funinspace

Uh, the magic God wand of miracles.

That was your question. Reason, logic, and science have little to do with it. So what is your question then?

Asha'man

Actually, air pressure is very basic physics. Just like water, the air pressure is determined entirely by the weight of the air column above you. If you expanded the radius of the earth ever so slightly, you still have roughly the same volume of air sitting over roughly the same size surface. Gravity hasn't changed (significantly), so the air won't be squeezed any harder or softer than before. All you have done is shifted the air outwards. So, during this hypothetical flood, air pressure at sea level (27,000?) is still almost the same as air pressure before and after the flood at sea level (0').

Now, this is true if you change the radius of the earth slightly. By slightly, I mean less than 10 miles out of 8,000, which is the order of magnitude we are discussing.

Asha'man

The Epic of Gilgamesh was a Babylonian story, which was a retelling of an earlier Sumerian river flood story. The Hebrews almost certainly took the story from the Babylonians while they were captives in Babylon, around 500BCE.

Abraham probably never existed. His story is not something remembered from the 2nd millenium BCE, but composed around the 7th century BCE. He was identifed as coming from the city of Ur, but Ur was a big city in the 7th century, known to have a long history.

Shameless Hussy

I believe the Sumerian hero/king, Ziusudra, was the basis for Gilgamesh and later Noah. Can't recall if Ziusudra was divine or mortal. Or semi-divine.

Interesting sidenote: according to the NIV study notes, the word used for "ark" in the Noah story is only used in one other place, which is to describe the tarred papyrus basket in which Moses floated (amongst the reeds), a miniature version of the papyrus boats used in the Nile and sea. The ark, then, was a sea-worthy papyrus boat. Ziusudra floated on a river barge (though I don't know what the Sumerians used for boat materials). So perhaps the ark is borrowed directly from Sumerian legend, as well as the flood?

funinspace

Gilgamesh was the King of the flood fable of Sumarian myth makers. He appears on king lists in one of the city states of Mesamotania, from monuments from the 2400-2600 year period if I remember right. He appears to have been a real person who was later was recast into a demi-god. Not sure who Ziusudra was. I don't recall the full panthion of Sumarian gods, but Ziusudra doesn't ring any bells.

Edit: correction Ziusudra was in the epic. I forget how they were related... Not sure if Ziusudra was real though.

Angrillori

But, Jack, wouldn't the greater radius of earth+water cause the air to be more diffuse or spread out? Like the rubber on a balloon gets thinner the more it is pushed outwards, right?

That said, I've usually heard YEC fundies go to the "the mountains were smaller" route. They seem to like that one.

Jeremy Pallant

I think this is more of an S&S topic than it is a BC&H topic, and as such I shall move it.

Edited to add...

Whoops! Managed to seriously move this to the wrong forum. MF&P mods, could you oblige me and move this to S&S? Thanks.

Mageth

But we're only talking adding 5 miles or so to a radius of, what, about 4000 miles.

Nice Squirrel

Wouldn't we... er Gawd.. just need to increase the air pressure to tolerable levels and not to those found at normal sea level?

That is if the ark wasn't put into a hibernation bubble.

Cynthia of Syracuse

Done!