Most critics do not question the validity of the Biblical flood,but question whether or not it was global.Although many Bible scholors hold to the teaching that the flood was world wide,the Bible doesn't make that claim.
The Bible can be of help when offering an apologetic view as in Genesis 11:
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to
another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they
had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said,
Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto,
heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon
the face of the whole earth. 5
    At the time of the building of the tower of Babel,every one spoke the same language.They did not begin to disperse until after the flood,when they "journeyed from the east"and settled in Shinar.
Genesis 10
1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth:
and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth;Gomer,and Magog,and Madai and Javan,and Tubal,and Meshech,and Tiras.
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath and Togarmah.
4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands;
every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations."
Every place was settled according to the separate languages which didn't occur until after the flood.
Genesis 11: 6
"And the LORD said,Behold,the people is one,
and they have all one language; and this they begin to do:
and now nothing will be restrained
from them,which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down,and there confound their language,
that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth:
and they left off to build the city".
   Belief in a global flood is a personal interpretation,and although there is a possibility,the Bible doesn't specifically make that claim.What it does say is that the people were scattered abroad "from thence",or from the place the tower was built.The Bible identifies that as "the land of Shinar",which was the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod.There was no one scattered abroad,until the building of the tower of Babel,which was after the flood. The Bible actually tells us that the entire world was not inhabited at the time of the flood:
Genesis 10:32
"these are the families of the sons of Noah,after their generations,
in their nations divided in the earth after the flood."
It's tempting to believe,as most scholors do,that the flood had to have been global to have been able to destroy all the evil people in the world,but that is a contridiction of Scripture.If that were true,Genesis 10:19 would be meaningless:
"These are the three sons of Noah,and of them was the whole earth populated."
There is no doubt that the three sons of Noah settled Mesopotamia,from where their decendents began populating the earth.:
Genesis 11:2
"And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar,and they dwelt there."
All ancient texts that refer to Shinar,agree that it was in Mesopotamia.The sons of Noah were not spread all over the globe.Believing that the entire world was populated prior to the flood would mean people had dispersed before the Bible has them dispersing.That alone makes a global flood unlikely,especially since the flood was to destroy the wicked.If the entire globe had not yet been inhabited,why flood the entire globe? The population of the earth was in an area near where everyone spoke the same tongue,in Mesopotamia.That's where the wicked would also have been.The idea that the entire globe was populated at the time of the flood is not Biblical.The use of "earth" and "world" to indicate a known area is not uncommon.Nebuchadnezzer claimed to be king of the world,The Persian king Darius called himself king of the whole earth and inscriptions of the Assyrian kings that claimed they subdued all the earth.Egyptian inscriptions have kings ruling the four corners of the world.I know of no Bible scholar that would make the claim that these inscriptions were referring to the entire globe.The earth could not have been divided prior to the flood:
Genesis 11:25
"And unto Eber was born two sons,the name of one was Peleg,
for in His day was the earth divided:and his brother's name was Jokton.
   Believing that the Biblical flood was localized,is in fact is in harmony with other Scriptures.It is also in harmony with manuscripts outside the Bible,especially the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Tales of the Patriarchs 1QapGen=1Q20 Frag.1 gives an account of Noah:
Col. 16 Noah divided the land among his decedents.... all the land of
the north as far as... this boundary, the waters of the Mediterranean
.... the Tina River. Col. 17 Noah further divided the land West, to
Asshur, as far as the Tigris. He gave Aram land as far as the source
of.... this Mountain of the Bull, and he crossed it westward as far
as.... where the three parts met.... For Arpachshad[12]... He gave
Gomer[13] a part in the northeast to the Tina River.... To Magog[14]..
It seems that if other continents had been inhabited prior to the flood,Noah would have given that land to His descendants also.Since it was Noah that gathered all the animals,He would have known about the existence of the land they inhabited.There is no Biblical mention of any nation outside Mesopotamia and Anatolia.The Bible does mention North Africa and possibly the Greek isles,but they were inhabited by much later decendents,as the Bible tells us.
   The boundaries encompassed Northern Mesopotamia and parts of Anatolia,and the Bible doesn't say anything about the descendants of Adam,prior to Noah,ever dispersing beyond the area where Noah was born.In fact,all mankind descended from one man and woman who were in Mesopotamia.They had no means of getting to any land mass beyond the seas that surrounded their homeland.To make the claim that humans inhabited parts of the world,other than where Adam lived,would mean there were others created besides Adam and Eve.They could not possibly have left Mesopotamia and settled all over the globe,until after the confusion and dispersion of tongues.The Bible says they didn't.
