Noah's Ark

According to this myth, God made man in his* image. He then became angry with humans for their sinful natures. This raises a few questions.

If God is omniscient, didn't he know when he made us that we would behave this way?
Wouldn't he also have known that he would have to destroy us?
If humans are made in the image of God and we are sinful, isn't that God's nature?
Could we be other than what God made us to be?

So he decided to kill all life on the planet to eliminate the defective humans he made. This included all of the animals and all plant life. This raises more questions.

Why kill innocent animals and the plant life they need to survive?
Why not just hit the humans with lightning bolts instead of destroying everything? (It would have saved a lot of packing and shipping.)

God told Noah to make an ark and gave him a week to fill it with two** of each animal on Earth.

Genesis 7
⁴Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."
⁵ And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
⁷And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
⁸Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
⁹male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
¹⁰And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

There are estimated to be about 10 million species of animals on Earth. And there were to be at least one pair of each animal. To load 20 million animals in one week about 16 animals would have to be loaded onto it every second, 24 hours a day, without letup for the entire week (Viewpoints, 2000). Let's look at what those 10 million would have consisted of:

250,000 species of plants
1,000,000 species of insects, 300,000 species of beetles alone (How many species, 2002)
1500 species of rodents (Rodent species, 2003)
78 species of whales, dolphins and purpoises (Cetaceans, 2002)
370 species of sharks (Shark information, 2002)
320 species of hummingbirds alone

And that's just to mention a few. Now if the numbers alone aren't staggering enough, the distance from which these animals had to come is unheard of. God allegedly brought the animals to Noah. Penguins and polar bears from the South Pole. Kangaroos and koalas from Australia. Elephants, lions, tigers, apes and zebras from Africa. Pandas from China. Sloths and parrots from South America. This raises more questions.

How did the animals cross the oceans?
How did they tolerate the climactic changes? Polar bears and penguins in the heat of the Middle East would not last very long.
What did they eat along the way? Koalas can only survive on fresh eucalyptus leaves. Pandas must have fresh bamboo, and so on. These would not have been available enroute.
Since so many animals required species specific diets, did God bring the food stores to Noah as well?

One final issue with the animals brought aboard is life spans. One very astute reader of this site pointed out that the longest living butterfly can only live 9-10 months, which means that it would die on the ark (Common questions, 2003).

Because the amount of flood water required to bring the water level to the top of the mountains for more than twenty feet would reduce the salinity of the salt water in the oceans, marine life would have had to been aboard the ark as well.

Genesis 7
²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.

Therefore there must have been a freezer compartment for the polar bears and penguins, a desert section for the elephants, wildebeasts and zebras, and a salt water compartment for the whales, sharks, and other marine life. There must also have been a terrarium section of plants that were packed to repopulate the earth with. Shovels were packed for everyone to shovel the waste off with. Fresh eggs were packed for the snakes, ferrets and weasels. Several tons of fresh meat were packed for the carnivores. Several tons of grasses were packed for the herbivores. Eucalyptus trees and fresh bamboo were packed for the koalas and pandas. Since rain only occurred the first 40 days and night, fresh water was packed. Vampire bats, mosquitoes and leeches fed on the animals and humans.

They spent 370*** days on the boat, defecating. But the boat did not sink because Noah and his family were proficient manure slingers. Urine on the bottom floors just stayed there.

The water covered Mount Everest, the Himalayas, the Rocky Mountains, etc. completely. We do not know where the water came from to cause such flooding, nor where it went when the flood was over.

When they landed, Noah promptly killed one of each pair of the "clean" species and offered them for sacrifice to God. The remaining member of the pair cloned itself so that the species would continue. We do not know how it cloned a member of the opposite sex from itself. The carnivores, when released upon land, did not proceed to eat the other survivors from the ark.

The dinosaurs were too late to make the journey except for the dinosaur who left its footprints next to the human footprints found in Texas****.

