Some Questions On Noah's Flood Answered
Sam Shamoun
Some Muslim critics attempt to debunk the universality of the Flood
by suggesting that the ark's measurements could not possibly contain
all the land animals of the earth. Dr. Henry Morris responds:
6:15 three hundred cubits.
The dimensions of the ark were ideally designed for both stability
and capacity. It has been shown hydrodynamically that the ark
would have been practically impossible to capsize and would have
been reasonably comfortable, even during violent waves and winds.
Assuming the ancient cubit to have been only 17.5 inches (the smallest
suggested by an authority), the ark could have carried as many as
125,000 sheep-sized animals. Since there are not more than
about 25,000 species of land animals known (mammals, birds, reptiles,
amphibians), either living or extinct, and since the average size of
such animals is certainly much less than that of a sheep, it is
obvious that all the animals could easily have been stored in less
than half the capacity of Noah's ark, each pair in appropriate
"rooms" (literally "nests"). (Morris, The Defenders Study Bible -
King James Version [World Publishing; Grand Rapids, MI 1995], p. 21)
And,
7:15 two of all flesh.
Two of every kind of land animal entered the ark, including those
animals (for example, dinosaurs) that have become extinct in the
millennia following the Flood. The animals were all young animals
since they would have to spend the year in the ark without
reproducing and then emerge to repopulate the earth after the
Flood. The animals entering the ark possessed genes for the
remarkable physiologic abilities of migration and hibernation.
These were not needed in the equable climates of the primeval world,
but would be vital for survival in the post-Flood world. After being
installed in their respective "rooms" in the ark, and after a good
meal, most of them probably spent most of the Flood year in
a state of hibernation. (Ibid., p. 23)
Dr. Gleason L. Archer, in commenting on the differences between
the Pagan flood stories with that of Genesis, notes:
"Some comparative religionists have suggested that the Babylonian
myth was earlier than the Hebrew, and that the compilers of Genesis
7 and 8 borrowed from it. But this is rendered most unlikely in
view of the significant contrasts between the two. Thus, the ark
built by Utnapishtim was completely cubic, equipped with six decks
for all the animals to be quartered in. A more impractical and
unseaworthy craft could hardly be imagined. But Noah's ark was
three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, thirty cubits deep
- an ideal set of measurements for an ocean liner. If the cubit
measured twenty-four inches in that earlier period (as it may well
have done in an age when men were bigger than they were after the
Flood - cf. Gen. 6:4), then the ark of Noah would have been six
hundred feet long, by one hundred feet wide, and sixty feet deep.
If it was fairly boxlike in shape (as would be probable in view of
its special purpose), it would have had the capacity of 3.6 million
cubic feet. This is the capacity of about two thousand cattle
cars, each of which can carry 18 to 20 cattle, 60 to 80 hogs, or
80 to 100 sheep.
"At the present time, there are only 290 main species of land
animals larger in size than sheep. There are 757 more species
ranging in size from sheep to rats, and there are 1,358 species
smaller than rats. Two individuals of each of these species would
fit very comfortably into two thousand cattle cars, with plenty
of room for fodder. But it is more than doubtful whether the same
could be said of Utnapishtim's unwieldy craft, subject to frequent
capsizing in heavy seas, in view of its cubic shape. Moreover, the
stark contrast between the quarrelsome and greedy gods of the
Babylonian pantheon and the majestic holiness of Yahweh, the
absolute Sovereign over the universe, furnishes the strongest
basis for classifying the Gilgamesh account as a garbled
polytheistic derivative from the same original episode as
that contained in Genesis 7-8. The Hebrew account is couched
in terms of sober history and accurate recording that reflect
a source derived from the persons who were actually involved
in this adventure. The Gilgamesh Epic is far more mythical and
vague." (Archer, An Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
[Zondervan Publishing House, 1982 ISBN: 0310435706], p. 84)
Furthermore, the Quran itself along with the early Muslim
commentators all taught that Noah's flood was a universal event.
(See this related article.)
Hence, there are no convincing arguments against the Holy Bible.
Articles by Sam Shamoun
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