LogFAQs > #962166737

well here's my layman interpretation:

that life was impossible without a covenant. noah's world (whether that meant the entire world or the world he knew is not made clear) had everything going for it but was overrun with evil. so god flooded it. since he came to understand that noah was the only person willing to obey him, noah became the model for all successive prophets: obey certain patterns of behavior and you won't be destroyed

of course you could say "bUt ThAt'S sO mEaN!" but keep in mind god really never killed anyone who he didn't give enough warning to first. which is what the idea of repentance is all about.

'cept maybe that guy that accidentally touched the ark and died. maybe he didn't get the memo, but I forget.