Noah's ark - series of bible questions, ONE.?

Question

Okay , here are a few that i have questions on:

Noah's ark ..if 2 of every animal were on board and the world is only between 4000-10,000 years old (as many christian see it) why are their flood stories in many of the other religous cultures, such as indian, aztec, chinese, etc... happening around the same time of noah? They were not on board, right? Then how do they know and how could they record a massive flood at the same time? Were not all people destroyed as stated? If two of everything were on board..that means dinosaurs, correct? How could the ark take 2 of everything, esp. 60-150 foot tall creatures and all the food? Were the dimensions incorrect? What about insects, etc.. If all people except those onboard were destroyed, did noah pull a "Lot" and repopulate with his daughters?
I am not trying to be cute, i really want to know, so if you have an answer share it, but do not act like i know the answers - i am asking because i do not know the answers. thanks!

Soleil Noir - very well put

Answer 1

The short answer is: the authors of the Old Testament ripped off the whole "Worldwide Deluge" story from a much older tale -- the epic of Gilgamesh, if memory serves.

In fact, once you start looking at the bible through the eyes of history, you find that the entire bible is a cobbled-together mishmash of numerous other myths and motifs from a variety of cultures that lived and died in the same area of the world. There's nothing unique or special about the bible, and it's not even particularly well written -- certainly not what you'd expect from an infinitely intelligent being.

Answer 2

Oh gosh??
1. Flood stories in many cultures around the world mean that everyone alive descended from the eight people on the ark. The stories were passed down from one generation to another. Yes. all others were destroyed.
2. Not 2 of "everything", only "two of everything that breathed through their nostrils". (Read the Bible). Noah wasn't stupid and neither was God-he could have taken baby dinosaurs-the idea was to repopulate the earth-not see how big of animal could get on the boat. We don't know how big the ark was, 300x50x30 cubits. We don't know how big a "pre-flood cubit was. If Noah was 16 feet tall-a cubit could have been as much as 60 inches. Do the math. Pre-flood man was much bigggggger than man is today.
3. No insects, many would survive the flood. Many survive floods today.
4. There would have been 4 couples having children after the flood-and they all lived a long, long time. No problem with re-population.

There are many scientist (not preachers) that lecture on this all over the USA and Europe, just look for them. Try Answers in Genesis or Institute for Creation Research-all well respected scientist.

Answer 3

Okay, I am no longer Christian, but was for many years and I know the pat answer to this that most Christians believe.

They believe that the earth was repopulated by Noah's sons who the bible says were on the ark with him and their wives. After they began to populate an area they would move over the world and carry the story of the flood with them, thus explaining why other cultures have the story about the same time.

A lot of Christians say dinosaurs never existed and the skeletal remains are from Satan. Others say there was two creations one with dinosaurs then after they were destroyed God created man.

Science suggests that the atmosphere back then would not have accommodated humans and the new atmosphere killed off the dinosaurs.

Those are the "Pat" answers as I like to call them. I got tired of believing these pat answers and the errors of the bible kept jumping out at me to the point I had to reject it and i am now pagan.

I call these "Pat" answers because Christians explain some things that have no explanation in the Bible to justify their beliefs.

Answer 4

Well--the knowledge that I have about ths situation is this: The flood that was documented in the bible was only a documented event that happened in the area where the scriptures (that were created for the bible) took place. Trying to remember information from a documentary that I had watched, it referred to the area of the Black Sea. And, it was a huge flood that covered an enormous amount of land. The theory that was presented was that there was a type of natural wall that developed between the Black Sea and the Altantic Ocean---which effected the salt content between both areas. Because of this imballance and other variables, the wall broke loose..it was hypothesized that this was the primary factor for the deluge. Now, floods happen all the time, all over the world--effecting various cultures. The time that these floods took place are only relative and possibly subjective--since it can only be currently verified from natural sedimentary layers that are observed--the bible isn't that specific--and their have been countless debates over 'time' in regard to when biblical events 'actually' took place. Not all animals, across the globe were taken on the Ark, in my opinion---only those within the area of the given flood. And, even then--just because there were no other stories written about the flood, doesn't mean that Noah was the only one who saved animals or that they were the only humans that survived that disaster(uh, oh---creationists are not gonna like me!). And...that doens't mean that an Ark or other water vessel had the capability to hold all the different types of animals that were available in the area, at that time. There are animals that are only indiginous to specific areas of the world---and not to the area of the Black Sea.

