as described in the book of genesis, noah and his family kept believing in god in a time when most people were not, like his son canaan and his wife naamah. knowing this was true, god told noah he was going to flood the world, so he could drown out evil. he told noah to build a boat called an "ark". noah was to put himself, his family (except his son and his wife because they refused to come aboard the ark), and two (a male and a female) of every kind of animal on it. people laughed at noah, but they were killed by the flood with his son and his wife. noah and family stayed on the ark until they reached land. to find land noah sent out a dove, which returned with an olive branch. after the flood, god made a rainbow as a promise to say that he would never destroy the earth by flood again. when they were able to walk on dry land, the animals were released and they were able to repopulate the earth.