Noah's Ark

[Joe Republic]

As we've seen, many people still truly believe that the world was actually created in six days.  Strangely enough, many also claim that the account of Noah's Ark is also genuinely true.

I was merely wondering if anybody on this forum also believes it to be a true story.  If so, please post your arguments.

[Joe Republic]

I absolutely believe in the biblical account of Noah’s Ark as written in Genesis chapters 6 through 9.

Biblically, it is clear the rest of the bible interprets the account as literal and even adds details to the story that are not included in the Genesis account.

This provides absolutely no evidence that it actually happened.

Scientifically, if the 1st and 2nd Law of Thermo support the idea that a supernatural force created the whole universe,

They don't.  Your gross misinterpretation has been shown several times in the other thread, but you haven't understood yet.

why couldn’t that same supernatural force cause a flood on a very minute portion of the universe?...Basically, if a force can create the whole universe, certainly it can flood the little planet earth.

Is this truly the brunt of your scientific argument?

"Well okay, none of it makes any sense, but God created the whole universe, so he can make it make sense."

[Joe Republic]

- There are hundreds of thousands of species of animal.  Noah would have had to build his ark large enough to accomodate two of everything.  If we reject the theory of evolution, this includes such things as two elephants, two rhinoceroses, and all of the acquatic life present on the planet, including all of the whales (and presumably he would need to build a tank big enough to hold all of the acquatic life, since he needed to keep them alive for forty days and forty nights).

Not only that, but Genesis also states that there were only eight pairs of animals on board: seven 'clean' pairs of animals, and one 'unclean' pair.

[Joe Republic]

If there really was an ark, i doubt it could have contained the billions of animals needed. Once again jmfcst makes himself look stupid.

As I said earlier, Genesis claims that there were only eight pairs of animals on board.  But this of course creates many more questions that serve to make the story completely ridiculous.

[Joe Republic]

Jesus was once asked why he used parables in his teachings. He said because its easier for the people to understand and remember the lessons that way. IMHO the story of the flood is such a parable.

I agree, which is why the story is there in the first place.  But there will always be a 'special' few who don't know what metaphors are.

[Joe Republic]

Sounds like they were just making it up as they were going along.

[Joe Republic]

And how could they feed those 11 billion people with primitive farming methods?

Who said anything about primitive farming methods?

You're quite the fan of the deus ex machina, aren't you?

I was thinking the very same thing.  Whenever you counter this story as being completely illogical and unlikely in so many ways, the believers keep coming back with, "Well, God made it so because he's all-powerful".  A nice get-out clause, if ever I saw one.

[Joe Republic]

You're quite the fan of the deus ex machina, aren't you?

Just sick and tired of people making unsubstantiated assumptions.

So are we, believe me.

[Joe Republic]

For example: aluminum belt buckles were discovered in a very old sealed Chinese tomb.  Western civilization didn't discover aluminum until the 1800s, much less understood how to work with it.

Since when has Ancient China been considered 'Western civilization'?  They also invented fireworks, you know, but actually kept making them so that they could claim the credit for it.

In another example, the temple of Ba'albek had stones quarried (they knew it was quarried because several miles away there is a half-quarried stone still in the quarry) and they were over 700 tons each.  The largest crane today have issues with 200 tons.  No known technology can construct buildings with stones weighing 700 tons.

Sounds like a mystery like the Egyptian pyramids, or Stonehenge.

Those are theories, and I'm not about to make a case for that.  To do so will require several hundred pages.  I'm giving summaries and simple alternastives to some of the arguments.  The UK homo guy proposed "primitive farming methods" and I countered with an alternative.

Classy.

[Joe Republic]

This article might be worth the time taken to read it.