Before the Flood, every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). The Hebrew word for continually means "all the day," so evil never stopped. It was ceaseless, endless, and perpetual. From waking until returning to bed, the people of Noah's day thought only evil thoughts and carried them out in evil deeds. This stands in stark contrast to God's verdict in Genesis 1:31 that everything He made was very good. Humanity fell from very good to wholly evil over about sixteen centuries, a steady corrosion that began when sin separated Adam and Eve from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). The word "only" shows that no good remained mixed in with the evil. People did not even do evil things for good reasons. Their "intent," the attitudinal germ behind thoughts, words, and actions, was evil from the outset, even in fashioning material things. Outward violence grew out of inward corruption, and rottenness could produce only more rottenness. God did not glance at this condition suddenly. He intently observed and scrutinized mankind over centuries. The wickedness was great, meaning it multiplied and grew, and it was found in the whole earth. Because sin was universal and unceasing, God justly answered with a universal Flood. Abel, Enoch, and Noah were the few bright spots.

God's judgment of humanity's moral state did not change after the Flood. In Genesis 6:5 He declared mankind altogether evil, and in Genesis 8:21, after Noah's sacrifice, He again says, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." The Flood executed judgment on sinners and reduced humanity to eight people, but it changed nothing about human character. The phrase "from his youth" allows only a narrow window of potential goodness in early childhood. Babies are born morally neutral, able to do good or evil, yet because of the flesh they lean toward selfishness and sin. Carnal nature wants everything for itself. Every generation since the Flood shares this same sinful nature, and humanity has not improved, whatever evolutionists argue. Scripture, as the story of God's redemption, bears this out throughout. David describes mankind's corruption in Psalm 14, and Isaiah shows Israel so sick with sin that further attempts to turn them back would only meet fresh rebellion. Jeremiah 17:9 widens the verdict to all: the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, incurably sick. Paul gives a complete indictment in Romans 3:9-18. Sin comes in degrees, and many try hard to do good as they understand it, yet in God's eyes humans grow corrupt from a young age. Just one sin incurs the penalty of death, and everyone has committed at least one, carrying a growing burden of sins through life.