Anti-evolutionist...how did over 2 million species come from Noah's Ark?

Question

How did all these species come to be and there are more everyday being discovered everyday if everything was destroyed during the Great Flood? The ark was only the size of a football field perhaps? How did such a small family keep the pedators from eating prey. Penguins walked off and made there way south with polar bears and swamp critters made their way to warm swamps? Please do not blame it on an unseen force of spirit.

To "That Guy"-read the bible, studied it, knew there were two floors...still doesn't make sense. Was hoping for something a little bit better. What a disappointment.

Thank you RandyG for a little more honesty and common sense regardless of faith.

Thanks Bill. Your last paragraph describes what evolution pretty much is. The ability for a small group of mammals, birds, reptiles etc... to change over time through breeding (mixing DNA) and changing in order to adapt to its environment over time. Evolution branches just like you described to create new species, whether it's cats, dogs whatever. So it is possible to believe in evolution and Noah's ark because change over time in species through breeding (DNA exchaning) and adaptation is possible from such a small population. That still doesn't answer how they all got to their habitats...penguins etc...

Answer 1

Could the Ark Have Held All the Animals?
It is true that encyclopedias refer to over a million species of animals. But Noah was instructed to preserve only representatives of every “kind” of land animal and flying creature. Some investigators have said that just 43 “kinds” of mammals, 74 “kinds” of birds, and 10 “kinds” of reptiles could have produced the great variety of species of these creatures that are known today. The ark had about (1,400,000 cu ft) of usable space—ample for the passenger list.
The ark had a carrying capacity equal to that of 10 freight trains of about 25 American boxcars each!
The book In Search of Noah’s Ark quotes George Hagopian, an Armenian, who claimed that he climbed Mount Ararat and saw the ark in 1902 and again in 1904. On the first visit, he said, he actually climbed on top of the ark. “I stood up straight and looked all over the ship. It was long. The height was about forty feet.” Regarding his observation on his subsequent visit, he said: “I didn’t see any real curves. It was unlike any other boat I have ever seen. It looked more like a flat-bottomed barge.”
The “kinds” of animals selected had reference to the clear-cut and unalterable boundaries or limits set by the Creator, within which boundaries creatures are capable of breeding “according to their kinds.” It has been estimated by some that the hundreds of thousands of species of animals today could be reduced to a comparatively few family “kinds”—the horse kind and the cow kind, to mention but two.

The breeding boundaries according to “kind” established by Jehovah were not and could not be crossed. With this in mind some investigators have said that, had there been as few as 43 “kinds” of mammals, 74 “kinds” of birds, and 10 “kinds” of reptiles in the ark, they could have produced the variety of species known today. Others have been more liberal in estimating that 72 “kinds” of quadrupeds and less than 200 bird “kinds” were all that were required. That the great variety of animal life known today could have come from inbreeding within so few “kinds” following the Flood is proved by the endless variety of humankind—short, tall, fat, thin, with countless variations in the color of hair, eyes, and skin—all of whom sprang from the one family of Noah.

Answer 2

To the believers - it can be perceived he took with him an egg and a sperm of each species. These can easily fit in the size of a football field. The species were land animals. The other species are aquatic animals and so they did not have problem living in water.
To the non believers - Floods do happen due to Global warming. This happens over a period of time. Just as the way the dinosaurs and friends perished from the face of earth, the present living species will also disappear from the face of earth and perhaps a new set of evolutionary creatures will appear and why at all we should bother about these because any way the present generation will not be there to find out.

Answer 3

If you don't believe there is a God (or "unseen force of spirit") then why the hell would you want an answer as to how Noah kept all those animals on a boat? Obviously, religious ppl who have a strong faith would concur that God can control anything He wants, and that the only way such a task would have been accomplished would be through the will of God. The ppl in those days hadn't yet discovered the earth is round. We're dealing with a story written by those ppl according to what they knew. Perhaps "every animal" meant every animal they knew of, and was in the region. Who knows? It's always been more of a story of faith, than an evolution one to me.

Answer 4

Two million species didn't come from Noah's Ark because that never happened. The ancient Babylonians had a myth about a great flood that wiped out everything save for an ark full of animals and people. The ancient Hebrews borrowed this myth (along with Adam & Eve and a few others) and put it into the history of their people and eventually their Bible (the Old Testament). Why is this story still part of Chrisiantity? You got me.

Answer 5

Yet even with 2 million species, Noah sadly forgotten about the Unicorns.

To answer your questions, suppose we just take the currently living species (ignoring dinosaurs and moas and other extinct species,) there is a possibility of fitting on to the ark (remember, 99% percent of the animals that ever lived on the earth are now extinct) provided they aren't claustrophobic. However, if you factor in food, and other basic necessities, then Noah would have a problem, factor back in the fact that he probably taken some extinct species, and if he had taken every species of insect, and you began to realize why the story of Noah's Ark seems just a wee bit far-fetched.

Answer 6

Additional Details

1 minute ago
To "That Guy"-

He had a wink, I think it was sarcasm. easy to believe it with some of the other answers though.

Think of the limited DNA afterwards too. Brothers and sisters would have to mate. It just can't work.

I want to know where Noah found a penguin and a polar bear in Palestine.

I have read the story bluenote2k is talking about by the way. Christianity ripped off every other story and ritual (people were comfortable with them) so why not this one.

Answer 7

There are way to many species on the planet to fit in any one boat and the technology of the time would not have allowed Noah to get animals in different locations on the earth. Also if a flood covered the planet there would be to much moisture in the air to breathe and all the animals would have died. I honestly don't think Noah's ark is possible....

Answer 8

Animals were not created all over the surface of the earth,they were created as Adam was in the Garden of Eden. They probably were not spread over the surface of the whole earth and there may not have been as many variations of different kinds of animals as there are now. From the study I've made I don't see any problem with the story of Noah and the flood.

Answer 9

I'm guessing the ark was the size of Australia, and it zipped around like the Starship Enterprise at warp speed, back and forth to all the continents. No wonder Noah lived so long. He needed a few extra hundred years just to construct the darn thing.

Your question, by the way, brought out so many entertaining answers. You gotta love 'em! Lots of laughs with his one.

Answer 10

I have lived in a one bedroom apartment with five kids, and none of them killed each other, you can squeeze alot into a small space with a little imagination and ingenuity. And no, the ark was bigger than a football field.

Whether you are a skeptic or not, if you ever watched the movie The Passion, it would be hard not to be deeply touched by the cruelty and inhumanity done to one man for trying to spread the word of being decent and kind to each other (no matter who he was or claimed to be).

Answer 11

It is a common misconception to assume that every species went aboard the ark. Every kind of animal went on board the ark. There would have been only several thousand animals.