Dear Morgan:

The Church says that it does not matter if the Flood was a historical fact or not. That is not the point of the Flood story.

This does not mean that a flood did not exist. To begin with, when reading the story of a "worldwide" flood, we need to remember that to the people who lived in the middle east 4000+ years ago, what we recognize as a regional flood IS a worldwide flood to them. We cannot take the knowledge we have of the world in the 21st century and superimpose it upon the peoples of thousands of years ago.

Thus, the story may indeed be true as written and still be "worldwide" in that to the peoples back then it was the whole world as they knew it.

But, again, none of this matters. The purpose of the story is to relate a religious message, not a historical or geographic one.

Genesis is a written account of an Oral History. The ancient peoples passed on their values and history through oral histories and through story-telling. Some of the stories may be accurate accounts of events, or may be inspired from actual events, or may be embellishments of real events or outright fiction. Regardless, the point of the stories was to relate a moral or religious message. It is the message that was important.

The teaching of the Church is that the Bible is infallible in its RELIGIOUS message. The Bible is not a book of science, geography, or history; it is a religious book in which God reveals Himself to mankind and reveals his Salvation plan.

It is interesting, however, how often geography or historical events described in the Bible are scientifically verified by archaeologists. But whether the Bible's descriptions of events or geography are fact, fiction, or a combination thereof simply does not matter. Only the religious message matters.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary