Monad

I'm surprised any Christian would even want the flood myth to be literally true. What sort of person would want their god to be some vile, blood soaked monster? Even when I was a Christian myself (I was brought up a Catholic) I saw those parts of the bible as at best to be of an allegorical nature - to be illustrating some meaningful point about faith etc, and well before I became an atheist (we're talking about my early teens here) it was clear to me that the bible was written over a considerable period of time, not all by one person, that it was based largely on oral traditions, and that it incorporated a considerable amount of primitive mythology that was a relic of pre-Christian and even pre-monotheistic belief systems from a variety of cultures (hence the variations in stories - for example in Genesis).

Anyone who really wants to believe a supposedly loving god would be capable of mass murder on such a grand scale should ask themselves is this really what Christianity is supposed to be about. I certainly did and that was a big reason why I left the faith, and not so long afterwards, any faith.

Toto

The Clouseau derail has been split off here

Pappy Jack

I don't know if I can add much to the suggestions already posted by others and going toe-to-toe with your mom and family on this may make your life more uncomfortable than you want it to be. I know that when I was your age with a dad who wanted me to follow his religion, I went along with it because it made things easier all round (especially for my mom, who was also a non-believer), even though in my own mind I found it all quite fantastically unbelievable. Doesn't say much for me, I guess, but I never was the confrontational sort and as soon as I left home that was it and I haven't been inside a church for 'religious' purposes since. Anyway, choose the route that is best for you at the moment.

As far as disproving Noah's Flood is concerned, you'll well know that extraordinary events require extraordinary evidence and it is really the proponents of the Flood who need to prove their case. All the sceptics need to do is ask where the evidence is and so far the YECs have failed to present anything of any value at all, as the various links others have given you show. By the way, if you haven't come across it already, you may find Jason Long's website http://www.biblicalnonsense.com/ refreshing and informative.

Good luck and keep the (non)-faith.

NZSkep

if you want a biblically correct answer then here it is:


god made a huge mistake the first time he created humans (despite being all powerful and all knowing, somehow he didn't know that humans would becoem evil). So instead of making things right in the easy way (being all powerful he could do whatever he wanted) he decided fullfil his genocidal urges by killing 99%+ of all the living things on the planet (including cute little puppies.) in one of the most painful ways possible, by drowning.

This would ensure that only good humans survived (noah + family) andf that ecverything would be alright for ever. He got that wrong too. whoops!