quote:Originally posted by gbrk:quote:Originally posted by beternU:quote:Originally posted by thomaswayne0907:
physically impossible for 2 of EVERY animal to fit on there.
The only possible way that Noah's Ark, or any vessel could have saved "every animal" would be in the case of a limited flood that miraculously covered only that portion of the earth occupied by the evil men and women that were to be destroyed by the flood. The saved animals would be only those found within that relatively small part of the earth. But the hard-line conservatives will not accept that. Thus, the burden lies with them to show how New World (North American and South and Central American) animals made it to the ark. I have not found anyone who could explain that except by claiming that God made it happen miraculously.
If God needed to destroy sinful mankind, saving righteous Noah, why would He have had to flood the entire earth, since in the time Noah lived, presumably the human race occupied a very limited territory?
And, by the way, I don't buy into the Usher Chronology, so I do not accept the 4,800 year datum as the time of Noah.
Another dilemma for the literalists: If the earth was entirely flooded, was it a freshwater flood or a saltwater flood. If it was the former, then the saltwater-dependent species would have died out during the flood. If it was the latter, then the freshwater species would have all perished. My limited flood theory does not have to worry about such things.
While your points as well as the initial questions/speculations are well put and founded the simple answer would be thus. IF this is Noah's Ark and you accept that it was GOD that forwarned Noah and gave him foresight and instructions as to how to build the ark then God would have figured out all those impossibilities that are impossible to man and that would have been taken care of. For those that believe in God they know God works miracles and would have no problem taking care of those things. For those who don't believe in God then it really doesn't matter does it for none of this existed or is all fables anyway.
Granted, God, being God, could have done anything He wanted insofar as preserving life during the Flood.
But the Biblical acount says nothing at all about God employing any miraculous means for this puprose. The story of the ark posits the construction of a rescue ship presumably of a capacity adequate to stow 7 pairs of each kind of clean animal and 2 pairs of each kind of unclean animal. One would presume that fish and other aquatic species would be able to take care of themselves, since they were adapted to living in water and a flood would be a "so what?" to them.
In other Biblical accounts where the hand of God has moved miraculously and powerfully, the Biblical record makes it clear that this is the case, and indeed the creation of the Flood is a miraculous and powerful thing. But the miracle was the Flood itself. The scriptural record nowhere makes or implies any claim that God supernaturally made room for more animals than an ark of the size described could physically accomodate.