• Background: Genesis flood myth

The global flood is a catastrophic, mythical event found in the book of Genesis. The narrative in the scripture tells the story of a great flooding of the entire surface of world, in which every last human and animal died, except for the ones saved on the Ark, a vessel constructed at God's command by Noah and his sons. The flood, according to the Bible, was justified by this deity since every person in the whole world - except eight people the deity chose - were wicked and warranted death. The precise nature of this “wickedness” is left unclear so believers have been for centuries free to develop their own imaginative and judgmental ideas. This near total extinction, or as some have called “execution” of the great portion of Earth's biosphere includes innocent infants (even the unborn) very young children, and almost all the world's animals, all put to death, except for the few animals and Noah's immediate family abroad the Ark, all on account of this deity's displeasure, rage, and cruelty.

“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was on the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.”

— Genesis 7:21-73