OBJECTIONS TO NOAH’S ARK

 

A) INTRODUCTION.

B) NOAH, A REAL PERSON.

C) THE SIZE OF THE ARK.

D) THE SHAPE OF THE ARK.

E) TO REAL ARGUMENTS.

F) HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF.
 

 

A) INTRODUCTION

 

 

Many teach that there is no way Noah could have put all those animals upon the ark.  However, when you ask them, “How large was the ark?” they have no answer, or that “It wasn’t large enough.”  When you ask them, “How many animals where on the ark?” they have a number that relates to “Too many.”  Disregarding that most dog species, as an example, came from a pair of wolves; or that you would bring baby elephants, etcetera, and other babies instead of adults.  We will get to real questions and to real thinkers further down.

 

Other things that people do not consider is that there was no need for a “bridge” on this ship, for the place where decisions are made for which direction a ship will go was not needed; for God would direct its path.  There was no need for an “Engine Room,” for God would move it out of danger.  Thus, that gives even more room for all on board, contrary to modern ships.

 

How many people built the “Ark?”  We just don’t “Noah.”  When did Noah promise to pay the people who helped him to build the “Ark?”  When the rain would stop!

 

 

B) NOAH, A REAL PERSON

 

 

First of all, let’s discover that Noah was a real person according to:

 

The Babylonians, Assyrians, and literally almost every other culture that have depictions of a world-wide flood; even if mythical in a lot of the accounts.  See my Dissertation:  “Flood, Other Accounts Of.”  The fact that animal bones are found in deep crevasses in the ocean floor when drilling for oil, or sea shells that are found on some of the highest mountains upon the face of the entire earth, make the Biblical and other historical accounts of the flood not local, as some would have us believe, but universal.  Besides, if it were only a local flood, wouldn’t Noah just move as opposed to spending 120 years building a useless ship?

 

The genealogical account in First Chronicles 1:4 and Luke 3:36 lists Noah.

Isaiah (54:9) speaks of Noah as a real person.

Ezekiel (14:14 & 20) speaks of Noah as a real person.

Paul, in his famous faith Chapter in Hebrews 11 (verse 7) speaks of Noah as a real person.

And Peter, in both of his Books (First Peter 3:20; Second Peter 2:5), speaks of Noah as a real person.

And finally, if you do not believe Jesus, you have a worse problem than believing in a world-wide flood, for He speaks of him in Matthew (24:37 & 38) and Luke (17:26 & 27).

 

 

C) THE SIZE OF THE ARK

 

 

Genesis 6:15 states:  “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.”  The question is, “What is a cubit?”  The universally understood distance of a “cubit” is from your elbow to your middle finger fingertip; which is universally understood to be about 18 to 22 inches.  However, we know men to have been larger and taller than men today and therefore a “cubit” could have been around 22 to 25 inches (which is the Egyptian Royal Cubit length).  For the sake of argument, we will use 18 inches to determine the size of Noah’s ark; understanding that a cubit was more likely 22 inches at that time.

 

This makes the ship that Noah built in his driveway for 120 years, longer than a football field, at 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, or to visualize better, three stores high.  This would make the arks displacement in nautical terms, assuming its draft is about half its height, about 24,000 tons.  That would be 64 pounds per cubic foot in sea water, or 62 pounds per cubic foot if it where fresh water.  Either way, the tonnage is close to 24,000 tons.  This would make the living space about 1.4 million feet.  To put that into something you can relate to, that is a little over 500 railroad cars.

 

Now 500 railroad cars would hold about 125,000 sheep.  Why do I use sheep?  Let me explain.  Noah had elephants (assuming also he would have been smart enough to bring baby’s), but he also had cats and mice which were smaller than sheep.  So I use sheep as an average for all the different kinds of animals, birds, creepy crawlies (and insects could survive outside of the ark as eggs on logs), etcetera, that would have had to occupy the ark.  Therefore, from big to small, sheep become a good size as an average to cover all the different types of species aboard the ark.

