Ursula: The people of the flood could have asked their creator the same thing.
It's not one god. If you know the Babylonian Tiamat and Marduk story, you're probably familiar with all those ANE syncretic water gods. Curiously, it's the LORD God who does the flooding, i.e., the God of Genesis 2 who put people in a trapped garden. This as opposed to the (regular or garden-variety) God of Genesis 1 who gave people the whole world to inhabit.
In earliest ANE scriptures there's always this combo-god thing at work ... a little bit of this god and a little bit of that god. The literary character of God was still forming.
For an amusing take on the Flood -- hey, look on the bright side! -- you'll probably love the opening of Julian Barnes's _History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters_.
All the best, Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
