Do you believe in noah's ark and the flood.?

Question

If not, why?

Answer 1

yes. I believe all the Hebrew Bible. Besides, all cultures have a flood myth past down through oral tradition.Some archaeologists think they have found the ark.

the bible doesn't say that they were on the ark for a year. It only rained 40 days and 40 night .therefore, sea creatures could have survived that long in the ocean.

Baby animals require less space. Two dogs etc went into the ark rather than 2 labs, 2 collies etc

Most likely the animals ate grains and such.

the lack of data does not disprove the ark. In statistics, one can prove that something does exists, but one can't prove that it doesn't.

Answer 2

No.

I believe the story was invented to reassure the ancient Hebrews. What was to stop an all powerful God getting angry with humankind and ending the experiment? Well they were told, God very nearly did once, but He relented and let Noah and his family survive. And, most importantly, at the end of the episode He entered into a covenant with Noah, marked by the first rainbow. He gave His word that He would never again try to end the human experiment.

To make it real for people they adapted the flood story from other ancient epics. They made it very precise, giving the exact dimensions of the boat, times it took for waters to rise and fall, etc.

But in the light of modern scientific knowledge, the literal version of the story is a virtual impossibility. Some of your other answerers have already pointed out some of these. There are others. For example, a timber structure of that size would have quickly warped and broken up.

When the story originated the authors had no idea that continents like Australia and the Americas, or their flora and fauna, even existed. In the short time he was given, how could Noah have possible have travelled to the four corners of the earth, by land and sea, and brought all those species together in one place?

It is arguable that God brought all the animals to the Ark himself, but the job of feeding the animals was definitely assigned to Noah. How could he have gathered the special species of eucalyptus leaves the koalas need? Or fed all the other problem eaters? How could he have stopped all the vegetable matter spoiling? And he would have had to have a lot of extra animals to feed all the carnivores for a year.

The claim by "Captain Jack" and others, that there is now archaelogical evidence for an ancient flood, lacks all credibility. Forget the evangelical archaeologists. There isn't a shred of evidence that might convince serious scientists. As for Captain Jack's fossils, most of them took longer to form than they Bible says the earth has been around. You cannot interpret one part of the Bible literally and not the rest. Either it's all true, or it was just an allegory for its time.

I respect all beliefs and all faiths. But using false science to support a religious view of the universe is, at best, sloppy and, at worst, dishonest.

The other problem with the fundamentalists is that they miss the whole point of the story. It was all about God permitting what began as an expermiment to become a permanent fixture.

And they don't ask logical questions either. Why for example, if God is omniscient (knowing everything that has ever, or ever will happen), why was he surprised when humans turned out to be violent? Indeed, why did he make us flesh in the first place, if he knew flesh would corrupt us? How could he have regrets, if he knew what would happen before he created us? Why did he have to wipe out the birds and animals because of human violence? Why were the fish not included in the punishment? Why use such a crude instrument as a flood when all he had to do was strike down every human? Why is it called a covenant when God was the only party agreeing to anything? Why wasn't Noah required to pledge on our behalf that we would give up violence? Since we were allowed to carry on exactly as before, what was the point of going through the whole flood exercise?

These are the questions religion should address.

It's no answer to say we cannot comprehend God's logic. The Old Testament paints God as very logical and very human. He did things for very human reasons. He got angry. He had regrets. He kept changing his mind.

For me it's an ancient story for contemplation. It's something to exercise our minds, not to close our minds.

Answer 3

Contrary to some of the answrs you received, there is much evidence that the flood actually happened. The most supportive of scientific answers is that fossils of sea creatures have been found on some of the highest mountain peaks like Mt Everest which means the mountains themselves must have been submerged. Also, because the flood would have drastically changed the Earths climates, zoologists have found Remains of mammoths and rhinoceroses found in different parts of the earth. Some of these were found in Siberian cliffs; others were preserved in Siberian and Alaskan ice. In fact, some were found with food undigested in their stomachs or still unchewed in their teeth, indicating that they died suddenly. Even though there are numerous other facts, the most substantial would be, as Christians, if we accept Jesus as God's son, then we must accept his word when he likens this system of things to the days of Noah. He says in Mt 24:3 Jesus said, among other things: “For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”

Answer 4

Yes, however, I believe that the Prophet Noah (pbuh) built a boat to carry his family and all of his livestock (now misinterpreted as every animal in the world) and saved them from a river flood that God warned him of.
The Biblical version is a bit far-fetched.

