If god could have Noah save every animal & flood the world then why wouldn't he just save the animals himself?

Question

Since getting every species of animal in the world into Noah's ark is impossible unless god magically used his powers to do it, and god could also flood the world at will, what did he need Noah for?

Why bother making Noah build an ark, collect every animal, magically make them all fit in an ark and somehow feed the carnivores without killing any of the other animals?

Why wouldn't god have cut out the middleman and moved the animals out of the way while flooding the earth? If he could perform miracles and transport matter, moving the animals should have been a piece of cake.

Oh, that's right, nothing about this story makes any sense. And it was plagiarized from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Don - And why would he do that? An all powerful deity that can do whatever it wants gets some guy who gets drunk and lies around naked all day to save the earth's animals?

Answer 1

Let them dream!

Consider the amount of work God had to do when all the saline and fresh water mixed. All the fish he had to stop from exploding.

Consider back then there were 1.5 million species of insects and Noah had to get a pair of each of them.That's like Wilt Chamberlain claiming to have had 55,000 women through out his career.

Couldn't he just strike down all the bad people like the first born in Egypt thus preserving all the flora and fauna?

Boy is God stupid! Maybe God wanted to make a B-rated sequel to the epic of Gilgamesh?

Thank you for putting a smile on my face. The yea and nay reponses are hilarious.

ARE YOU NOW THE ANTITHESIS OF LUDD?

Answer 2

Is this a serious question? I am not sure, but here is a serious answer. God used Noah for many reasons. 1. God used Noah because he was a righteous man in the eyes of God. 2. God used Noah becuase it gave the people all that time to repent from their sins. Perhaps if the people had taken what Noah was doing seriously and repented of their sins, the flood wouldn't have happened. In any case, God was giving the people time to repent for their sins. This is something he does a lot in the scripture. He doesn't just wipe people out the first time they do something. He gives everyone innumerable amounts of situations to repent until finally they die or he passes judgement on them. 3. He didn't have to get all the animals in the world into the ark, just the land animals, no birds, no fish, no marine mammals. 4. He could have transported matter and put them somewhere or else destroyed them and recreated them after, but then what's the point of the ark right? 5. Gilgamesh is a Babylonian Epic poem written about the 6th or 7th century B.C. The oldest version of Gilgamesh is dated approximately 2300 BC, but doesn't have the flood and other parts. Another version of the Gilgamesh story was provided by the Babylonian priest Berosus (3rd century BC). The Biblical account of the flood is about 6000 B.C. much older than that of Gilgamesh. It is most likely possible that the story of Noah was circulated among the different people groups after (obviously) the flood through oral tradition and changed and evolved though culture and language differences. 6. That's pretty much it.

Answer 3

God gathered two of every kind-not species. Yes He did use his powers to call the animals-Noah did not have to go out and hunt them. Making them fit was not a magic trick. We don't know how big the ark was. It was 300 cubits long. We have no standard on a pre-flood cubit. There were no carnivorous animals on earth til after the flood (T-Rex was a herbivore-check it out).
Were you there-did you see Noah plagiarize this from the Epic of Gilgamesh?
I am answering you from memory. If you want-there is well documented information on every real question you can come up with, available on the net.

Answer 4

You're absolutely correct of course, and inherent within your commentary is the fact that God is the greatest mass murderer in history.

References: Genesis 6:11-17 and Genesis 7:11-24
Some examples:
GE 6:13 - And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

GE 6:17 - And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Seems to me that God (for you believers) is annoyed with humanity other than his buddy Noah, and decides to kill (murder) every living thing on the face of the earth, except of course Noah and his family - got to have a few friends left.

However, to help believers actually learn something about reality we have the fact that the Bible is just a man-made play script, with several actors God, Devil, Jesus, Satan, Adam, Eve etc, and of course some intriguing imaginary places like Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Limbo.

I certainly don’t believe in the Bible and I doubt any reasonably intelligent person would either. However, if you view the Bible as a man-made play script, with several actors God, Devil, Jesus, Satan, Adam, Eve, Noah, and so on, then you can certainly start to see a clever interwoven plot, that the audience is unaware of. It’s really just a drama thriller with clever twists.

