Why are there so many different creation stories and especially flood stories?
Considering alot of those stories come from Arid regions where flash floods are common im not surprised. If they came from a volcanic area it would be volcanos, A tropical area it would be hurricanes etc They are just looking for a metaphor to show gods power and a powerful flash flood was a thing the local people feared abd had experienced.
The most likely answer is that creation was not a once only event, man was cloned in the image of the “creator” and each time the new type of man started his own group memory/story. Despite the restricted vision shown by the earlier answers the Christian OT says that man was cloned in the “Gods” (note plural) image and that the sons of the gods married the daughters of men and had families. Other histories (often called religions) have similar accounts, the worship bit got added later. The onward cloning of man to populate a new planet is something we are just about ready to do ourselves – and no doubt the religion bit will occur there in time. Re the flood, take the oldest woodland in the world, yes the Rainforest, and think how deep the layer of timber would be if it was suddenly all knocked down – then consider how thick the strata of coal would be from that timber, it wouldn’t be much, perhaps an inch or two? Some seams of coal are several feet thick and the timber pile to get that
