If there were only eight people of the same race on Noah's ark, then shouldn't everyone today look the same?

Question

According to the bible (which many people blindly believe is the actual word of God when really it is just a record of people during a time in history), there were only eight people on Noah's Ark. Eight people which were all of the same ethnicity or race, right? Logically, Noah, his wife and three sons would only make up one or two ethnicities or races. Is it possible for the three wives of Noah's three sons to be of three different races? I hardly believe that. This being said, how could there be so many various races or biological ethnic differences today? This is, of course, assuming that the great flood did indeed cover the face of the entire earth as the Bible states.

Answer 1

ah yes, but tell me what happened after the flood, um could it be the Tower of Babel
yep that is it, thus the different races and such

Answer 2

You already seem to have the answers here. Yes, the Noah story is an ancient myth from the Mesopotamian region and deriving almost certainly from the time when the Hebrews were in captivity around 500 BC. There are several 'flood stories' pointing to a time when , in race memory, there must have been a cataclysmic event carried for millenia by word of mouth and then passed down in writing. There is geological evidence of major flood disasters in this region which could have been triggered by an asteroid hitting the area or by a tsunami in the Gulf. Either way, yes, a flood and a big one. As for survivors, yes again but the story had to be used in a moral way with lessons for the tribe.

Answer 3

In my opinion: The Bible says that God commanded Noah to take 2 of every flesh. Then he proceeded to tell him to take the animals. If you are truly curious, check out a STRONGS concordance. Just like the story of Adam and Eve. Where did Cain get his wife?. There were other people on the earth. You are correct in saying the Bible is a book of history, mainly told to cover the generations leading up to Christ. God did the "flood" to keep his line "pure". Many believe that the earth was not flooded, that only Noah's "world" was.

Answer 4

The Bible can be taken as a literal truth, and often is. That being said, there are many Christians who don't believe it 100% literally. After all measurements given (such as days, lengths, etc) are determined in reference to a standard. So a figure given in the Bible could have been calculated using a different standard than we use, causing a discrepancy. Beyond that, the Bible was written by man, and since man is fallable, the Word can have mistakes. We take a few undeniable truths from the Bible and we use the rest as a learning tool in our faith. There are no bad lessons to be learned from the Bible, whether or not you believe it to be true. Fanatics and non-believers can paint whatever picture they want of God's word.
Secondly, there are accounts across many cultures of a great flood. The widely accepted idea is that there was indeed a "great flood" that covered the world as it was known to certain areas of people. Peoples in other areas of the world were unaffected, which would allow ethnic diversity to survive.

Answer 5

Wow - so what you're saying is that the many many racial types that we see around the world EVOLVED from just Noah? So the bible actually propogates evolution as part of the recent history of mankind???

Blimey!!! Even the most radical evolutionist would be hard pressed to prove that kind of diversification in such a short time...

PS could find no mention of a Dr Hughes (who if he / she is a professor may not take too kindly to being called 'Dr') in the Faculty of Anthropology at Toronto University:

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/anthropology/faculty.htm

Do you have a reference?

Answer 6

Eight people, three of them brothers, yield a maximum of 13 alleles for each locus. (Since it isn't stated that Noah's wife was their mother, assume three different mothers, and allow Noah to have unmentioned daughters with the wife unrelated to the sons.) There are more that 13 polymorphisms for many loci. Apparently evolution is a very rapid process, according to the Bible.

Answer 7

I believe that the story of the bible is true, although I accept that it may have been regional. It's not impossible, though unlikely, that the different races sprang from those people of the ark. I read an acocunt about that once which was quite compelling. I need to hunt it down before your question expires.

The flood itself is supported by much evidence.

Your racial-makeup question is intriguing.

Answer 8

Noah's ark won't be able to be uncovered, simply by fact the bible is punctiliously marvelous and without errors, in spite of the shown fact that it is likewise in part proverbial, and symbolistic. i'm uncertain wheter it became particularly a flood, or if it became symbolism.

Answer 9

According to the Bible, all humans descend from Noah, through his three sons Shem, Japheth and Ham. Genesis chapter 10 lists 70 descendants of Noah saying: “From these the nations were spread about in the earth.” (Genesis 10:32) One of the many ways in which these nations have been classified is with reference to skin color. In the skin of all normal humans is a blackish brown pigment called melanin.

Noah and his three sons all had a measure of this dark pigment. From Shem came the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Jews and the Arabs who vary from fair to light-brown skin. The descendants of Japheth, who include the Indo-European races, vary from light skin to dark brown. As for Ham (meaning swarthy or sun-burnt), some, but not all, of his descendants had dark skin. The Egyptians, with light-brown skin, descended from Ham’s son Mizraim. Ham’s son Canaan, who was cursed by God because of bad conduct, was the forefather of the light-skinned Canaanites.

In agreement with this, Dr. Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, said: “On every continent, and in every geographically defined race, there is a considerable range of variation in . . . skin pigmentation, . . . the Tamils of South India are considered by many anthropologists to be members of the Caucasoid [white Indo-European] major race, yet in skin pigmentation they are darker than many African Negroes.”

The genetic makeup of the first man, Adam, was such that extensive variety could develop among his offspring—in such things as skin color, hair color and texture, body size and facial characteristics. This variety was increased by language and geographical differences. So although the Bible was not written by scientists, yet it was correct in stating that “God . . . made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.”—Acts 17:24, 26.

Answer 10

For one they could have married in different races. Moses married someone that was black after the flood I bet you did not know that. It could have also been from where someone lives like the temperature. Them adapting to where they live. That is not evolution by the way. Did you know that a black and white person are only about 1% different so do one should be racist.

Answer 11

Who says they were of the same race? Noah's race isn't mentioned, neither is his wife's or his son's wives. Each of His sons could have been mixed raced, and each of their wives could have been different from the husband. We just don't know.