From this pair (or single animal if a "clean" species) all descendants of each of the species was derived with none of the problems of such severe inbreeding.

There were 8 humans on the ark, Noah, his three sons (Ham, Shem, and Japeth), and their four wives (we don't know their names). As with the animals, believers in the Flood insist that from these 8 Israelites came all the races on the earth: the Africans, the Asians, the Caucasians, the Australian aborigines, etc. They often cite the case of Ham who was banished to Africa saying this is how the African race came about. Do people become African just by standing on African soil? How did this Israeli bring forth a race of Africans by himself? Who did he mate with?

According to the Bible chronology the Flood occurred around 2500 BCE. At that time, there were flourishing civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Once again questions are raised.

Why weren't these civilizations destroyed?
Why is there no mention of such a Flood in any of the records of those civilizations (Viewpoints, 2000)?

Would all the animals have fit in the Ark? In Genesis 6:15, the ark was said to be about three hundred cubits long, which adds up to about 450 feet. In other words, about a football field and a half in size. Do you think 10 million species would fit in a boat that size?

And how did they keep them from mating?

*Actually the verse states that man was made in "our" image. Who does he mean by "us" since the Jews had no Trinity and no son of God?

Genesis 1
²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

**Actually there are two versions of the flood story in the Bible. One says two of every animal. The other versions says seven of every clean animal and two of every unclean. For an indepth discussion of this please see Two Flood Stories.

Genesis 7
²Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,
³and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

Genesis 6
¹⁹You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
²⁰Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

***370 days, or 40 days and 40 nights, according to which version of the flood story you are following. Please see Two Flood Stories for further information.

****I have actually been told that the dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. Some Christians have based this on the "human" tracks allegedly found in Glen Rose, Texas which turned out not to be true. These are often referred to as the Paluxy Dinosaur tracks. For more information please see The Texas Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy.

