Was the Noahic Flood Limited Geographically?

There are man adherents to the belief that the Flood was limited to the Mesopotamian Valley area and that it was not a global phenomenon. This belief is usually bases on the idea that the human race had not spread beyond Mesopotamia. I would like to discuss why the basis for this belief is not valid.

The first reason lies within the longevity of the pre-Flood population. If one looks at the ages listed in Genesis, they will see that the average age of humanity before the Flood is approximately 900 years old. Genesis 5 also implies that families were large at this time and that reproducing was possible for humans in what we would consider to be advanced old age. Dr. Henry Morris and John Whitcomb, in their book, The Genesis Flood, give a conservative estimated population at the time of the Flood to be at one billion and that humanity would have filled the Earth.

The second reason for denying the limited Flood view would be in respect to the area of paleontology. Ancient fossils have been found thousands of miles from the Mesopotamian area showing that long before the Flood man was widely scattered throughout the Earth. However, some would argue that no fossils found outside of Mesopotamia can be considered antediluvian. They may also state that if man was widespread throughout the Earth before the Flood, they were compelled through supernatural means to return to Mesopotamia in order to be drowned in the limited Flood. The Bible, however, makes no mention of God gathering humanity back to the Mesopotamian Valley so he could drown them.

In conclusion, I believe that the limited Flood view cannot be a viable theory because of the advanced ages of humanity at the time of Flood and their ability to reproduce until advanced ages. Also, the widespread distribution of fossils throughout the Earth, lead me to believe that mankind widely distributed at the time of the Flood.

The idea for writing about this topic and much of the above information came from the work of Henry Morris and John Whitcomb in their book, The Genesis Flood