my son brought these questions up to me about noah's ark, i told him i'd ask here?

Question

so.. many christians say that no animals were carnivores before the flood. the fact that there was no vegetation left after the flood caused them to eat meat to survive. well, 2 questions:

1)wouldn't most of the animals have almost immediately gone extinct, considering that there were only 2 of each species, and the animals were all eating each other when they got off the ark?

2)what did the herbivores eat when they got off the boat? meat was the only source of food. how did they elvolve back into herbivores, and how long did it take?

we're just trying to understand how a christian belief can take this story as literal with all these unanswered questions

elliot - he already knows that - i didn't even need to tell him. lol

just to clarify - we're pagan, and he was just surprised that people actually believe in the ark story. he posed these questions in the manner of "how can you believe this story is true when 1) and 2)"

Answer 1

have you thought of just reading the story and enjoying it for its own worth, without listening to what some people say about it? i'm a Christian and i've never heard that there were not carnivores prior to the flood. news to me. and i don't believe that.

not all Christians believe the same things. also, there are many religions that believe in the holiness and/or literature value of the Bible - not just Christians.

i'm tired of people bashing Christians and/or the Bible.

prejudice and deliberate generalizing is immature and harmful, no matter where it is pointed or who is doing it.

some of these commentors need to get a life!

please, please point out the dangers of prejudice to your smart son and teach him to respect all cultures and beliefs just as you would like to be respected for your pagan beliefs by others who don't share the same beliefs as you.

"do unto others as you would have them do unto you." the golden rule is in the Bible, too.

Answer 2

It's just a story. It never happened.


How did all the animals get to the ark from all over the world?
How did all the millions of species, and enough food for almost a year fit on the ark?
Where did all that water come from? (about an additional 2x of all the water currently in the world)
The ark had one window about 4 ft square. How did they get enough air though that to ventilate the entire ark?
This would have been the biggest ever all-wood seagoing vessel. Every naval architect you can speak to will tell you that in any significant swell, it would leak like a sieve. In a storm it would break up and sink. Why did this not happen?
How did Noah muck out the millions of animals, through that one window providing all the air?
How did all the fish survive? Reefs would have been under thousands of feet of water. Many aquatic creatures need a narrow band of salinity.
Where did all the water go?
How was there an olive tree still with leaves on after everything had been submerged for over a year?
What did the animals eat after leaving the ark?
How did they all get home leaving no traces? You would have thought that kangaroos etc. would have left some trace going there and back.
Since all plant life was dead, having been submerged for most of a year, where did all the new plants come from? There was no record of Noah having to take two of every plant onto the ark?

Finally, God has to change the basic laws of physics so that different wavelengths of light now refract at different angles - so we can have a rainbow.

Answer 3

The animals that were taken to the Ark were only those animals that were adopted to the environment in the Middle East if the Bible was said to have originated from Babylon.
Most likely, Noah have taken only the animals familiar to him and immediately those that he can gather near his place.
Noah's world is also different from the world we know now since man today is capable of going from one end of the world to another by severals means of transportations.
The world of Noah is contained within the area which he and the people around him can reach and see. They believed that the earth was flat and so what they can comprehend is only up to where the sun is rising and where it is setting.. For them, the world stops where they no longer could see the sun either way. This would only mean that other part of the earth was not flooded and there were people and other animals that did not drown in their flood.
If you will go back to Genesis 1, you will notice that there is a difference between creation of male and female simultaneously AFTER the animals on the 6th day. Read it slowly.
In Genesis 2, Adam, the first man was created BEFORE the animals and then Eve followed later. It may not even be on the 8th day, it could even be much later. And since it does imply that the creation of Adam was in a place where there were no plants yet, it would mean that it was in someplace desolate which was the Middle East. The river's names sorrounding theplace is still existing. The animals that were there are those that can only adopt to the environment.
Do not believe that all of us came from Adam and Eve. The religions are trying to tie us to their theories because they only want us to be contained so they can controll our minds to live in fear and guilt of the sins we do not have to.

Answer 4

I think after the Fall of man, animals instinctly knew if they were to be herbivorous or carnivorous, although there would have to be more animals than that if meat-eating animals were being true to their nature.

Actually, there were 7 pairs for clean animals and 2 pairs for unclean animals; they got on the ark 2 by 2.

I think they ate the rest of the feed that was on the ark.

Good question... I don't know

Good question... I don't know... again

Answer 5

well, if you read the story right, they had food to eat on the ark, but further more, there was vegetation after the waters receded. They also didn't eat each other when they got off the ark, that is just absurd to believe, and is obviously not right. When all the animals got off the ark they were still herbivores, when some of them became carnivores, we don't exactly know, but we are sure that it is sometime after the flood possibly while repopulating the earth.

Answer 6

Cute questions :)

Considering he is probably at a young age where these questions are considered cute and humerous, might as well entertain him with it.

Maybe tell him that before the flood, Wal-Mart was even bigger than it is now and Noah got all the meat/vegetables from there before the boat trip.

Honestly, any Christian beyond 6 years old that thinks no animals were carnivores "before the flood" is almost scary.

Matt

Answer 7

I have always wondered how anyone, belief in God or not, could take this story literal. You are completely correct in saying that this story leaves entirely too many unanswered questions. The questions you have put forth are very good but I'm afraid you simply won't get any valid answers, which you probably already know. You've inspired me to ask a question on the subject now as well...

Answer 8

I'd never heard that no animals were carnivores before the flood. Knowing that, your questions are quite valid (along with the other 200 questions about the Noah's Ark story).

The only answer I have is that the "no carnivores before the flood" BS is an attempt after the fact for evangelicals ("gellies") and fundies to justify their fiction.

Answer 9

The story's a steaming pile of sh... garbage. That's why it doesn't hold up to logical thought.

You know, like the rest of the Bible.

Some people will believe anything. The more you study religion and the more you read some of these posts, the clearer that becomes. You might just want to explain to your son that many a businessman has become wealthy because most people just won't bother to think things through before deciding they can trust the information they're given.

Answer 10

1) Noah lived 350 years after the flood (dying at age 950), I would imagine like he and his children lived long enough to have enough descendents to keep the human population going, the animals did as well.

2) Noah had 120 years to stock food to bring for herbivores on the ark, but the Bible doesn't really address whether or not he did.