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Site Links Home Atheism God Christianity Judaism Islam Evolution References Glossary Contact About Site Map Reference Links Talk Origins The Secular Web Nag Hammadi The SAB Atheist Books Community Links ACA Atheist Parents Secularity.com Humorous Links Landover Baptist Betty Bowers IPU Yo God Detector	Noah's Ark According to this myth, God made man in his* image. He then became angry with humans for their sinful natures. This raises a few questions. If God is omniscient, didn't he know when he made us that we would behave this way? Wouldn't he also have known that he would have to destroy us? If humans are made in the image of God and we are sinful, isn't that God's nature? Could we be other than what God made us to be? So he decided to kill all life on the planet to eliminate the defective humans he made. This included all of the animals and all plant life. This raises more questions. Why kill innocent animals and the plant life they need to survive? Why not just hit the humans with lightning bolts instead of destroying everything? (It would have saved a lot of packing and shipping.) God told Noah to make an ark and gave him a week to fill it with two of each animal on Earth. Genesis 7 ⁴Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." ⁵ And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. ⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. There are estimated to be about 10 million species of animals on Earth. And there were to be at least one pair of each animal. To load 20 million animals in one week about 16 animals would have to be loaded onto it every second, 24 hours a day, without letup for the entire week (Viewpoints, 2000). Let's look at what those 10 million would have consisted of: 250,000 species of plants 1,000,000 species of insects, 300,000 species of beetles alone (How many species, 2002) 1500 species of rodents (Rodent species, 2003) 78 species of whales, dolphins and purpoises (Cetaceans, 2002) 370 species of sharks (Shark information, 2002) 320 species of hummingbirds alone And that's just to mention a few. Now if the numbers alone aren't staggering enough, the distance from which these animals had to come is unheard of. God allegedly brought the animals to Noah. Penguins and polar bears from the South Pole. Kangaroos and koalas from Australia. Elephants, lions, tigers, apes and zebras from Africa. Pandas from China. Sloths and parrots from South America. This raises more questions. How did the animals cross the oceans? How did they tolerate the climactic changes? Polar bears and penguins in the heat of the Middle East would not last very long. What did they eat along the way? Koalas can only survive on fresh eucalyptus leaves. Pandas must have fresh bamboo, and so on. These would not have been available enroute. Since so many animals required species specific diets, did God bring the food stores to Noah as well? One final issue with the animals brought aboard is life spans. One very astute reader of this site pointed out that the longest living butterfly can only live 9-10 months, which means that it would die on the ark (Common questions, 2003). Because the amount of flood water required to bring the water level to the top of the mountains for more than twenty feet would reduce the salinity of the salt water in the oceans, marine life would have had to been aboard the ark as well. Genesis 7 ²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Therefore there must have been a freezer compartment for the polar bears and penguins, a desert section for the elephants, wildebeasts and zebras, and a salt water compartment for the whales, sharks, and other marine life. There must also have been a terrarium section of plants that were packed to repopulate the earth with. Shovels were packed for everyone to shovel the waste off with. Fresh eggs were packed for the snakes, ferrets and weasels. Several tons of fresh meat were packed for the carnivores. Several tons of grasses were packed for the herbivores. Eucalyptus trees and fresh bamboo were packed for the koalas and pandas. Since rain only occurred the first 40 days and night, fresh water was packed. Vampire bats, mosquitoes and leeches fed on the animals and humans. They spent 370* days on the boat, defecating. But the boat did not sink because Noah and his family were proficient manure slingers. Urine on the bottom floors just stayed there. The water covered Mount Everest, the Himalayas, the Rocky Mountains, etc. completely. We do not know where the water came from to cause such flooding, nor where it went when the flood was over. When they landed, Noah promptly killed one of each pair of the "clean" species and offered them for sacrifice to God. The remaining member of the pair cloned itself so that the species would continue. We do not know how it cloned a member of the opposite sex from itself. The carnivores, when released upon land, did not proceed to eat the other survivors from the ark. The dinosaurs were too late to make the journey except for the dinosaur who left its footprints next to the human footprints found in Texas***. From this pair (or single animal if a "clean" species) all descendants of each of the species was derived with none of the problems of such severe inbreeding. There were 8 humans on the ark, Noah, his three sons (Ham, Shem, and Japeth), and their four wives (we don't know their names). As with the animals, believers in the Flood insist that from these 8 Israelites came all the races on the earth: the Africans, the Asians, the Caucasians, the Australian aborigines, etc. They often cite the case of Ham who was banished to Africa saying this is how the African race came about. Do people become African just by standing on African soil? How did this Israeli bring forth a race of Africans by himself? Who did he mate with? According to the Bible chronology the Flood occurred around 2500 BCE. At that time, there were flourishing civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Once again questions are raised. Why weren't these civilizations destroyed? Why is there no mention of such a Flood in any of the records of those civilizations (Viewpoints, 2000)? Would all the animals have fit in the Ark? In Genesis 6:15, the ark was said to be about three hundred cubits long, which adds up to about 450 feet. In other words, about a football field and a half in size. Do you think 10 million species would fit in a boat that size? And how did they keep them from mating? Actually the verse states that man was made in "our" image. Who does he mean by "us" since the Jews had no Trinity and no son of God? Genesis 1 ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Actually there are two versions of the flood story in the Bible. One says two of every animal. The other versions says seven of every clean animal and two of every unclean. For an indepth discussion of this please see Two Flood Stories. Genesis 7 ²Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, ³and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Genesis 6 ¹⁹You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 370 days, or 40 days and 40 nights, according to which version of the flood story you are following. Please see Two Flood Stories for further information. ***I have actually been told that the dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. Some Christians have based this on the "human" tracks allegedly found in Glen Rose, Texas which turned out not to be true. These are often referred to as the Paluxy Dinosaur tracks. For more information please see The Texas Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy.	Books For more books on atheism please visit Atheist Books