Age of Man

[MrMistery]

well from what i heard all major cultures on Earth have a flood myth. From what I know the story dates back to an actual flood of biblical proportions(literally) that occurred in Asia. of course it did not cover the whole planet, but it is said to have been bigger than any modern flood.

[MichaelXY]

Consider Glacial flooding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_la ... urst_flood

[mcar]

Relating to this Great flood, if we would be trying to get some ideas from it, I would think here that man existed already just before the fossilation had taken place.

[Draco]

The flood in all flood myths has been exagerated, no flood could cover the whole world as there isn't enough water to do so.

[mcar]

Draco wrote:The flood in all flood myths has been exagerated, no flood could cover the whole world as there isn't enough water to do so.

Would you please cite some evidences?

[alextemplet]

It is also possible that the flood myth was born from exactly that, a myth, and that there was never such a flood at all, not even one to be exagerrated. I believe it has been shown through mitochondrial DNA that all modern humans are descended from a single woman who lived around 150,000 years ago; if this is true, it might also be possible that this woman's culture told a story of such a flood and that this flood story was then carried on to all of her descendants and eventually to every culture that exists today, even though the actual flood may never have happened.

Of course, I also acknowledge the possibility that it may also have been a particularly devastating (though not global) flood that then got exagerrated in the telling; I'm just trying to keep all possibilities open.

And as for there not being enough water, what if all of the glaciers and polar ice caps melted completely? I believe they already contain the vast majority of the world's water; if they all melted, would it be enough to cover the entire Earth?

[MichaelXY]

If the Arctic ice were to melt, the water levels would rise about 20 feet (7 meters). The avg temp in the South pole is sufficiently cold enough that it will most likely not melt, but if it did. Ocean levels would rise about 200 feet.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question473.htm

[alextemplet]

So it still wouldn't be enough to cover the entire Earth, although probably most of it would be submerged.

[MichaelXY]

I think the avg elevation of land mass is above 1K feet. Coastal cities would surely need lots of row boats.

[alextemplet]

Doesn't most of the world's population live along coasts and waterways?

[MichaelXY]

Colorado, Nebraska, Congo, Mongolia to name but a few.

[Draco]

Even inland places like london would be submerged.