Another approach to the question is to reject the Flood's historicity on the ground of God's goodness. A good God would not commit genocide -- or worse than genocide -- by willfully killing all human beings except one family. From a history of religions viewpoint, the biblical version of the Flood is an result of casting an older myth in monotheistic terms. To unpack the last sentence:

In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, an almost identical Flood is told in a polytheistic milieu. This enables one god to send the flood, another to warn the Noah figure, and a third (a goddess) to repent of supporting the idea and to mourn for her lost children. From the epic's tablet 11:

• The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood. Their Father Anu (the Sky god) uttered the oath [of secrecy], Valiant Enlil (Storm god) was their Adviser

• Ea, (the Water god)... repeated their talk... '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.'

• Ishtar (the Goddess) shrieked like a woman in childbirth, the sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed: 'The olden days have alas turned to clay, because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods! How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods, ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people!!'

This argument holds that an Almighty God of goodness would not do what the Flood story says. Rather, by retelling the polytheistic myth in a monotheistic context, the biblical author made God into mass murderer and ignored the divine Mother and Trickster motifs of the original. There may have been one of more great floods in the Tigris-Euphrates region, but the story is legendary, whether it involves one god or many.

Another approach to the question is to reject the Flood's historicity on the ground of God's goodness. A good God would not commit genocide -- or worse than genocide -- by willfully killing all human beings except one family. From a history of religions viewpoint, the biblical version of the Flood is an result of casting an older myth in monotheistic terms. To unpack the last sentence:

In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, an almost identical Flood is told in a polytheistic milieu. This enables one god to send the flood, another to warn the Noah figure, and a third (a goddess) to repent of supporting the idea and to mourn for her lost children. From the epic's tablet 11:

• The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood. Their Father Anu (the Sky god) uttered the oath [of secrecy], Valiant Enlil (Storm god) was their Adviser

• Ea, (the Water god)... repeated their talk... '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.'

• Ishtar (the Goddess) shrieked like a woman in childbirth, the sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed: 'The olden days have alas turned to clay, because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods! How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods, ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people!!'

This argument holds that an Almighty God of goodness would not do what the Flood story says. Rather, by retelling the polytheistic myth in a monotheistic context, the biblical author made God into mass murderer and ignored the divine Mother (Ishtar) and Trickster (Ea) motifs of the original. There may have been one or more great floods in the Tigris-Euphrates region, but the story is legendary, whether it involves one god or many.