You see, if you seriously think about it in an unbiased manner, then clearly the actor God in the Bible could really be the Devil, and the audience (religious believers) are being sucked into being the bad guys, who then use religion to get everyone fighting each other.

On the other hand, the more intelligent audience (Atheists) spot the plot and try their best to teach believers that this is just nonsense, stop getting sucked in. Some people have over time decided that the play is real. That's very sad.

Answer 5

I will try and put this in simple terms. It was a 'test' to see if Noah would be obedient in building the ark and to preach repentence to all of the other people. Also it would of had to have been an awfully big island or whatever to put ALL of the animals on to save them, so instead he had 2 of each kind (male & female) to go on the ark. I also don't believe that Noah had to 'gather' them, I believe that God had the animals all go to the ark on their own, as well as have them not kill each other. So that in itself was a miracle.

Answer 6

Plagiarism or no, Noah had the role of The One Guy Who Listened to God. Kinda like Lot fleeing Sodom or Gomorrah or wherever he lived.

Basically, God is like Diogenes--lookin' for a few good men, or at least one. If there's one man who will listen to the prophecy of the world flooding, then the world isn't a total den of iniquity and is therefore worth saving. All the other people were stubborn and refused to obey God, so he smacked 'em down and just saved his one yes-man who agreed to build a giant boat. Therefore, in a seed-based society, Noah got to have the only descendants in the entire world, and everybody knows that it's important how many descendants you have to glorify your name. By believing in God, Noah is it--the only forefather we all have if you believe the story. So listen to God when he tells you to build a huge boat! It'll make it ever so much easier to plead insanity when you have an ark in your yard.

Answer 7

The accounts in the Epic of Gilgamesh actually support the story told in Genesis.

Taken From Wikipedia:

Epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that Gilgamesh was buried under the waters of a river at the end of his life. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates River crossing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the riverbed. In April 2003, a German expedition discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its King Gilgamesh.

Taken From Genesis Chapter 6:

Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God (Angels) had sex with daughters of men, and they bore {children} to them. Those were the mighty men who {were} of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Gen 6:7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

Gigamesh was said to have be imprisoned under the Euphrates, Along with the rest of the Nephilim. They will be released by satan during the Tribulation period, Rev 16:12 The sixth {angel} poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
Rev 16:13 And I saw {coming} out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
Rev 16:14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.

To answer your initial question: God want to see dedication in Noah, since he was last pure human being on the Earth. Dedication to follow the instructions of God. Also, God probably sent whatever animal was possible to be on the ark to show Noah that he's a God of his word, however God probably saved the rest of the animal kingdom by other means, or probably created them again once the flood was completed.

All in all,
Deu 29:29a The secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God...

Answer 8

Noah was not the only person in the Bible called to do something by God. Abram (who became Abraham) was charged with starting the Jewish nation. Moses (who was wanted for murder) was charged with returning to Egypt (where he was wanted for murder) to confront the pharaoh and demand the freedom of his people. The list is long and distinguished.

God charges people with tasks that He could easily accomplish on His own, for various reasons. To help that person reach the level God wants them to reach, to test their faith, etc.

God used Noah, because He had become disgusted with the human race, He regretted creating them, save for Noah, whom He liked. So He commanded Noah to build the Ark, and save the animals, and his family so that after wiping the earth of all the sinful behavior it could be repopulated by Noah's family. After which, God made a covenant with Noah (and the rest of the human race) that He would never again wipe the earth clean with a flood, the rainbow was created as a sign of that covenant to serve as a reminder to both God and man.

Answer 9

The story of Noah is, of course, entirely fictitious, so picking at details isn't very fruitful. From time to time, some people have looked for evidence of a global flood (which would have created a worldwide layer of silt); no such evidence has ever been found. A calculation of the amount of water required to flood the entire landmass comes out to a billion cubic miles -- more than four times as much water as exists on the entire planet.

Answer 10

God can do anything. God chose Noah to be "the middle man."
Noah was suppose to do this for God as His servant, as a child obeys a parent, as a faithful believer for his own salvation.

God used other people to do things that may not make too much sense to us in modern times. God still uses people today, we just choose not to see it. And if you think about it, if we DID see it, the way that Noah did, there would STILL be non-believers.

God helps us along if we are willing to follow. If you are a non-believer, then don't worry about God's ways. You have chosen not to see.