   The Sumerian king Gilgamesh who wrote of a catastrophic flood is also mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls.The Epic of Gilgamesh is similar in most ways to the Biblical flood,which Gilgamesh claimed happened in the area of the Euphrates river.In the past,the epic was considered myth and Gilgamesh was believed to be a fictitious person.History now knows that he was a real king in Sumer.In the Dead Sea Scrolls,he was a leader and a prophet and apparently a giant:
4Q531 Frag. 1
3 [ . . . I am a] giant, and by the mighty strength of
my arm and my own great strength
4 [ . . . any]one mortal, and I have made war against them;
but I am not [ . . . ] able to stand against them, for my opponents
6 [ . . . ] reside in [Heav]en, and they dwell in the holy places. And not
7 [ . . . they] are stronger than I.
8 [ . . . ] of the wild beast has come, and the wild man they call [me].
9 [ . . . ] Then Ohya said to him, I have been forced to have a dream
[ . . . ] the sleep of my eyes [vanished], to let me see a vision.
Now I know that on [ . . . ] 11-12 [ . . . ] Gilgamesh [ . . . ]
6Q8 Frag. 2
1 three of its roots [ . . . ] [while] I was [watching,]
there came [ . . . they moved the roots into]
3 this garden, all of them, and not [ . . . ]
4Q530 Col. 2 1 concerns the death of our souls
[ . . . ] and all his comrades, [and Oh]ya told them what Gilgamesh
said to him 2 [ . . . ] and it was said [ . . . ] "concerning [ . . . ]
the leader has cursed the potentates"
3 and the giants were glad at his words
9 by your licentiousness on the earth, and there has been upon you
[ . . . and the land is crying out]
10 and complaining about you and
the deeds of your children [ . . . ]
11 the harm that you have done to
it. [ . . . ]
12 until Raphael arrives, behold, destruction
[is coming, a great flood, and it will destroy all living things]
13 and whatever is in the deserts and the seas.
And the meaning of the matter [ . . . ]
14 upon you for evil. But now, loosen the bonds bi[nding you to evil . . . ]
l5 and pray.
4Q531 Frag. 7
3 [ . . . great
fear] seized me and I fell on my face; I heard his voice [ . . . ]
4[ . . . ] he dwelt among human beings but he did not learn from them [ . . . ]
From The Epic of Gilgamesh
Tablet XI
The Story of the Flood
Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:
"I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden,
a secret of the gods I will tell you!
Shuruppak, a city that you surely know,
situated on the banks of the Euphrates,
that city was very old, and there were gods inside it.
The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood
Ea, the Clever Prince(?), was under oath with them
so he repeated their talk to the reed house:
'Reed house, reed house! Wall, wall!O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
Tear down the house and build a boat!Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat The boat which you are to build
The Creation epic is quite different than the Bible,but they both agree that humans were once herbivores:
The following is in reference to the creation of the gods.
"Like mankind, when first created,
They knew not the eating of bread,
Knew not the dressing of garments,
Ate plants with their mouths like sheep,
Drank water from the ditch."
The flood mentioned in the above tablet may have been discovered.Archeology has found a “dead” layer of silt in the tigres-Euphrates valley with signs of human activity above and below the 8 ft layer.The silt was deposited there by one sudden flood,indicating that everything,in at least the immediate area,was wiped out by massive flooding,although archaeologists are not certain how far north it extended.Scientifically we can establish that there was indeed local flooding.That does not eradicate the possibility of a global flood,which would be very difficult to verify.No single archeologist could dig for evidence all over the globe,and no two archaeologists will completely agree on every interpretation or dating of evidence.We have only the absence of evidence,which only indicates that noone has yet found any,and does not indicate it isn't there.
We can also discount the critical evidence that any flood waters in the Tigres-Euphrates valley would have drained to the south,thus carrying the ark southward rather than north to the Ararat Mountains.The land does slant southward,but as with all other Biblical events,critics compare the ancient world to the modern world.Even today,the land slopes downhill gradually,and rises only a few feet (10)above sea level as far south as Bagdad.Having been filled in with 8 feet of silt would mean the land was no more than 2 feet above sea level at the time of the flood.That would be a factor only with rainfall.The Bible tells us that “the fountains of the great deep”were broken up,indicating more than a rainstorm.Sumerian texts mention a cyclone.In the case of heavy winds blowing Northward,and the possibility of tidal waves from the persian gulf,it is not only possible,but likely that the ark would be pushed northward.Sea water would have entered faster than it could have possibly drained off,creating a northward flow.If sea level was higher at the time,as some experst claim,it could possibly have taken up to a year to drain back into the sea.Due to mountains on the east and highlands on the north and west,the valley would have acted like a river channel and drained only into the Persian gulf.
   In all fairness to those who believe in a global flood,we should consider the possibility.In their book, Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes authors Richard A. Muller & Gordon J. MacDonald, who are leading experts on the Ice Ages,explain the possibilities.At the end of the last ice age,The melting caused a series of worldwide floods unlike anything previously experienced by Homo sapiens.The flood dumped enough water into the oceans to cause the average sea level to rise 110 meters,(360 feet)enough to inundate the coastal areas.This rising of the sea level has been shown to have occurred in a number of sudden stages, the last of which is dated to about 3,500 BCE. That this last catastrophe was identical to Noah’s Flood is possible and even probable.

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