Challenge #2: God is irrational for whimsically exterminating all of humanity and wiping away all of the natural world for some immoral acts of a few individuals. Since God is demonstrated to be irrational and God cannot by nature be irrational, then it is said that God does not exist, and therefore, the biblical account of the flood is simply untrue.

This claim is charged with quite a few preconceptions. First, God is not so capricious in His judgement of humanity and nature to suddenly call for a mass extermination of all living things without warrant, and this is precisely what we find in the flood account. What had humanity done to deserve this judgement?

Well, for one, in the initial chapters of Genesis after Cain slays Abel, he is banished by God, perhaps not only for practical reasons of being away from the victim’s bloodline, but also because it was not God’s intent for the two bloodlines to intermarry. Ironically one interpretation of Genesis 6:2 (“the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose”) suggests this to be one of the final straws for the reasons for judgement. This interpretation, which also echoes other interpretations of its kind equates “sons of God” with godly men (perhaps Abel’s worthy line), and “daughters of men” with the wicked line of Cain. (more…)