First, the affirmative side, which states that a flood did in fact cover the earth, destroying all life that was not saved on Noah’s ark. The basic story is from Genesis 7 (click on picture below to hear the text).
The following article and videos from The Institute for Creation Research will set out evidence for this side.
What Evidence is There for a Worldwide Catastrophic Flood? (Source)
Worldwide Catastrophic Evidence Is Everywhere
Catastrophic displacements of enormous plates of the earth’s crust provided the driving force for the global flood and produced the deep spaces for the oceans to drain into after the global flood.
The majority of our planet’s sedimentary rock appears to have accumulated rapidly by means of a worldwide flood. Single layers were quickly formed that covered large parts of the globe.
Fault surfaces that contain zones characterized by microbreccias and pseudotachylite are evidences for rapid displacements.
Beveled surfaces below, within, and above thick strata sequences provide evidence of rapid flood and post-flood erosion. Sheetform beveled surfaces below and within thick strata sequences provide evidence of widespread sediment sublimation during a global flood (e.g., the paraconformity between Coconino Sandstone and Hermit Shale on Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon).
As further evidence for the worldwide nature of the flood, ancient human cultures across the globe appear to possess legends recounting a great global flood.
The Flood Was Global
There is a great divide between two major systems of belief on the biblical Flood in the days of Noah. There are those who say it is either a purely mythological event or else possibly a local or regional flood. Then there are those who accept the biblical record of the Flood as a literal record of a tremendous cataclysm involving not only a worldwide deluge, but also great tectonic upheavals and volcanic outpourings that completely changed the crust of the earth and its topography in the days of Noah.
Here are a few of the many biblical reasons for believing in the global Flood:
Jesus Christ believed the Old Testament record of the worldwide Flood. Speaking of the antediluvian population, He said: “The flood came, and took them all away” (Matthew 24:39). Evolutionary anthropologists are all convinced that people had spread over the entire earth by the time assigned to Noah in biblical chronology, so an anthropologically universal Flood would clearly have required a geographically worldwide Flood.
The apostle Peter believed in a worldwide hydraulic cataclysm. “Whereby the world [Greek, kosmos] that then was, being overflowed [Greek, katakluzo] with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6). The world was defined in the previous verse as “the heavens . . . and the earth.” Peter also said that “God…spared not the old world, but saved Noah…bringing in the flood [Greek, kataklusmos] upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5).
The Old Testament record of the Flood, which both Christ and Peter accepted as real history, clearly teaches a global Flood. For example, the record emphasizes that “all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven…and the mountains were covered” (Genesis 7:19-20) with the waters of the Flood.
Since “all flesh died that moved upon the earth…all that was in the dry land” (Genesis 7:21-22), Noah and his sons had to build a huge ark to preserve animal life for the post-diluvian world, an ark that can easily be shown to have had more than ample capacity to carry at least two of every known species of land animal (marine animals were not involved, of course). Such an ark was absurdly unnecessary for anything but a global Flood.
God promised that never “shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:11), and He has kept His word for over 4,000 years, if the Flood indeed was global. Those Christians who say it was a local flood, however, are in effect accusing God of lying, for there are many devastating local floods every year.
Much Evidence Exists for a Worldwide Flood
Twentieth-century geologists taught the familiar maxim: “The present is the key to the past.”
But now that catastrophic processes are widely employed to describe the strata record, twenty-first century geologists are wondering whether “marine flood sedimentation is the key to the past.”
Geological strata and their contained marine fossils provide critical evidence that the ocean once covered the continents, even the highest continental areas. Extremely widespread strata blankets argue for an intercontinental or global flood.
The Sauk Sequence extends throughout North America and appears to extend into Europe. The Tippecanoe Sequence also covers much of North America and may well extend into Europe and Africa. There are also intercontinental redbed sequences, intercontinental tuff beds, and coal-bearing strata cycles.
Granular, water-charged sediment flows result in very rapid stratification. Dilute flows produce thick sequences of plane beds, graded beds, and crossbeds by sustained unidirectional flow. Such flows also produce thick sequences of hummocky beds by sustained bidirectional flow.
Concentrated sediment flows produce thick strata sequences by abrupt deposition from liquefied suspension or evenly bedded strata by flow transformation to a tractive current.
These and many other obvious processes are leading many geologists to construct a global flood model for earth history.
These and many other resources on this subject can be found here.
Videos Dealing with Specific Aspects of a Global Flood:
Flood Stories: One of the strongest evidences for the global flood which annihilated all people on Earth except for Noah and his family, has been the ubiquitous presence of flood legends in the folklore of people groups from around the world. And the stories are all so similar. Local geography and cultural aspects may be present but they all seem to be telling the same story.
Jurassic Omelet: Which came first? The chicken or the egg? And what about dinosaur eggs? Evidence from dinosaur eggs suggests the existence of a catastrophic flood.
Land Ho!: Despite the no-frills travel these days, millions continue to fly each year, on business, on vacation, and for the holidays. But few travel over seven thousand miles in just nine days, and no airplane can do it without stopping. Uncover some bird facts that apply to the flood account.
Another aspect often discussed in the Noahaic story is that of space for all the animals. The Bible says that two of every animal kind were on the ark with Noah. How could one vessel carry that many animals? And what about dinosaurs on Noah’s ark? What did they eat? How did they all fit? These are the questions in this final ICR video.
