Christians, can you explain how Noah's Family Managed to Produce 6.5 Billion people?

Question

Do you seriously believe that Noah's surviving family would mate with each other and produce the rest of humanity, including us?

I mean, I know population usually grows exponentially, but 6.5 BILLION DESCENDENTS? In that case how come we are so diverse?

Answer 1

After the Flood, antediluvian conditions of longevity continued to prevail for a while, with life-spans only gradually being reduced. Noah lived 950 years (350 of them after the Flood, Gen. 9:28-29). Noah's 3 sons had a recorded total of 16 sons and, presumably, about the same number of daughters, with each family thus averaging about 10 children. From the Flood to the birth of Abraham a total of 292 years and 8 generations are recorded.

By the time Abraham journeyed into Canaan, about 400 years had elapsed since the Flood. There were then apparently a number of well populated cities and nations in the world, as mentioned in Genesis 12-25 (Egypt, Chaldea, Philistia, etc.). Abraham died at age 175, leaving 8 sons (Gen. 25:1-8).

It seems reasonable to assume, for this 400-year period of history, say, 10 generations and an average family size of 8, with an average life-span of 5 of the 40-year generations, or 200 years. The population formula*, assume c = 4, n = 10, and x = 5. The world population at the time of Abraham (neglecting any possible gaps in the genealogies of Genesis 11) is then calculated as 2,800,000, a figure that more than adequately explains the Biblical and archaeological population inferences for this period of earth history.

Since there are 70 nations mentioned in Genesis 10 as resulting from the "division" at Babel, it is reasonable to infer that there were 70 families at Babel, representing probably the generation of Noah's grandsons and great-grandsons. Seventy families containing 800 or 1,000 individuals altogether seem to fit the situation described at Babel very adequately.

Answer 2

When things grow exponentially things can get very big very quickly.

My major at university was Physics. That was about 30 years ago. Although my career took me into another field, I still remember a lecture we had on population growth from a physics point of view. I think we had this lecture because the Professor saw a problem with what he saw and what was being taught in other departments. He mentioned that he originally had thought it was a small problem that would take about 10 minutes of lecture time. Just calculate the constants and the equation would do the work. However, when he plugged in any constants, such as human longevity. (How old we are when we die.) time between generations, and how many offspring we have, anything within reasonable parameters (ie longevity = 35years , generation time = 20 years, and number of offsping = 2.) the begining point when population was zero, was only a few thousand years.

In the lecture he went on to say that if the begining point were 100,000 - 1,000,000 years or more, the parameters would have to be substantially reduced (ie longevity = 20 years, generation time = 20 years, and number of offspring = .5) As you can see in the above, those numbers are not compatable because the longevity time cannot be less or equal to the generation time.

Throughout recorded history, the parameters suggested:
Longevity = 35
Space between generations = 20
Off spring = 2
seem to be the norm. This would suggest that the human presence on the earth is relatively short.

Remember this was a Physics class where hard science is taught. not biology class.

I hope this answers your question.

Bryan

Answer 3

Take a calculator. Multiply 2 times 2. Do it 4000 times. (Don't add, multiply). What do you get?
Now many people had a dozen or more children.
By the way you'll need a pretty powerful calculator. I did it 25 times, and it was over 67 million. So I don't think it would be very difficult to produce 6.5 billion descendents. In fact the number of the present world population ends up being pretty small, and can only be explained by all the plagues and wars.
EDIT:
I never was very good with numbers. I meant 400, not 4000.
Still, that brings us to many times the actual population of the earth.

Answer 4

It is a long way back, till then and it is very likely that poeple mate all the time around the world and produce this figure. If you want some science, people can have their skin colours change due to the amount of UV-rays penetrating our skin, making some more diverse then others, and think about it. Poeple had to originate from somewhere. As you go up your anscestory line, you'll know that the amount of people decrease up the list, thus ending up to Noah.

Answer 5

There are numerous problems with the flood story, showing it to be total horses--t, but that is not one of them. If we peg a generation as 25 years, and assume that every couple produced on average 4 children, then in 6000 years you would have 240 generations, each doubling the population, and 2^240 is about equal to 10^72 -- a far larger number than the number of atoms comprising the planet.

Answer 6

The Bible says that Noah geared up the ark out of gopher wood. no person knows for particular what the term gopher wood skill. it is in comparison to you could pass right down to a widespread-day lumber backyard and ask for gopher wood. whether linguistic professionals have self belief it replaced into likely a translation of the Babylonian "gushure i -erini" (cedar-beams). If this replaced into in certainty the case it may clarify why termites weren't a situation. of direction an eaiser explanation could be that Noah did no longer take any termites with him. Termites can stay in tunnels interior the floor underwater for terribly long sessions of time. They do it each and all the time. So a flood does no longer be a situation for them. i think of you're able to do your homework a splash extra. i'm particular there are some distance extra easy and available ordinary methods to poke holes in biblical memories. i'm afraid your termite attempt in simple terms would not carry water.

Answer 7

Some whack job above said it's possible..

Certainly, it's possible but not probable. Any moron who believes that a small family can produce billions of people without most of the population today being retards and mutants should be put away.

And besides, there isn't enough water on this planet to have sustained a flood described in the bible. It's just not possible. And if you say it evaporated or something.. Nice try.

Answer 8

8 people. In a few years that number doubles. In a few more years, THAT number doubles. In a few more years THAT number doubles. Over thousands of years, that's actually possible. And the reason we're so diverse is because of the whole Tower of Babel. Some people at Babylon said, "Let's build a tower to Heaven" and God got mad and mixed up the languages. That's how come we're so diverse.

Answer 9

Reproduction?
Diversity? DNA or genetic alterations the result of global warming and UV rays effects after thousands of years of exposure. Read Genesis. The windows of heaven were opened (creating the hole in the ozone) and the vapor canopy fell to the earth flooding the globe. Notice the beginning of earth where the waters above were seperated from the waters below. If you could use your mind for critical thinking instead of finding reasons not to believe, try looking for reasons to believe. Theres plenty of evidence if you remove your predisposition to not wanting the Bible to be true.

Answer 10

it's very easy
Figuring that each family produced an average of 6 children, you just have to do the math over the number of generations.
Genetics takes care of the rest once people began to move about (the bible says at the time of the tower of babel, that's when God decided to separate the people) - isolating the various peoples groups.