 

Nowadays, scientist estimate that there are about 18,000 species at the time of Noah, and about 1.8 million documented species today in the world.  This takes away the various types of dogs, as an example, that we have bred into different types of breeds today.  Since there was assumed to be only a very few types of dog breeds in Noah’s day, this only makes logical sense.  Consider also that most of these are going to be smaller than a sheep.

 

Let’s put this all in terms that you can better visualize.  Noah’s ship would be a little larger than half the size of the Titanic, or if we use the larger cubit, it would be almost as large as the battleship Missouri.  I want you to visualize a circus that is traveling on a train.  The average number of personnel who would ride the train (performers, staff, and maintenance crew), would be 326 people.  Remember, Noah’s ark had only 8 personnel.  For this 326 company of personnel, you would need 33 conventional passenger cars for the circus personnel and their families; because of living courters, dinning, etcetera.  You would also need 4 custom-designed animal stock cars.

 

Remembering that a circus has animals the size of Elephants, Lions, Tigers, horses, and for the small size, dogs.  These, although less in number than Noah’s farm animals, only need four railroad cars.  Only four, since we can think of the animals as being inside a cage; thus taking up less room to house them.  OK, we know that Noah would need more than four railroad cars.  Back to our circus.  Also needed would be two container flat cars for concession and storage.  17 flat cars which carry equipment, such as the circus tents we see, props, vehicles, etcetera.  In all, that is 55 railroad cars which equals 3,985 tons.

 

If we use the 25 foot “cubit,” that would make the displacement of Noah’s ark 65,000 tons; basically, the size of the Battleship Missouri.  This would be 4.1 million cubic feet of living space; which would be a little over 1,400 railroad cars; which would be equal to 333, 000 sheep; which even if we use the 125,000 sheep model, the ark is amply large enough to handle all the sheep and store food and water for about a year.  Go figure, the ark was afloat for a little over one year (see my Bible Study:  “NOAH, HOW LONG IN THE ARK.”).

 

In an interesting side note, the arks displacement weight would be concentrated in its center of gravity, which would be in the middle; such as we would think of a boat having a keel.  It has a weight that is due to gravity which is always stressing towards going downward, and a weight that is stressing towards going upward.  That forms what we call an “equilibrium,” or balancing act.  Now if the ark tips over, from wind or waves, etcetera, gravity pulls down from its center of gravity, while the water that is displaced upon its sides is pushing it up to regain its place that was displaced.  This process is called “buoyancy.”  So if you think of a triangle attempting to always right itself, this is how God designed Noah’s ark to stay afloat with these measurements given to us in the Bible for Noah’s ark.  Now we can see the Master Designer totally at work.

 

In another side note, for those scoffers who would argue this following point, just as sheep can be docile when caged or handled, and as some animals hibernate, and as most animals tend to lie down when caged, so the animals on Noah’s ark where most likely, by the power of God that got them to get into the ark in the first place, well-behaved.

 

 

D) THE SHAPE OF THE ARK

 

 

Many argue that the shape of the ark was a rectangle.  However, a close examination of the Hebrew word used for “ark,” i.e., “Teyvah,” would be in order.  In the mentioning of the “ark” that Noah was instructed to build we find the word “Teyvah” was used (see Gen. 6:14 [twice]; & 15 & 16 [twice] & 18 & 19).

 

In an interesting twist, this Hebrew word “Teyvah” is also used for the “ark” that the mother of baby Moses made for her son out of “bulrushes,” Exodus 2:3 (see also verse 5).  Therefore, to make a perfect square or rectangle out of “bulrushes” would have been unlikely.  A curved bow is much more probable.

 

The Hebrew word “Teyvah” actually has reference in Egyptian literature to meaning, “to preserve.”  Thus, preservation was the case in both cases.  And it must be pointed out that Noah’s Ark was not designed to be propelled to a particular place.  It was only designed to “Stay Afloat.”

