Can Jews or Christians answer these questions?

Question

Noah survived the flood and lived for another 350 years. His sons, his wife, and their wives were with him.

So the questions are:
Where did all these people come from to form several major cities and countries in just 100 years, when the population at the start was eight?
How could people come up with different religions in such a short time, with the direct beneficiaries of God's "gentle mercy" still living and able to speak about what happened, and all the evidence for the flood directly visable?

FYI, I am an atheist. I don't believe the flood story is literally true. I am asking to see what answers I get. Grannie_Annie, you are funny.

Quantrill: Yeah, I know. I probably should have used "creationists" and left it at that. Silly me.
Aleks: I think the flood wasn't as big, and legends grew about it. So many problems with a literal flood.
Granny_Annie: Sorry about misspelling your name. I saw a website that said Gilgamesh was Nimrod. LOL The internet always brings something odd to the table.
Dorie: Incest was okay back then. :O
JCLuvsU2: Moses was later on. If Satan plants religions in people's heads, what then keeps yours from being one of his lies? I agree, the Bible would be as big as the OED if it actually explained anything it has in it.
To a few others: Uh, okay. Don't know how that relates to this question, but thanks for playing.

DTSheep: Yes, but does someone you know doubt that WWII happened? Someone within four generations from someone who was there?
Deborah: I was talking about Noah's great-grandson's time, which was about a hundred years after the flood.
Katgum: You get less than a thousand people after six generations, and you think that's a good way to found at least twenty major cities and several nations (such as Egypt)? Besides, I am specifically talking about four generations later. Not six or twelve. Four.
John S.: How long do you think it takes for someone to have a great grandson? Three generations following him is my guess. If it took longer than 100 years, then there's even less population to work with.

Answer 1

And what makes you think that the story of Noah is a historical fact?

The Jews snatched this one from Sumer. It is but a part of the great Epic of Gilgamesh. Utnapishtim was the protagonist's name. Aren't you glad the Jews shortened it to Noah?

Answer 2

If each of Noah's Sons and their wives had three children, and their children had three children and so forth, then by the 6th Generation there would be 729 people. By the 12th year, their would be 53,1441. Of course, life does not work this way so lets say, that if everychild, by the age of 20 had children, then, by the hundreth year, depending on when you start, there would be somewhere between 200 to 700 people. But many of these children had more than 3 kids. Some had five, others had ten. So when you start to caluclate and formulate the answer, yes it is concevable to have 6000+ people in a hundred year span.

Look at the spread below

1st Gen-10 kids each-total of 30 kids (3+30=33)
2nd Gen-4 kids each-total of 120 kids (33+120=143)
3rd Gen-5 kids each-total of 600 kids (143+600=743)
4th Gen-10 kids each-total of 6000 kids (743+6000=6743)
5th Gen-5 kids each-total of 30,000 kids (6743+30,000=36,743)

And do you think its possible, as a human, to communicate with over 36,000 people at that time.No, in addition, people become prideful and try to be more than they are. Others lie to get out of situations or make themselves look better. Still, others refused to listen to the truth. Then their are those who you lose communication with, just because they are so far away, and you never see them again. Its like the old game telephone. You tell one person something, that same person tells someone else, etc. The story gets changed, because people misinterpret, do not hear, or just plain do not like the truth. So the only way for the truth to get out and stay the same is to write it down.

I hope this helps

Answer 3

I am not sure it was only 100 years. There were four couples having children. They had to inter-marry. Population growth charts seem it indicate that we were at about the lowest population about 4400 years ago-that could fit the flood story. There is no real problem with the population being what it is today coming from only eight about 4000 years ago.

Now just look at what has happened to the Christian church in Europe in just 50 years. Before WW II the churches were thriving, now you can hardly get enough in church to turn the lights on. Today the Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal churches have become completely apostate. The Methodist church is struggling to stay Christian, most Pentecostal churches are off the planet, the Baptist church has split two times in recent years, and so on. It is easy to forget about God, even in the middle of a blessing.

Answer 4

Well, reading all of genisis will tell you lots and lots of sex and spreading out brought them about.

As to why people wouldn't believe anymore in the face of evidence....

As years and generations go by, people forget. Its like WWII. my grandparents served in it, got shot at, and all that. they can appreciate what the war meant better than me, because they witnessed the era. But following generations only get stories. they don't gain the hope and belief that the people experiancing it got. there may have been tons of evidence of a mass flood around, but seeing how the Grand Canyon was created is more amazing than hearing about it. So the more years go buy, the more you hear the same stories over an over again until people see them as just stories.

Answer 5

first of all, dont expect the Bible tell every single tiny detail of everything. The Bible wont tell you Noah took 2 cats, 2 dogs and 2 sheep. Same as people, People are multiplied easily, as day goes by, they all spread out and after all the enviorment changes, people adopted different area and different belief. Same as time frame. In 100 years, you can have so many people in mulitplication.

If you travel from Europe to Asia, you will see people's features changed a little by little. Mongoians are bigger than Chinese, some Indians look like white... and so on.. they changed their look because of the living condition and environment. Just like many insects, they don't stay in one shape.. they adopt area and change some day...

Answer 6

When the flood was over, after many generations, there were men united under Nimrod. They desided to build a tower that would reach the heavens and touch God.It was called the tower of Babel. God was not pleased, He saw their arrogance and sent upon them many languages. So there was mass confussion, so the people that understood each other gathered together and separated from the tower, and left it uncompleted. Over many years people migrated all across the earth.

Many differences in culture began to form, but today there are ancient text in many countries including China that talk about the flood. Just as people can influence culture today, people changed thier faith in God, and started to worship idols and tangeble things. But the people of Israel did not lose their faith in God and God found favor with them and blessed them. That is why the Jews are God's chosen people today.

Answer 7

Time is rarely referenced in the bible for a reason. Those 7 days used to create the world could have been eons. Yes Adam and Eve were the first, but who said they were the only. And again the bible is not meant to be taken literally. It is not a legtimate historical document but a guide for living a decent life. That's all.

Answer 8

the same question occurs when cain finds himself a wife.
no one is sure, maybe there is a problem with time in the bible, or the flood wasn't really so "total" or god made other people and just didn't feel like telling the guy who wrote the bible about them.
remember, the bible isn't really about logistics, its about teaching lessons about how to live your life. i think that was the main point of the old testament.

Answer 9

huh? What do you mean in a short time? don't you know Moses children had children and they had children and so forth?..don't you know satan exists? He puts different religions in peoples mind that would shun God out of their lives.

And if the Bible were to mention every single detail that happened..boy would it be huge...God couldve made more people too, ya know?

Answer 10

(catholic) all bible stories are usually just stories to prove a point and teach. The Old testament is full of stories with most of them based in reality and are there not to give historic accounts but to advance our knowledge of what is good and bad and to show us how we should attempt to live.