Noah's Ark?

One of the most famous stories in the Bible is that of Noah’s ark. Since I was a child and first heard this story I questioned how it ever could have been possible. If I was to believe that everything in the bible is true to be a good Christian, and I questioned Noah’s story, I was immediately exposed as a “bad” Christian. I soon questioned every story I heard in the bible. Now I am an adult and just recently had a debate with someone as to the impossibilities of this story.

I would like a believer’s to answer the following questions, heck if you give me the right ones, I might actually have to question all that I currently believe all over again

So here you are, explain to me the following as in regards to the Story of Noah and his ark:

1. He was over 400 years old, why does no one even come close to that age now considering all the advancement in medicines and the relative ease of life experienced now as opposed to then?

2. The longest wooden ships in modern seas are about 300 feet, and these require reinforcing with iron straps and leak so badly they must be constantly pumped. How did the ark stay afloat without being assembled with the necessary technology available and how did they pump out the thousands of gallons of water that would have collected in the ship every couple of hours?

3. Creationists say that all the world's oil / petroleum deposits were formed during the Flood. How could Noah find and use pitch to waterproof the Ark before the Flood. Also during construction how would Noah have dealt with wood rot and hull sag?

4 .The ark would have had to have been larger than a modern super-tanker. There are currently over 1.4 million known species of animals on the earth today. That’s not even counting the unknown species or the species that have died off in the last few thousand years. There are over three hundred and fifty thousand species of beetle. It would take several arks just to house two example of each of the world’s insect population

5. Additional arks would be required for food. An example is the Koala. A koala eats over two pounds of eucalyptus leaves per day and nothing else. There are over 300 species of humming birds each with their own dietary requirement. Millions of animals have millions of dietary needs that are required and it must be supplied insufficient amounts not to mention the water needs of each animal.

6. How did all species of animals get to the ark? How did animals from Australia, North America, and the Arctic Poles and across the world make it to the ark?

7. Waste disposal…just think about it.

8. Ventilation and supplying adequate lighting within the Ark by which both animals and people could see.

9. Manpower, how could his family provided near enough to take care of millions of animals along with the responsibilities of maritime navigation?

10. After the flood receded, the earth would have been destroyed. The salinity of the flood would have destroyed all the plant life. What would the animals survived on after being released from the ark and wouldn’t the predators immediately hunt the herbivores into extinction

Lastly, having only his family to repopulate the earth, is Christianity endorsing incest?

Religion forum.

One interesting thing along those lines that I don't know how in the hell I came up with is this:

The amount of days between Hurricane Charley, and through the onset of Hurricanes Francis, Ivan, and Jeanne, was 40 days and 40 nights.

As far as to the exactness, I came up with it myself, so if I'm off by half a day, sue me.

I've never really taken the stories in the bible literally they are just tales that have some sort of metaphorical meaning

in a way i agree with lydia, but not entirely....Noah's ark and the raining of 40 days and 40 nights has some basis to it... i heard somewhere in one of my classes that all the way around the world there were recorded "documents" or cave writings is the best way to describe it in the mayan and aztec writings of a great rainfall that lasted a about 40 days and 40 nights.

sometimes what we cant believe or what we find hard to believe, it just takes faith. often faith is all we can go by.

...unless that faith directly conflicts with reality.
its possible to keep your faith, yet question the validity of certain stories imo.

Not to mension they found the ark on the news in the mountains a WHILE AGO.

nothing was confirmed, in fact they were probably incorrect or we would have heard much more about it. dont be so quick to post speculation as fact.

You have to remember, that when the book was written, the 'world' didnt extend far beyond the middle east. And at the time of Noah, they would not have been likely to know much of the actual world. So maybe the 'known' world was flooded.

Originally posted by Max Spidey 24
Not to mension they found the ark on the news in the mountains a WHILE AGO.

I would think an event that huge would have recieved a large amount of covereage.

In fact the "boat shaped" object found in turkey that I believe you are talking about has been confirmed as a boat shaped geological formation,

There are tales from different cultures throughout the world of a great flood that destroyed a geat civilization. Many now believe this to be the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, accellerated by the eruption and worldwide hot ash from the eruption of krakatoa 11'600 years ago. Prior to then, most of where indonesia is now, was above sea level. There was a MASSIVE subcontinent larger than india, larger than australia, that was right on the equator, and had the largest lowlying land that would have had the best conditions for human life. Many believe that a great civilization flourished there before it was submerged

Never liked that story, I always figured food would be a problem.

food was not an issue. they just ate the unicorns and dragons

Unicorns taste great, but dragons are a little tough and gamey.

oh come on!!!!
tastes like chicken!

Originally posted by a1hsauce
in a way i agree with lydia, but not entirely....Noah's ark and the raining of 40 days and 40 nights has some basis to it... i heard somewhere in one of my classes that all the way around the world there were recorded "documents" or cave writings is the best way to describe it in the mayan and aztec writings of a great rainfall that lasted a about 40 days and 40 nights.

sometimes what we cant believe or what we find hard to believe, it just takes faith. often faith is all we can go by.

KD > about the incest... Adam and Eve were the first humans, the story claims so christianity is flooded with incest from the start already 😉

no not necessarily yerssot eleveninches above kinda, i dont wanna say confirmed because i dont have the actual information in front of me, but in my geography classes we found that during the time in which this great flood occured there was something occuring in other parts of the world as well.... a great rainfall that that also demolition many civilizations in central and south america... not out of existence but hurt them significantly...

i dont think Gods aim had anything to do with it... he punished Noah's people for thier actions and the consequence of it drifted out onto the surrounding parts of the world.

So what you are saying is that God just kills people all willy nilly like?

no more like the ones he has a covenant with, who go against him... i hope.. thats wat im thinkin

I'm not a Christian but for number one I think that they measured years differently back then, which is why people lived to be several hundred years old.

Also I've thought about this story many times trying to think of ways it might be possible and it really doesn't seem to add up in any way whatsoever. But I figure that if it happen hypothetically, to try to cut down on as much food and labor as possible of taking care of these animals they would get eggs of each species instead of the actual animal. Like instead of bringing live lizards they would bring lizard eggs. Of course this wouldn't work for mammals and such, but it seems that it would cut down on the food they'd need to bring and stuff like that. For mammals they probably still wouldn't bring full grown animals, just get them at the age where they aren't babies so they don't need constant attention but aren't full grown either so they don't need as much food. Just a guess really..