 

 

E) TO REAL ARGUMENTS

 

 

1) Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that there were 8,000 animals on the ark (some say 10,000; up the figures if you like).  Consider that each animal would require 1 gallon of water per day to survive.  A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds.  That would mean that Noah would have to store about 800,000 gallons of water for the 377 days they were upon the ark.  Or in other words, 6.4 million pounds of water.

 

Answer:  First of all, this assumption disregards the FACT that not all of the animals were as large as a sheep.  It also disregards that the animals would be less active, and therefore would not need to drink as much water.

 

In regards to the storage of the water:  Noah would not need to store that much water weight, and any storage could now be replenished, since now that it has rained upon the face of the earth, Noah could easily capture rain when it did come (although this is an assumption on my part that our God would be smart enough to have Noah build a storage container for water upon the ark in His plans He gave to Noah for the ark).  As far as the weight of the water, a boat/ship that size can easily carry that much weight and more.

 

Another assumption on my part and others, is that Noah built the Ark with a “Moon Pool” [do your research on what that is and how it works in modern day ships) or two, in which water could be taken right out of the center of the Ark’s ballast.

 

2) According to Genesis 6:16, there was only one window for ventilation of the entire Ark.  The waste of the animals and their breaths would cause such a toxic environment as to be deadly.

 

Answer:  As mentioned above (my assumption), if there were “Moon Pools” in the floor, when the Ark moved or the water moved up and down, it would cause the air to circulate in the Ark.  Plus, a false understanding of Genesis 6:16 is in place here.  If we read it in context, verse 15 states that the windows would be placed all along “The length of the ark,” Genesis 6:15.  Or better, Genesis 6:16 is stating that “A window shalt thou make to the ark, an in a cubit shalt thou finish it above.”  “Above” what?  Each section of “The length of the ark,” Genesis 6:15.  When carpenters “finish” something, they don’t just put a strip of wood at the end.  They place that strip all along the length of the ceiling.  That is what is meant as “finish” in this case.

 

3)  Let’s assume that each animal would require 1 pound of food per day.  That’s 8,000 pounds of food needed each day just to feed the animals.  That’s 2,880,000 pounds of food that needed to be stored.

 

Answer:  Again, the animals were not going to be as active as if they were before entering into the ark, some could hibernate, therefore, that amount of food is overestimated.  However, as with the rain water, no “manna” is listed as falling from out of the sky at this point in history.  Therefore, we must assume that at least 2 million pounds of food needed to be stored (because Noah and his family worked hard all day and needed to eat a lot).

 

Again, again, the size of the Ark is well able to handle all the weight of the water, food, animals, and people.  Plus, Noah would have been smart enough to bring Babies of the animals upon the ark.  And as Dr. Hovend puts it, he “would have to bring a blue one and a pink one.”  The reasoning is, they would live longer (after released) and eat less (while on board).

 

4) The bottlenecking of all of these animals together once they left the ark would be a disaster, in that some would be eating the ones that could not get away, and we would not have the diversity of species that we now have.

 

Answer:  We do not know just when animals began eating animals.  And the fact that kangaroos escaped to Australia (before the land bridges were covered by the melting icecaps) before the lions knew they had run off, means we have conclusive evidence that there are at least quite a variety of animals that moved away from other animals before carnivorism took place.  Although, it may have begun quite soon, as the earth had not fully recovered from its devastation (less foliage).  However, an “olive leaf,” Genesis 8:11, to have already formed (these take up to 4 years for an olive tree to start producing olives; I’m not sure how long before the first leaf), lets us know that many plants would have been ready to eat.

 

5) Going back 4,500 years into human history, the average lifespan of humans is 40-45 years.  How do you explain humans living past 900 years of age?

 

Answer:  The conditions for which humanity lived were different before the global flood than they are now.  The oxygen content was better (as an example).  This is why we can find fossilized animals that are larger than their related cousins of today.  In FACT, since we find HUGH quantities of fossils today (not just local in some quarry) is an overwhelming sign that there was a global flood.  Plus, once humans and animals began eating each other, it is very easy to notice (Biblically) the decline in lifespan after dietary habits changed.  I blame it on meat eating, which discarded God’s original diet.

