History Channel Supports the Global Flood?

The History Channel has recently shown The Bible miniseries produced by Roma Downey (of Touched by an Angel fame) and Mark Burnett.

In the first episode we see Noah atop the Ark.  We pan out and see the Ark on a world sea with a rainbow in the background.  The view continues to zoom out until the entire planet is seen covered with a worldwide ocean!

In the book version of the History Channel special, The Story of God and All of Us, the Global Flood is clearly endorsed:

Because the evil that Adam and Eve introduced has spread throughout the world, and God is cleaning the earth so mankind can start all over. …

This enormous ship would hold two of each animal.  Once it was complete, God would soak the world in a massive storm, flooding all the lands and killing all of God's creation.  Only the people and animals aboard Noah's ark would live.  God has saved the world by nearly destroying it. [1]

Downey & Barnett seem to think that the Ark was a Large Barge of chaos:

[Noah hears] the bellows of oxen, the whinnies of horses, the bleatings of sheep, and countless other animal cries of distress. … Try as Noah might to muck out the stalls daily, the hold of the ark is a foul place, with little ventilation. … A geyser of water spurts through a new leak in the hull. The women scream. Noah battles to stand and plug the hole. [1]

Downey should have read John Woodmorappe’s comprehensive treatment of issues like these, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study.  Maybe Roma Downey needs to be touched by an angel (Acts 12:6-11).

This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:  I promised then that the waters of Noah would never again flood the earth.  I’m promising now no more anger, no more dressing you down (Is. 54:9, Msg).

Note:

1)  The Story of God, click on LOOK INSIDE!, emphasis added.