Mormon,Mormonism The Flood

The Bible describes a great flood that occurred during the time of Noah. The Lord declared that

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven: and every thing that is in the earth shall die (Genesis 6:17).

Noah was commanded to build an ark that was approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high (Genesis 6:15). Noah was told to bring into the ark all animals and fowls (Genesis 6:19-20, 7:2-3).

And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth: and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven were covered.

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life , of all that was in the dry land, died.

And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven: and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

And the waters prevailed upon the earth and hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:17, 19-24)

The story of Noah and the flood is a basic part of Christianity and thus of Mormonism. It is an interesting story, but a confusing story, and not all Latter-day Saints have the same interpretation of it. Most LDS that I have talked with take the story literally, that the whole planet was covered with a flood, and that Noah literally took mating pairs of all the animals and birds on the planet into the ark. Some LDS accept the story as being real but think the flood was a regional flood and didn't cover the whole earth, and that Noah took mating pairs of the animals and birds that were common to his area. Other LDS think the story is an allegory to teach the moral principles of faith and obedience to God.

The Lord through latter-day revelation, as recorded in the Doctrine & Covenants, refers to Noah as a real person, and I accept him as such. However, I have a problem with accepting the story of the flood as a global flood. My personal belief is that the flood was either a great miracle or was a local flood.

The scriptures do not teach a planet-wide flood

The verses in Genesis do not say the flood covered the whole planet. It is the destruction that is described as being planet-wide. For example, consider the following.

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. (Genesis 6:17)

That verse states that (a) God would create a flood, and (b) all flesh on the earth would die. Some people, who believe in a world-wide flood, say the flood caused the destruction of all life. Other people, who believe in a local flood, say the flood didn't cause the destruction, but the process used by God to cause the flood caused the destruction. I'm in this latter group. As explained below, I'm posting information about the impact of large asteroids, because scientists say that such impacts could cause a local flood and also destroy all life in the region of the flood.

Genesis 7:19 does state that "the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.", but I believe that verse does not imply a planet-wide flood, only that the hills in the vicinity of the flood were covered. The phrase "that were under the whole heaven" is like the phrase in the scriptures about "the four corners of the earth". Both phrases are not accurate descriptions of the physical world. They are symbolic phrases. The phrase about all the high hills, that were "under the whole heaven" refers, I think, to all the hills that were in the area of the flood. There are a few other verses of scripture that refer to the flood, but those verses just refer to a flood with nothing implied about the extent of the flood.

In the Book of Mormon, there is a reference to the flood that needs explanation. Ether 13:2 states "that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands". To understand that verse, we need to understand that traditional Latter-day Saints believe that Adam and Eve lived on the North American continent not in the Mediterranean area. This implies that Noah also lived in the American continents. The phrase in Ether 13:2 "after the waters had receded from off the face of this land" refers to the American continents, the same land where Noah lived. Thus, the statement in Ether 13:2 does not, I believe, imply a planet-wide flood that reached from the Mediterranean area to the American continent.

An awfully lot of water would be needed to cover the whole planet

A simple model of the amount of water needed to cover the planet can be obtained if we assume the earth is a sphere with a radius of 4,000 miles. We can calculate the volume of that sphere. Then we can calculate the volume of a new sphere with a radius of 4,00x miles, where x is the elevation of the ark after it came to rest. The difference of the two volumes will give us the amount of water needed. The highest peak on the earth is Mt. Everest at an elevation of 29,035 feet. That elevation is not quite 6 miles. To simplify my calculations I assumed the water was 6 miles deep.

After performing the calculations described above, I learned that over a billion cubic miles of water would be needed to cover the planet to a depth of 6 miles. Because Everest is slightly less than 6 miles high, I'm using a figure of one billion cubic miles of water, a simple number that is easy to use in discussions. That is a lot of water. That is a lot more water than is contained in all the earth's oceans. It is hard for me to believe that that amount of water could accumulate in a storm lasting only 40 days. That accumulation of water would have to average 725 feet per day over the 40 days. That is 725 feet per day everywhere, not just in a canyon where runoff might accumulate. In addition, Genesis 8:3 states that the water was abated after 150 days, and that about 5 or 6 months later, Noah and his family left the ark. It is hard for me to believe that water almost 6 miles deep could evaporate or soak into the earth that fast. To me, the story of a literal flood covering the whole earth is very implausible. Because of that, I believe the flood was a local flood.

If the flood were planet-wide, the flood would have left great scars all over the planet. Some people say the Grand Canyon was caused by the flood. However, scientific dating of the Grand Canyon places the erosion that caused the canyon at a much earlier time than the time of Noah. In addition, if the flood were responsible for the erosion, there should be Grand Canyons all over the planet. The fact that there is only one Grand Canyon indicates that the forces that caused the erosion were not planet-wide.

The ark was too small to hold mating pairs of all the animals and birds

Now, let's look at size of the ark. To the people living in Noah's time, the ark probably seemed very large, but to us the ark was a small ship. For example, the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier is 1,092 feet long compared to the ark's length of approximately 450 feet. Unless God performed a great miracle, there is no way that a small ship such as the ark could hold mating pairs of all the animals and birds that were alive on the planet at the time of Noah. In addition, the ark would have to hold all of the food needed by Noah's family and the animals and birds.

I believe that God could perform a miracle, such as miniaturizing the animals and birds and putting them all in a state of hibernation for almost a year, but the Bible gives no hint that such a miracle was part of the flood-story, and I know of no pronouncement by a LDS Church President that the flood was a miracle that superseded natural laws. I believe a regional flood is a better interpretation of the flood story. Until the President of the Church declares that the flood was a miracle, I will continue to believe the flood was local and the destruction was universal.

The impact of a large asteroid could satisfy the requirements for the flood

Some scientists say that an impact by an asteroid 3 miles across could cause sufficient damage to destroy most of humanity. If that impact were in water, a large flood, albeit a local flood, would be created. Thus, such an impact would satisfy the requirements of the story of the flood: a flood and destruction of the people.

How about our General Authorities who teach a planet-wide flood?

Some people will say, in response to my view, "What about our LDS leaders, whom we believe are apostles and prophets of the Lord. Why would these inspired men continue to propagate an incorrect view of the story of the flood?" My response is that the Lord doesn't reveal all knowledge to his prophets. He reveals that which we need to know for our salvation. As one of our General Authorities said (I don't remember who said it), "We focus on salvation and leave science to the scientists" (my wording). Our General Authorities do not claim to be infallible in their knowledge of how God deals with mankind, and I don't believe they are infallible. There are many things about our physical world that our General Authorities do not understand, and they are leaving that paradigm to the scientists. They enter their ministry as apostles and prophets with biases and misconceptions given them by society, and I believe the concept of a universal flood is such a bias.

The real importance of the story of the flood

The important thing about the story of the flood is its message of faith and of obedience to God. It is not important for us to know exactly how the flood occurred. I've brought it up in this blog, since there are parallels between the scriptures and science on this matter. Someday we'll know exactly what happened during the time of Noah, but for now we need to focus on our relationship to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, on having the Holy Ghost with us daily, on keeping God's commandments, and on service to others.