 

However, Google, “Golden Age,” where societies, not connected to each other, nor knowing of each other’s existence, tell of, or have legends of, people living to be 1,000 years old.

 

6) Not all fossils were formed in one event.  There are many fossils in one location, but not in another.

 

Answer:  True, but how many fossils are forming today, yesterday, or in the last 100 to 1,000 years?  Answer, one or two.  Therefore, the best explanation for all of these fossils upon earth, spread out throughout the entirety of earth, is a global flood.

 

7) What about all of the questions that we could ask about the “Geological Column?”

 

Answer:  The “Geological Column” has been proven to be “Made Up,” and is not a valid argument for any hypothesis.  Between the layers we should see worm activity (as an example), especially if they are older than 1,000 years, which we do see in dirt, but not in sold rock or limestone.  Plus, we have fossilized trees standing up and going through all of the layers.  Last I checked, trees don’t take more than 30 years to deteriorate.  Thus, proving all of earth’s layers formed in one event. I’ll let you decide which event that is.

 

8) How could either marine life or fresh water life survive either with that much salt in the water, or not enough salt in the water.

 

Answer:  I have kept freshwater fish in my living room for over 50 years, and saltwater fish for over 40 years.  In an experiment, done by many fish hobbyists, if you add salt slowly each day to your freshwater fish (not to the point of pure saltwater), they can handle it just fine, and will eventually live in it (they will not like it; and may eventually die).  The opposite is true for saltwater fish (keep adding fresh water).  Consider Salmon that are considered to be a freshwater fish.  Yet they spawn in fresh water and live in saltwater.  However, their tolerance is worse, to the point that after a while, they will eventually die.  In other words, salt is still being added to our oceans today without harming the fish (yet).

 

9) The water upon the earth today could not possibly cover the entire earth.

 

Answer:  Actually, we all know of the tectonic plates that move in our earth (causing earthquakes, etcetera).  Since the depth of our oceans sank, and the mountains rose (at the time of the Flood), if we bring them back to where they were (before the flood; on average, a little above sea level), our earth would be covered entirely by over 3 feet (in average) today.  Why do you think the “Global Warming” folks are so worried?

 

 

F) HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF
 

 

See my Article:  “Flood, Other Accounts Of.”

 

From Berossus Caldeus (3rd Century B.C.) stated:  “To this day a small part of the ship that came to rest in Armenia remains in the Gordyenian Mountains in Armenia and some people go there and scrape off pieces of pitch to keep them as good luck charms.”

 

From Nicholas of Damascus (First Century B.C.), Greek historian and philosopher, wrote in his ninety-sixth book (mentioning prior historians regarding Noah’s Ark) stated:  “There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported, that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark, came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved.  This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.”

 

From Titus Flavius Josephus (37-100 A.D.), noted Historian stated:  “. . . in it the remains of the ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they are still shown to such as are desirous to see them.”  He also stated:  “However, the Armenians call this place, the Place of Descent; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are showed there by the inhabitants to this day.”

 

From Theophilus of Antioch (115-185) stated:  “. . . and of the ark, the remains are to this day to be seen in the Arabian mountains.”  Note:  By “Arabian mountains” he simply means those inhabited and controlled by the Arabs.

 

From John Chrysostom (349-407 A.D.), who was the Archbishop of Constantinople, stated:  “Have you heard of the Flood -- of that universal destruction?  That was not just a threat, was it?  Did it not really come to pass -- was not this mighty work carried out?  Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested?  And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition?”

 

From Epiphanius of Salamis (310-403 A.D.), who was the Bishop of Salamis, stated:  “Do you seriously suppose that we are unable to prove our point, when even to this day the remains of Noah’s Ark are shown in the country of the Kurds?”

 

From Isidore of Seville (560-636 A.D.), who was the Archbishop of Seville, stated:  “Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, where the historians testify that the Ark came to rest after the Flood.  So even to this day wood remains of it are to be seen there.”