Wait, wait...?

Question

'About this flood thing...

Is it possible to believe both the story of Noah's Ark, the worldwide flood etc. AND believe the earth is six thousand years old?

If the flood began on the estimated date (2268 BCE), then just HOW did civilization manage to rebuild itself approximately 400 years just in the nick of time for the destruction of Soddom and Gomorrah?

This was inspired by a question that asked how the Israelites were beaten/enslaved by other nations after the flood; shouldn't they have had the best stuff, seeing as how everyone else was DEAD?

But then it occured to me that all of the empires could not have existed, period. Unless one family can rebuild civilizations in five centuries, that is.


I know a few people at my church who DO believe in both the young earth and the population of the world being killed by the flood. But HOW? What am I missing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_chronology

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03731a.htm


?

Kirk - Its called white-man technology.

Europe wasn't the wild west 400 years ago, and NA was conquered by the Europeans.

Dapper Napper - Its not just Soddom... By your logic, the Egyptian Empire which enslaved the Israelites a few centuries after the flood was a handful of villages with a few hundred people.

The egyptian empire contained anywhere from three to four million people... NOT "small villages" with a handful of people.

How did the empires of the day suddenly pop up from ONE family?

Simon T: Seriously. The British Empire came from existing cities and spread across the globe, founding new cities and conquering pre-existing ones.

The empire did NOT come from a single family...

Answer 1

You're not missing anything, sweetie. You're just thinking straight, that's all.

Welcome to the club.
.

Answer 2

Is it possible to believe both the story of Noah's Ark, the worldwide flood etc. AND believe the earth is six thousand years old?
*** Many christians believe both, therefore everyone of them is proof that believing this is possible.

If the flood began on the estimated date (2268 BCE), then just HOW did civilization manage to rebuild itself approximately 400 years just in the nick of time for the destruction of Soddom and Gomorrah?
*** I'm one of the christians that believe that there are time gaps between the genealogies stated in the first chapter of Genesis (however, I'm not one that believe that God used evolution as his method to produce the variety of species in the world).

This was inspired by a question that asked how the Israelites were beaten/enslaved by other nations after the flood; shouldn't they have had the best stuff, seeing as how everyone else was DEAD?
*** Noah and sons were NOT israelites. Different nations emerged from the generations of the sons of Noah, each nation make different development at technology, some were smarter than others. The israelites are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (later named Israel by God), not all of the descendants from the three sons of Noah.

But then it occured to me that all of the empires could not have existed, period. Unless one family can rebuild civilizations in five centuries, that is. I know a few people at my church who DO believe in both the young earth and the population of the world being killed by the flood. But HOW? What am I missing?
What you are missing are time gaps between the genealogies included in the first books of Genesis. Not all christians believe the Earth has only a little more than 6000 years.
Who are correct me and millions of christians or few people of your church and other millions of christians? That is something that does not bothers me. I will wait for my turn to ask Jesus that subject in the eternity, we will have plenty of time for that.
God Bless You.

Answer 3

In terms of population:

A generation of about 20 years gives 20 generations, and assuming a doubling of the population each generation, starting with 8 adults, you get about 4.2 million people.

Would it be possible to have this growth rate? Probably under the odd circumstances given a good food supply.

400 years is long enough to build up cities, the British Empire has risen and fallen in that time span.

I do not see this as a particularly good argument against the flood story.

However, getting the creatures there, the water appearing, the ark not breaking up, feeding all those animals for a year, mucking them out for a year, ventilating a small supertanker sized vessel via one 18" square window, not having the salt water fish die in the diluted oceans, not having fresh water fish die in the salty oceans, having any upper layer sea life (seaweed, corals, etc.) survive being covered in more than two miles of water, getting rid of the water, getting plants to grow in ground covered by more than 2 miles of salt water for a year, getting the animals back to their specific environments, not having mass extinctions each time a carnivore got hungry, rewriting the laws of physics so that different wavelengths of light diffract differently. Those are all major problems.

Then you get a choice: You can either put 'kinds' onto the ark, which means that they fit, but you need hyper-speed evolution to see the range of species we have today.

Or you try to pack on every species, so they do not need to evolve, but now millions of species do not fit into the space described.

On top of that, god lest the devil write a whole load of Egyptian and other records that make it seem like there was a continuity of writing from before the flood right the way though to well after the flood and Noah. He even managed to do it in the different languages that had not been forced upon man yet.

The easy answer is "God Did It." and you can't argue with a mindset like that.

And then to cap the entire thing off, God's chosen family of the Noahs mess it all up. Noah goes of and becomes a drunk and what was the most devout family on Earth, who just witnessed the entire Earth destroyed by their god, go start worshiping other gods. I can only assume that this Yaweh is an incredible bad judge of character.

Answer 4

If you assume that each woman had 4 children, and that all children grew to reproductive age (no early deaths), and that a generation is 20 years, then the number of people from 2 in 400 years would be over 1 million people (2^20).

Of course, I don't think those assumptions are justified (specifically the one about no early deaths), but it is possible.

Answer 5

Assuming that the gestation of a human being takes and has always taken ~9 months, that gives plenty of time for a re-population of the earth. And remember that what was perceived as a "large city" was really a town of a hundred or so around the time that these events occurred. So what you believe is a huge problem is based only on your preconceived notions.

Answer 6

Why believe in either? Both are obviously false and modern examples show that religion still tells bold-faced lies to stay in power.

I can't comprehend the human brain that takes the bible as a literal divine code and never seeks to question or to understand the world. Chances are they gave up any sort of freedom.

Answer 7

There are documents from the Indus Valley that are much older than 6000 years and bones and fossils carbon dated to over 100,000 years. Maybe they mean the metaphoric world was created 6000 years ago. I don't get it.

Answer 8

Well, people started from Adam and Eve, didn't they? Or monkeys?

We came from something, which came from something else, etc. etc. etc.

It could be a family of species we came from?

Please...I fell asleep in science...I'm not very sure about where we came from 'scientifically'...

Answer 9

to are missing the willful suspension of disbelief required to accept such logically challenged assumptions.

this is a good thing.

now just apply this line of thought to christianity in general and you're home free.

Answer 10

Where in the Bible does it say the Earth is 6,000 years old?

Answer 11

Contrary to popular belief, the flood was not wordwide The true flood happened in Genesis 1:2