I err on the side of a global flood for the following reasons:
- It would make no sense for God to tell Noah to build an ark and preserve the animals if it was a local flood. It would have been much easier to tell them to relocate to higher ground.
- ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Water flows down, not up. The only way the ark would have ended up in the mountains was if it was a global flood. Plus, a local flood would not have raised flood water that high.
- God made a promise that he would never flood the earth again (Gen 9:8–17), but there have been many local floods since that time.
- Nearly every ancient civilization on earth has a flood tradition. Many details are similar to Noah's Flood, which would make sense if they had a common origin. This to me is circumstantial proof of a global flood as only something as catastrophic as a global flood would leave such an impression on humanity.
Some wonder where all that water went. I don't think it went anywhere, rather it spread and formed the oceans we have today. About 71% of the earth is covered with water, and that's a lot of water.
