Hello again. I apologize for not having updated in so long. I’ll probably always be a bit inconsistent about it, but I will try not to let it get that bad again.
Anyway, since I recently had some comments on the first post about Noah’s Ark, I thought today we could revisit the topic and present some new issues. Most of what I’ll be covering is more thoroughly covered on this site, which I’ve recommended before. It goes into MUCH more detail, as well as providing thorough documentation for their sources. But since it’s extremely long, and most of you probably just don’t care enough to read 40+ pages on the topic, I’ll cover the basics here. Any quotes are from the site, unless otherwise specified.
The first issue is the question of how Noah was actually able to physically build the ark. There were no ships in the time of Noah; at that time boats were little more than rafts. To even build a relatively small boat is a complicated process, and not something can simply sit down and do without proper planning and tools. Yet it would literally be beyond Noah’s (most likely a desert dweller) ability to even conceive of a ship as large as the ark. Put yourself in his shoes. He’d probably never seen even a two-story building, and there’s a good chance he’d never seen a boat. For that matter it’s possible he may have never seen a body of water large enough to understand the concept of a boat. Certainly there would be absolutely nothing man-made in his life to compare to the size of the ark. Yet he’s supposed to have been able, from the bare-bones instructions given to him by God (Genesis 6:14-16), to have planned and built a ship that was, based on the most conservative estimates, over three stories high, and half again as long as a football field. And he did it using tools that were primitive at best. “Noah would have needed a thorough education in naval architecture and in fields that would not arise for thousands of years such as physics, calculus, mechanics, and structural analysis.” How did he figure out how to build a sturdy frame for the ark, capable of withstanding the incredibly rough seas that would accompany a worldwide flood? (Well, actually a wooden boat of that size couldn’t, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) Where did he learn to properly weather treat the boards, and how to prevent the wood from rotting out from underneath him during they YEARS it would have taken to build something of that size? “Did the local reed-raft builder have equipment to steam heat a plank so it could be forced into the proper position?” And that doesn’t even begin to cover the question of how he was able to accommodate the needs of the individual animals, building cages that would allow them to be safely transported on rough seas for a year.
Then there’s the issue of the size of the ark. Quite simply, modern shipbuilders all agree that it is impossible to build an entirely wooden ship the size of the ark that is seaworthy. The largest modern wooden ship, the USS Wyoming, was only 110 meters (the ark was at least 135), and was never able to be used in open seas because of problems with constant leaks and the risk that it wouldn’t survive. Even relatively calm conditions can pose a threat to a ship that size, due to what is known as hogging and sagging, the effect on a beam when pressure is applied. Too much, and it’ll simply snap. And the seas during the flood, at least the initial stages, were almost definitely anything but calm. Waves created by the sort of torrential downpour and storms required, especially once the water got high enough for the waves to be uninterrupted by land, could easily have reached hundreds if not thousands of feet. Even the strongest modern boat would be unlikely to survive. Not to mention the poor hapless inhabitants of the ark. Were they all carefully strapped down, in whatever way their unique physiology required, to keep them from being dashed about in the storm and killed or injured?
Which bring us to the final point of the day. The sheer amount of water required to cover the entire earth. Firstly, where did it come from? There’s not even remotely enough water on the earth or in its atmosphere to come close. One estimate I read stated that the entirety of the moisture currently in our atmosphere would cover the whole earth to a depth of about an inch. Hebrew cosmology at the time the story was written claimed the earth was basically a dome resting on water with water above. By their belief, it was a simple matter for God to “open the floodgates of Heaven,” and cover the earth in water. In reality, it’s anything but simple, and none of my research has turned up any reasonable scientific explanation of where the water could have come from.
Secondly, the rate at which the rain would have to fall in order to cover the earth in the allotted 40 days. Estimates vary, but the general consensus is that it would have to be something on the order of 8-15 feet per hour, an unprecedented level. Not only has rain never been known to fall at this rate, this is considered more than enough to sink even a modern aircraft carrier.
And lastly, once the flood was over, where did the water go? Clearly it’s no longer here. Yet since we now know we are not, in fact, living in a dome resting on water, which would allow it to drain easily, we must find some way of disposing of it. Again, I’ve yet to see a probable explanation of this.
There are several other issues with the water question, but I’m not really equipped to explain them. This site provides a much more in-depth analysis of many of them. Also, I’ve read that the weight of all the extra water could actually have an effect on the astronomical position of the Earth, but since I’ve not seen anything else about it, I can’t consider that a valid point.
And so we have some more points against the literal interpretation of the Genesis flood story. Sorry if this has gone too long. There are still many, many more I haven’t mentioned, but I’ll leave those for another time.