Answer 5

Hell no! Is there any chance that noah could have put every single animal onto a boat (well 2 of each animal), the animals wouldnt have invitingly climbed onto the boat, such as elephants as it claimed, and the lions all that stuff.

Plus im a materialist =P

Answer 6

flood...yes
Noah ...no

many ancient cultures had a flood mythos
written accounts predate the bible by hundreds if not a thousand years....
the most famous would have been the Gilgamesh epic
and its flood survivor Utanapishtim...

as far as the flood is concerned...try "Noah's Flood" from about 3 years ago...sorry, I don't have the authors names in front of me

Answer 7

Absolutely not. The Ark story is the biggest fairie tale in an entire book of fairie tales. It is a totally non-plausible, made up bunch of bullarky if ever there was.

Answer 8

No. There is nothing in the geological record to support the world-wide flood theory.

Since the flood would have had to happen in the last six thousand years (young earth hypothesis & flood go hand in hand), the lack of data showing a flood is effectively proof that it didn't happen.

Answer 9

What I find almost as fascinating, however, is the number of cultures who have a similar story, also w/ 8 people, surviving a mighty, world encompassing flood.

Answer 10

For it to have happened there would have to be numerous obstacles of science.

Where did Noah put the whales?

For the Earth to be completely immersed in Water the oceans would have to rise 24,000 feet. The amount of water that would have to fall in 40 days and night would fall at a rate similar to that of a water saw. It would have cut trees, people, and mountains down.

Rain is fresh water. Salt water fish can not live in fresh water and vise verse. Furthermore salt water has a higher density than fresh water, large whales would have had trouble coming up for air.

Fish need plants for food. The bible says the waters did not rescind for a full year. Plants generate food through photo synthesis. Sunlight can only penetrate about 2,000 feet of water. All ocean plant life would have died not having sunlight for a year.

The animals were on the boat for a year. What did they eat? Meet spoils in about a week, and even with salting process the only last a couple of months. Noah would have had to install refrigerators to keep the food fresh. Why is meet important? Because some animals are carnivores and would die without meet.

EDIT: Additional info

The rate that the over 1 million species would have had to board the arc 2 by 2 is physically impossible in the allotted time frame.

Physical impasses such as ocean separating Australia at a distance to great for some animals to swim across.

As for fossils. This is explained quite toughly in Geology by the process of plate tectonics. Everest used to be under water, millions of years ago, then when the Indian plate met the Asia plate the crust was thrust upward. This is why only certain fossil are found there while modern animals aren’t.

As to claims that pieces of the arc have been found. It is suspicious that of all the supposed discoveries no scientists are allowed to examine the evidence, no people are allowed to go near the sites where it has supposedly been discovered, and no one has brought back a piece of the arc that can be carbon dated.

ADDITIONAL EDIT:
The size of the ark is also suspect. The size of the ark would not fit the amount of bio mass needed to house each of the animals plus the food necessary to sustain them.

The size if 1 cubit = 3 feet, which is the general conversion given, would be revolutionary for its time. Thousands of years later when ships were finally built to be that size they had to be held together by IRON. No ship has ever been recorded to be built to that size without IRON to support its size. Since Noah would have lived during the bronze age and the technique was not invented for thousands of years the size of the supposed ark.

Baby animals while saving space pose new problems. In mammals babies cannot digest solid food, they require milk that females produce. Producing milk requires energy that can only be produced by eating additional food, unless you want to violate thermodynamics.

ADDITIONAL EDIT FOR PEOPLE WHO CANNOT READ.
Genisis(8:1-8)
1And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

2The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

10And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Now, 10 months plus 40 more days, plus 7 days, plus 7 days. That seems to me to be a full year.

ANOTHER EDIT:
As to the statistics comment. You can not prove something cannot happen? Could you ever roll a 7 on a six sided die with the number 1 - 6? Also having taken statistics I know that it is a statistical impossibility.

As to the 'dogs' instead of each species of 'dog' comment. If this were true why did Noah take on a raven and a dove, which are both species of 'bird'? Further the rate of evolution from 2 dogs to the number of species today would happen at a rate over 100 times faster than the suspected rate today. The rate would be so fast that in humans your great grand parents and great grand children would be different species. In laboratory tests we would be able to observe bacteria evolve sensory organs if that were the rate of change.