Thursday 30 December 2010

Noah's Ark

I have to thank Tillerman at that Lasericious blog Proper Course for two things. One is naming Rowing for Pleasure 'best rowing blog on the planet' (Ta very much!) but mainly for drawing my attention to a discussion of Noah's Ark at the National Center for Science Education.
The story of the Flood presents something of a problem for creationists, because the story told in Genesis has quite a lot of detail that can be examined scientifically. Stuff like: "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female." This implies, according to NCSE calculations, a manifest of nearly four million creatures, all of whom would have to be loaded in just one day (Gen 7:14).
But the thing that really surprised me was how big the Ark was. Genesis 6:15 specifies a length of 300 cubits and a beam of 50 cubits. It is impossible to give an exact conversion to today's units as the Standard Cubit was obviously washed away in the Flood, but creationists agree that it would have been something like 450ft long by 75ft beam.
That is a stupendous size. The Ark would have been the largest wooden ship ever constructed in the history of the world by a very big margin.
Even the monster six masted wooden schooners built at the beginning of the 20th century topped out at about 330ft by 50ft. They used to flex visibly in any sort of sea, the leverage of their enormous length forcing the planks apart so severely they had to be pumped out continously. The biggest of them all, the Wyoming, was lost in a storm on the New England coast despite having anchored to shelter from the blast.

Even the 'replica' Ark built in the Netherlands and shown in the pictures is only 150 cubits long, so it can tour the canals. And is not actually a wooden boat at all, but is supported by a steel barge. Could Noah really have built an Ark that size that could have carried the world's life safely through the worst storm of all time?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

the original Noahs ark rescently found in turkey 1981 is three times te size of he queen mary
the queen mary cold fit into it twice , and room left over , so that ship was massive

Anonymous said...

the original Noahs ark rescently found in turkey 1981 is three times te size of he queen mary
the queen mary cold fit into it twice , and room left over , so that ship was massive

Anonymous said...

This video gives explains the ark in the less than 5 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEyyzCL27rM

Chris Partridge said...

The video is watertight proof of the existence of Noah's Ark. If you have no knowledge of biology, naval architecture, archeology or indeed any science or history at all.

Christopher M Kannel Architect said...

Chris, just curious...what part of the biology, naval architecture, archeology or science found in that video did you take issue with, specifically?

Chris Partridge said...

Biology: the idea that all the species we see now could evolve from a collection of representative family members in just a few thousand years.
Naval Architecture: the assumption that a ship larger than HMS Warrior could be built entirely of wood, let alone using Bronze Age technology.
Archeology: Complete lack of any remains of a civilization capable of funding the construction of such an enormous vessel or possessing the technology to do so.
Science: where to start? What really amused me was the inclusion of a brontosaurus in the ark. Surely the dinosaurs had already died out by the time of the Flood?

Anonymous said...

not to mention the species of animals from other continents!how'd he get a kangaroo and a polar bear?! read the story of Gilgemesh, the first ark that the bible copied

Anonymous said...

The ark is just the stolen story of Gilgamesh retold with different names. The bible does this a lot. And how do you suppose he managed to round up koala bears, penguins, and panda bears?! An accomplished world traveler as well!!! and to heard them over such distance...amazing

MyBellsPalsyBaby said...

Because it is believed that since people and animals were all created in the garden they had yet to cover the entire earth. God created all species of animals at one time, not every breed of dog or bear existed at that time. It is also highly likely that prior to the flood there was just one super continent and it wasn't until after the flood that the continents were different. The ark if I remember correctly took 100 yrs to build so even by your bronze age standards it could be done. We have no way of know how long it would take a dinosaur to grow to adult size. It is quite possible that they took many babies on board instead of fully grown. We really have no way of knowing how many species were on the boat, but I am sure it much less than what now exists.

Believer said...

People, please! Surely if God is big enough to create all the creatures (and He is), then obviously He could round them up! Noah didn't act alone you know...

FitzGerald Family said...

It's disappointing that these kind of "Village Atheist" arguments are still being used. All of these objections have been answered time and time again. You won't listen because 1. you don't want to listen 2. you won't ever believe that there is a God. And really, that is what it comes down to. Is there or isn't there a creator God who has revealed himself through the Bible? If there is no Creator such as this, then of course the story of Noah's ark found in the book of Genesis is, at best, a trumped up legend. However, if you are wrong, and there does happen to be a God who has revealed himself through the Bible: well, that changes everything. In other words, until you answer the question: "Where did the universe ultimately come from?" You are just floundering around making an ass of yourself.
Science is indefinite, at best, on the subjects of the origin of the Universe and the emergence of life on this planet-- sure, they have plenty of guesses all of which take enormous leaps of faith. (No one has ever seen a living thing come from non-living compounds. You can believe that all you want but that is faith on your part; not observable,testable science. I could go on and on. The "multi-verse" has never been observed or tested; it is a guess fraught with problems.) So, considering the only tenable position that you can honestly hold is that of an agnostic. (assuming, of course, you reject the myriad of arguments for the existence of God.)An agnostic is one who does not know. I can respect an agnostic's honesty, at least. If you are an agnostic and you are skeptical of what is written in the Bible, well, hey, I can respect that. But maybe, just maybe, considering you really don't know whether or not there is, or isn't, a God who has revealed himself through the Bible, maybe you should tread just a little lighter when talking about things you are agnostic about. If you consider yourself to be an "atheist"-- an untenable position; which Bertrand Russel showed-- then you can keep spouting these moldy worn out arguments; railing against God and the Bible-- hating with a vengeance a thing which, you say, absolutely does not exist. In which case, why do you care? You've got just a few more years, if you are lucky, before the chemical accident which is you rectifies itself and ceases to exist; I'd think you'd want to do something more with those fleeting minutes than spend time arguing about something that doesn't exist-- yet still eats away at your soul. Well, if you actually had a soul, but we "know" that "you" are just chemical and electrical firings in your brain making you thinking you actually exist as a "soul".
In short, there are answers to your objections. whether you will hear them or not depends on how you answer the following question: Does the creator God of the Bible exist? If you believe "no"; then no amount of evidence or arguments will convince you; you are closed minded and nothing more can be said. I've heard close minded atheists rant for years; it's always the same tired arguments and if one objection is answered you quickly jump to another and then to another and when you run out of objections you start back over with your original objection and round and round it goes. Why? Because if God were to write "I am the God of the Bible and I exist" in stars in the night sky, you'd find a way to reject that evidence. Nothing is going to change your mind; there is no reasonable evidence that could presented to you that you would accept. You not only reject the idea of a God; you hate the idea of there being a God. Which is why you spend your time writing posts like these. Well, good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

FitzGeraldFamily - You are truly lost in your obscurity.

Anonymous said...

If you believe no evidence is needed,if you don't no evidence will satisfy. Glenn H