Noah's Ark is impossible. Didn't happen. Here's why!
Scientists say that it would take a supertanker just to carry every species of insect. Taking every species of animal would require fleets of arks. Faithful people say that Noah took every 'kind' of animal, not species. Two obvious problems with this theory:
- It takes thousands of years or animals to evolve into different species. If Noah's flood happened between 2400 BC and 3000 B.C., there wouldn't be enough years since the time of Noah until the time of accurate recorded history, for all the species to generate from two of every kind of animal.
- Even just two of every 'kind' of animal, and the food and water necessary to sustain them for over six months, would require a ship larger than the Ark as described in the Bible. The only way that would be possible is if you lumped in every form of animal that is remotely related such as having tigers represent all big cats. A tiger would then have to give birth to a lion, cheetah, cougar, Siamese cat, etc.
Some, like sloths and penguins, can't travel over land very well at all.
Some, like koalas and many insects, require a special diet. How did they bring it along?
Some cave-dwelling arthropods can't survive in less than 100% relative humidity.
Some, like dodos, must have lived on islands. If they didn't, they would have been easy prey for other animals. When mainland species like rats or pigs are introduced to islands, they drive many indigenous species to extinction. Those species would not have been able to survive such competition if they lived where mainland species could get at them before the Flood.
Getting all the animals aboard the Ark presents logistical problems which, while not impossible, are highly impractical. Noah had only seven days to load the Ark (
Gen. 7:4-10). If only 15764 animals were aboard the Ark (see section 3), one animal must have been loaded every 38 seconds, without letup. Since there were likely more animals to load, the time pressures would have been even worse.
Many animals, especially insects, require special diets. Koalas, for example, require eucalyptus leaves, and silkworms eat nothing but mulberry leaves. For thousands of plant species (perhaps even most plants), there is at least one animal that eats only that one kind of plant. How did Noah gather all those plants aboard, and where did he put them?
Other animals are strict carnivores, and some of those specialize on certain kinds of foods, such as small mammals, insects, fish, or aquatic invertebrates. How did Noah determine and provide for all those special diets?
Many animals require their food to be fresh. Many snakes, for example, will eat only live foods (or at least warm and moving). Parasitoid wasps only attack living prey. Most spiders locate their prey by the vibrations it produces. [
Foelix, 1996] Most herbivorous insects require fresh food. Aphids, in fact, are physically incapable of sucking from wilted leaves. How did Noah keep all these food supplies fresh?
Food spoilage is a major concern on long voyages; it was especially thus before the inventions of canning and refrigeration. The large quantities of food aboard would have invited infestations of any of hundreds of stored product pests (especially since all of those pests would have been aboard), and the humidity one would expect aboard the Ark would have provided an ideal environment for molds. How did Noah keep pests from consuming most of the food?
The ark would need to be well ventilated to disperse the heat, humidity, and waste products (including methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia) from the many thousands of animals which were crowded aboard.
Woodmorappe (pp. 37-42) interprets
Genesis 6:16 to mean there was an 18-inch opening all around the top, and says that this, with slight breezes, would have been enough to provide adequate ventilation. However, the ark was divided into separate rooms and decks (
Gen. 6:14,16). How was fresh air circulated throughout the structure?
The ungulates alone would have produced tons of manure a day. The waste on the lowest deck at least (and possibly the middle deck) could not simply be pushed overboard, since the deck was below the water line; the waste would have to be carried up a deck or two. Vermicomposting could reduce the rate of waste accumulation, but it requires maintenance of its own. How did such a small crew dispose of so much waste?
- How did a crew of eight manage a menagerie larger and more diverse than that found in zoos requiring many times that many employees? Woodmorappe claims that eight people could care for 16000 animals, but he makes many unrealistic and invalid assumptions. Here are a few things he didn't take into account:
- Feeding the animals would take much longer if the food was in containers to protect it from pests.
- Many animals would have to be hand-fed.
- Watering several animals at once via troughs would not work aboard a ship. The water would be sloshed out by the ship's roll.
- Many animals, in such an artificial environment, would have required additional special care. For example, all of the hoofed animals would need to have their hooves trimmed several times during the year. [Batten, 1976, pp. 39-42]
- Not all manure could be simply pushed overboard; a third of it at least would have to be carried up at least one deck.
- Corpses of the dead animals would have to be removed regularly.
- Animals can't be expected to run laps and return to their cages without a lot of human supervision.
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