What I find the most interesting thing about the story of the Ark, is that there was a man, through his faith and devotion to God, knew that something was going to happen (be it that he knew that the sea wall was going to go--or not) Had the motivation to create a vessel that would save people and animals from a devistating natural event---and did...according to his story:-)

Answer 5

The flood stories come from the end of the last ice age. Moses took a story about a sea getting bigger, and exaggerated it. Not everyone was killed, and the whole world wasn't inundated. The dinosaurs were long extinct, so there were no dinosaurs on ships. Noah's ark didn't have two of every animal. Noah didn't have any daughters -- he brought his wife, his three sons and their wives.

Answer 6

First off, contrary to what most people have said on this page, the Bible is not a book of stories and it is not made up. It's amazing to me how those who don't believe in the beliefs of Christianity say that Christians have to be tolerate of the beliefs of non-Christians, but non-Christians don't have to tolerate the beliefs of Christians. And to be intelligent, you don't have to be an athiest to be truly intelligent. In fact, a truly intelligent person would be open to all points of view.

On to the question. Other cultures and religions have the story of the flood because the story was told over and over and it spread to different regions. With oral history, certain regions or cultures changed the facts concerning the flood. It also depends on your point of view.

For example, if you were telling the story of the most recent presidential election and you were supporting John Kerry, then you would tell your story from an opposing view from a supporter of George Bush.

The dimensions of the ark were correct. How did all of the animals fit on the ark? I honestly can't say because I wasn't there. That doesn't mean it didn't happen though. Vietnam happened and I wasn't there. But there are facts to support Vietnam as are there are facts to support the Ark and the flood. For instance, an explorer by the name of Ron Wyatt claimed to have found the ark.

Noah and his family (his sons Shem, Ham, and Japeth and their wives) had to repopulate the earth. Since there was a small number of people, then forms of incest did occur.

Answer 7

Once the flood came an all there was was the people an the animals on the ark.. after that time the people became divided speaking different languages etc, so that people then developed different cultures then they wrote down their histories as passed down by their forefathers so yes there would be stories that are similar... then you have to determine if Dino even existed an if so weren't they b4 Adam an Eve, b4 Noah etc

Answer 8

First of all, the Bible says that Noah, his wife, his three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and his son's wives were all on board the ark. (Genesis 8:18 and Genesis 10:1). All of the people now living on the earth today came from Noah and his three sons. The Indians, Aztecs, Chinese, and other people groups have the story of the flood because it was passed down through the years. About how all the animals fit on the Ark . . .instead of copying and pasting, here is a link that talks about that: http://www.users.bigpond.com/rdoolan/animalark.html. I hope this helps clarify things a bit.

Answer 9

Actually, it's only 2 of the unclean animals. There were to be 7 of the "clean" animals.

According to the story (which is older than the Bible--read the Epic of Gilgamesh), all people besides Noah and family were destroyed. I cannot answer about the dinosaur question, because scientifically speaking all dinos died out before there were modern humans--don't know what the typical answer is to that. I believe that only animals that could not survive the flood were suppose to be taken aboard--so certain insects wouldn't have had to be on. As for the repopulation, apparently as Noah's sons had wives on board, we are descended from them. Or something.

Another question is: what did the carnivores eat?

Answer 10

Well, I'm no bible expert, and I personally have my doubts about organized Religion. But I do pray, and I do believe in a higher power, I just feel I don't have to have someone else tell me how to behave and when to pray.

Now, on to your questions.

dinosaurs died out Millions of years ago, according to archaeologists and Scientists. Yes, I know what the bible says, and some people think the years in the bible are actually longer than we suspect a year to be. The dinosaurs were long gone before Noah's arc had the chance to save them. That is based on carbon dating, a proven way to date carbon based objects and get a rough guesstimate on when it was last seen alive.

And one thing I wish to point out to those Bible folk out there that believe it is the do all, make all and say all to life. If that were true, then you, me, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Malcom X, Cassius Clay and every other human being on this planet can be traced back to Adam and Eve, the first two people on the planet. which means we are all distant cousins. So why not treat every person you see better? They are a Relative after all.

Answer 11

Ok, 10,000 years ago, there were no dinos, so that takes care of them. I believe that Noah took his family, including children and their respective spouses, so that takes care of the repopulation issue. Now, if you view each sectarian God as an individual, imagine they are playing a board game, like Life for instance, and mom decides to shampoo the carpet. They all need to pick up the necessities and move to a new location. Who says each individual God, if there are individual Gods for each religion, did not have their own version of "Noah"? And if it's the same God, and he wanted to save inidvidual races for diversity, the same outcome would apply.

Of course, this all depends on whether or not you believe there was a Noah and a great flood....