Anyway, since I recently had some comments on the first post about Noah’s Ark, I thought today we could revisit the topic and present some new issues. Most of what I’ll be covering is more thoroughly covered on this site, which I’ve recommended before. It goes into MUCH more detail, as well as providing thorough documentation for their sources. But since it’s extremely long, and most of you probably just don’t care enough to read 40+ pages on the topic, I’ll cover the basics here. Any quotes are from the site, unless otherwise specified.
The first issue is the question of how Noah was actually able to physically build the ark. There were no ships in the time of Noah; at that time boats were little more than rafts. To even build a relatively small boat is a complicated process, and not something can simply sit down and do without proper planning and tools. Yet it would literally be beyond Noah’s (most likely a desert dweller) ability to even conceive of a ship as large as the ark. Put yourself in his shoes. He’d probably never seen even a two-story building, and there’s a good chance he’d never seen a boat. For that matter it’s possible he may have never seen a body of water large enough to understand the concept of a boat. Certainly there would be absolutely nothing man-made in his life to compare to the size of the ark. Yet he’s supposed to have been able, from the bare-bones instructions given to him by God (Genesis 6:14-16), to have planned and built a ship that was, based on the most conservative estimates, over three stories high, and half again as long as a football field. And he did it using tools that were primitive at best. “Noah would have needed a thorough education in naval architecture and in fields that would not arise for thousands of years such as physics, calculus, mechanics, and structural analysis.” How did he figure out how to build a sturdy frame for the ark, capable of withstanding the incredibly rough seas that would accompany a worldwide flood? (Well, actually a wooden boat of that size couldn’t, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) Where did he learn to properly weather treat the boards, and how to prevent the wood from rotting out from underneath him during they YEARS it would have taken to build something of that size? “Did the local reed-raft builder have equipment to steam heat a plank so it could be forced into the proper position?” And that doesn’t even begin to cover the question of how he was able to accommodate the needs of the individual animals, building cages that would allow them to be safely transported on rough seas for a year.
Then there’s the issue of the size of the ark. Quite simply, modern shipbuilders all agree that it is impossible to build an entirely wooden ship the size of the ark that is seaworthy. The largest modern wooden ship, the USS Wyoming, was only 110 meters (the ark was at least 135), and was never able to be used in open seas because of problems with constant leaks and the risk that it wouldn’t survive. Even relatively calm conditions can pose a threat to a ship that size, due to what is known as hogging and sagging, the effect on a beam when pressure is applied. Too much, and it’ll simply snap. And the seas during the flood, at least the initial stages, were almost definitely anything but calm. Waves created by the sort of torrential downpour and storms required, especially once the water got high enough for the waves to be uninterrupted by land, could easily have reached hundreds if not thousands of feet. Even the strongest modern boat would be unlikely to survive. Not to mention the poor hapless inhabitants of the ark. Were they all carefully strapped down, in whatever way their unique physiology required, to keep them from being dashed about in the storm and killed or injured?
Which bring us to the final point of the day. The sheer amount of water required to cover the entire earth. Firstly, where did it come from? There’s not even remotely enough water on the earth or in its atmosphere to come close. One estimate I read stated that the entirety of the moisture currently in our atmosphere would cover the whole earth to a depth of about an inch. Hebrew cosmology at the time the story was written claimed the earth was basically a dome resting on water with water above. By their belief, it was a simple matter for God to “open the floodgates of Heaven,” and cover the earth in water. In reality, it’s anything but simple, and none of my research has turned up any reasonable scientific explanation of where the water could have come from.
Secondly, the rate at which the rain would have to fall in order to cover the earth in the allotted 40 days. Estimates vary, but the general consensus is that it would have to be something on the order of 8-15 feet per hour, an unprecedented level. Not only has rain never been known to fall at this rate, this is considered more than enough to sink even a modern aircraft carrier.
And lastly, once the flood was over, where did the water go? Clearly it’s no longer here. Yet since we now know we are not, in fact, living in a dome resting on water, which would allow it to drain easily, we must find some way of disposing of it. Again, I’ve yet to see a probable explanation of this.
There are several other issues with the water question, but I’m not really equipped to explain them. This site provides a much more in-depth analysis of many of them. Also, I’ve read that the weight of all the extra water could actually have an effect on the astronomical position of the Earth, but since I’ve not seen anything else about it, I can’t consider that a valid point.
And so we have some more points against the literal interpretation of the Genesis flood story. Sorry if this has gone too long. There are still many, many more I haven’t mentioned, but I’ll leave those for another time.
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