The Nehor wrote:Okay, an old story based on real events subjected to hyperbole and people with religious devotion magnifying the event as it went through multiple hands. The thing is....the suckers forgot to take out the part about the birds.....thus showing that even Noah himself didn't know where he was or IF there was land out there.
squawkeye wrote:Even with Angels magically shovelling elephant poop you have a really big bunch of animals to be taken care of.
harmony wrote:The Nehor wrote:Okay, an old story based on real events subjected to hyperbole and people with religious devotion magnifying the event as it went through multiple hands. The thing is....the suckers forgot to take out the part about the birds.....thus showing that even Noah himself didn't know where he was or IF there was land out there.
In other words: myth. Welcome to the world of the Old Testament.
The Nehor wrote:
I'm willing to commit historically to there being a guy named Noah and some kind of calamity hitting the area where he lived.
If the rest is myth fine. I have no problem with myths. In fact, I like them.
Trevor wrote:The people at CARM take this very seriously:
Quote:
Classification . . . . Number of Species . . . . Number of Kinds on the Ark
Mammals . . . . . . . . .3,700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,700 (a few live in water).
Birds . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,200 (seven pairs according to
Gen. 7:3)
Reptiles. . . . . . . . . . .6,300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,300
Amphibians. . . . . . . .2,500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500
Fishes. . . . . . . . . . . .20,600. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .zero
Other marine life . . . 192,605. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .zero
Insects . . . . . . . . . . . 850,000 . . . (Since insects are very small, and a great many could be stored in a small area, calculation would be difficult.)
Total . . . . . . . . . . . .1,072,305 . . . . . . . . . . . . .72,700
The total number of mammals would be 3,700 times two pair which equals 7,400 animals. 7,400 divided by 240 = 31 boxcars used.
Since Gen. 7:3 says to take seven pairs of every bird then the total for birds would be 8,600 times two pair times 7 or 120,400 animals. 120,400 ÷ 480 = 250 boxcars. The reptiles and amphibians would be 6,300 plus 2,500 or 8,800. 8,800 times two pair equals 17,600 animals. 17,600 divided by 480 = 37 boxcars.
The total number of boxcars used would be 318 with a total number of animals at 145,400. There would be 251 boxcars left over. That means that only 56% of the ark would be used for storing the animals. Obviously, then, the rest of the space would be used for food for the people and animals and sleeping quarters. In addition, considering that insects are extremely small, it is easily conceivable that they could be housed in part of the remaining space.
It should also be considered that many animals can hibernate. Additionally, predators and prey have been known to habitat peacefully together during situations of stress like fire, flood, or earthquake. In the Ark, normal animal behavior would probably have been different from normal. Specialists in animal behavior have noted that animals can sense danger and have often migrated to escape it. Perhaps God used their migratory instincts to get them to the Ark.
Though this is only a brief analysis, it should present enough evidence that the Ark account is certainly within the realm of possibility.
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Jersey Girl wrote:Nowhere in the Bible does it indicate a "global" flood.
4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
An obvious problem associated with identifying the resting place of the Ark is that its elevation must be lower than the ultimate depth of the flood water, since the Biblical account indicates that the highest point of land was covered to a depth of about twenty feet. An elevation higher than a certain point would require an impossible rate of rainfall to cover it. In the view of some biblical literalists[who?], is dubious that a peak of over 16,000 feet would even exist at the time of the Flood; hence the facts imply that the mountains of "Ararat" were much lower than today, even if they were the highest in the world, a position not supported by modern geomorphology.
"Make it a limited flood and assume Noah was just taking critical livestock to rebuild herds after the flood and it gets much easier."Trouble is, that is not what the Scriptures say.
bcspace wrote:"Make it a limited flood and assume Noah was just taking critical livestock to rebuild herds after the flood and it gets much easier."
Trouble again is that you may have to factor in their pov. From their pov, certainly everything was destroyed. But was it really? Consider Lot's daughters. They thought that with the destruction of Sodom they were the only ones left in the world and subsequently used their father as a sperm bank and made some withdrawals.