Has anyone had any EXPERIENCE querying "believers" on Noah's Ark details? PLS READ TEXT?

Question

Pls don't just say "yes, the Ark's a myth" or "Christians are all absurd, anyway". What I'd like to know is:

Has anyone here ever sat down with a "believer" (defined as you like), figured out rough volume of the Ark (300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 cubits--cubit being abt 22 inches), & then brainstormed out how the Eternal might've made things work (or not work), just mostly for fun? AND HAD THE BELIEVER THEN START SERIOUSLY WONDERING IF THERE WERE GAPS IN THE BIBLE TEXT?? Pls share your experiences.

Seems that it'd be really tough (from a sheer physical perspective) to jam all those critters into that relatively limited space. I mean, even if you COULD get the lion & lamb to lie down together & both would rise up in the morning, all those 2by2s or 7s of "clean animals"---go to any decent zoo, & you've got a LOT of variety. Add in stretching space, load-bearing walls, manure aisles, feed & people space....

Pls keep bashing to minimum--just want your history. TY

Regarding "two of each 'kind' "---what, the Eternal said to Noah, "grab a generic kind of bear; it's gonna be awfully crowded for 40 days/nights, plus drainage time"....and then somehow, grizzlies, polars, black bears, Asian spectacled bears, etc. all evolved per Eternal's design/were created/were adapted in the short time period since then???

Answer 1

I have, and believers believe - they will work very hard to show how the numbers add up, and, when they don't, they just say "God can do anything."

- He only took two of each "kind," not two of every little variety, so he just needed two bears, not two polar bears ad two grizzly bears and two koala bears....

- Dinosaurs were magically sleeping so they wouldn't eat the other animals on board.


and on and on...

Answer 2

First of all, most Christians (there are millions) are not that well informed. Just as most believers in evolution are not well informed. So, I would not be surprised either way.

Now, we know that the ark was 300x50x30 cubits. You use 22" as a cubit. How do you know that is correct? My cubit is only about 15". A cubit is the distance between the finger tip and the back of the elbow. The Hebrew cubit is 18" I believe and the Egyptian cubit is 22", If I have not forgotten. The question is -how big was pre-flood cubit? How tall was Noah? We don't know. Was he 6', 8',12' 16'??? No one knows-so we do not know how long a cubit was then. This we do know-there are several human skeletons in several museums around this world approaching 14 feet! You can do the math.
The real thing to consider is that we don't know any of this. We attempt to understand with only what we know today-and that is just not sufficient.
Add to that (not knowing really how big the ark was), that not every variety was on the ark, just kinds (completely distinct species).
Add to that-if God could merely speak and create the universe-loading some animals on a boat and dealing with some logistics that are difficult for you, would be child's play for God/

Answer 3

I just got into a small debate about it with some acquaintances. I made an offhand remark about how the Ark story was a pagan myth from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I think that's an interesting thing to bring up to intelligent people, as many people dont' realize it.

What I failed to realize though, was that not everyone in the room was intelligent. :) There were several angry Christians in the room whose faces turned beet red as soon as I said it.

I then said "Well... you don't actually BELIEVE it's a true story, regardless of its origin, though, right?"

Well.... yeah... they did.

I explained within a few sentences why the whole thing is completely impossible. I didn't really think it necessary to go into detail. I mean, it should be obvious, even to a Christian, that the story is a fairy tale, or at best... a "parable" :0.

But basically, the few people who were Christians became so incensed that I would question the bible, and then go so far as to prove the story impossible... they fled the room immediately, and didn't speak to me for the rest of the night.

(This is the typical reaction. It's very rare to meet someone who is capable of critical thinking about their religion, who has not already done so on their own. The information is so readily available these days, that if they don't already know the facts, then they probably dont' want to know them.)

Answer 4

Can I as a Jew (not a Christian) explain to you how the Ark worked with all those animals feed? Yes I could. Can I do it so that you would understand?. I doubt it. but here we go.

Let's start with the clean animals their were 7 of each gender of those meaning 14 if each animals. Why, so they could be eatten. Their time on the ark was limited to how long it took them to become part of the menu. The rest of the animals it does seem that there were a whole bunch of them. Those things that could swim we did not have to worry about, those things that could fly we did not have to worry about either. They only needed a place to perch to rest then they could start flying again. which leaves us with the land bound animals. So lets look at the ship.

Compared to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Noah's Ark is about the same size. Ark made of wood, naturally boyant. The QE2 is made of steel, 70,327 tons to be exact. The QE2 holds 1750 passengers and 1015 crew comfortablly. Then enough food and water to feed these people for 5 days longer than the estimated cruise. The QE2 also transports frieght. All of this comfortably. So that our comfort and social status is not enfringed upon. Now lets go to the Ark. We are not worried about comfort. All we want is the ability to store this life until we get back on dry land.

I have seen what most people claim to be the ark on Mt. Ararat. If you are old enough to remember even Leonard Nemoy (Mr. Spock) went in search of Noah's Ark and claimed that this boat on top of Mt Ararat was Noah's Ark. This boat like the QE2 had more than one level. 4 levels to be exact. Using common sense we can assume that each level was for a different kind of animal. The heavy animals like the elephant on the bottom. The preditors and unclean animals like the lion, on the next floor up. Your food, like the lamb and cow on the next level along with the feed and the humans on the top. This answers the issue of the lion and the lamb lying next to each other. The lamb I am sure became a meal several times for the lion. It was planned than way. How long can 2 lions eat on one bull? In think for a while.

The manure was taken from the stalls and tossed overboard. so you did not have to worry about that weight.

I hope this helps a little. If you are still having problems explain to us how the QE2 floats having 7 floors and displacing over 70,000 metric tons of water.

Answer 5

There are no gaps in the Bible text.When it says that the ark was 300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 cubits, it means that the ark was this size.
And as for the animals, God would have used baby animals to fit in the ark. And at that period of time there wasnt as much variety of animals as there is now so they could have fitted in the ark anyway.

Answer 6

The account of Noah doesn't mention that he merely travelled the whole planet and filled testtubes with dna. These were stored in the ark's nitrogen cooled refrigeration facilities. When Noah parked the ark on Mount Ararat, he cloned the animals and carried them to various spots on the planet in order that some species could be endemic to certain regions. On the eighth day Noah had a beer.

Answer 7

Believe it or not, they claim to have already figured that out satisfactorily.

But how about this: If you spent 125 years building a wooden boat, wouldn’t the part you built first be starting to rot before you finished?

And, there was only one door on the Ark and Noah only had 1 week to get all the animals on board. Pretty unlikely, huh?

Answer 8

i have done this a few times with a very good friend, and when you ask questions who's answers are not in the bible, she can't answer them. all she can tell me is exactly what is in the bible. if she doesn't know the answer, she'll give an answer from the bible that doesn't pertain to the question. BUT she does stop to think about it for a moment. maybe one of these times she'll realize how absurd it is, and that it's just a fable

Answer 9

It has been estimated that the hundreds of thousands of species of animals today could be reduced to a comparatively few family “kinds”.
Some say 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 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 10

What people fail to 'get' is that what is written is written. Secular historians won't ever justify all the Bible.
The Jews don't have to prove the Old Testament anymore than Christians have to prove the New Testament.
These are their Truths they believe because of Faith.