:

  1. Isaak, Mark, 2002. Flood stories from around the world. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html

Further Reading:

Dundes, Alan (ed.), 1988. The Flood Myth. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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created 2001-2-18, modified 2005-5-25