Noah's Ark: Fact or Fiction
What is the evidence for and against the Noah's ark story? This isn't just an opinion poll asking whether or not you believe it, so please don't post things as simple as "it's fact" or "it's fiction. You're argument should explain why you think it is a fact or fiction. Try to back up your arguments with sources whenever possible.
BE NICE! If you can't make your argument without resorting to name calling and insults, you are just showing your lack of maturity. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?
Fact
Side Score: 15
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Fiction
Side Score: 35
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So, you believe bats are birds? You believe it's right to sell your children for cash, or to own a slave? Do you believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale and was regurgitated after three days of being inside the whale's stomach? There are some parts of the Bible even the most hardcore Christians will dismiss, saying you believe it's all true it a rather difficult thing to say. Side: Fiction
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Oh, god, seriously. If you're going to argue against the Bible, at least read it. The Bible DID NOT STATE bats were birds. It used the Hebrew word "Owphet" In the original text. "Owphet" doesn't mean bird, it means a flying thing. Are you denying that a bat is a flying thing? You have to own every version of the bible in order to understand what it means. Another thing, Jonah wasn't swallowed by a whale, necessarily. He was swallowed by a "Great Fish." Have you ever seen a megalodon before? Shark pups literally LIVE in their mother's stomachs before they leave. (At least for great whites.) Side: Fact
If you belive everything in the bible is truth than you live up with a pretty messed up set of morals. You honestly belive that all gays should die? You belive theres a big sky-daddy up there and if your a good boy you'll be able to sit up in the clouds when you die? Jesus is a freaken zombie! Side: Fiction
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He said a flood happened, and tried to link it to the story of Noah. It was localized flood that did not cover the entire earth. His story fails to match up with the flood described in the story of Noah in nearly every way possible. This website does a quick rundown http://biblicalgeology.net/blog/ Even these Christian websites say Ballard is drawing false conclusions. http://www.answersingenesis. http://creation.com/ Side: Fiction
There have been documented accounts of the transfer of the ark from generation to generation, from scripts that we have used to study things like medicine.etc These are reliable sources of history, and reminants of the ark is claimed to be found. The freemasons had it in their posession, according to them. A huge ship documented in centuries of history provides facts. Scientists have geological evidence of a great flood that took place. Side: Fact
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Noah's Ark is scientifically impossible. There is no way an old man and his family could have placed two of each animal on one boat. How did the penguin get there, how did the kangaroo get there, we're left not knowing. Unless the animals were just beamed out of the sky, there's no way that two of each animal could have got there. Musk oxen require cold environments, alongside many others. How did he manage to get proper temperatures for the animals without causing deaths of others? Some animals cannot take the cold, while some cannot live without it. Food is another issue I have with this story. A good example of this is the koala bear. The koala bear only eats certain eucalyptus leaves, and basically nothing else. With an animal as picky as the koala bear, did Noah go out on a hunt for all the food for every animal? What about the animals that eat other animals, how did he manage to get a fox from not eating moles or rabbits? This story requires a LOT of faith to actually believe it happened. The one major problem I have with this story are the dimensions of the ship. An estimate I found says Noah's Ark was believed to be 45x450x75 feet and made of wood. How is it possible that within that small of a dimension that Noah was able to cram his own family and two of every animal, including elephants, giraffes, lions and other massive animals, and enough food to last them on their long trip. The likelihood of the boat even staying afloat that long with all that cargo is slim to none, but it's also impossible to carry that much cargo on this tiny boat. If he was skilled in creating such a big ship, it's likely others would have also had boats at the time. What happened to them, did they all forget how to use their boats? If Noah and his family were the only survivors, it's possible someone else could have also survived at least the flood itself.So, in short, the story doesn't match up to its claims. It's impossible he got two of every animal at the time, even if it was a considerably smaller amount, it's impossible he was able to feed himself and the animals and make sure none of the animals died, it's impossible the boat was even able to float so long, it's impossible that all of the animals lived, and so on. Side: Fiction
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Noah's Ark is scientifically impossible. What is this science mumbo-jumbo you speak of. We all know scientists are all conspiring to destroy religion, so they can't be trusted. I think you're underestimating god's power. He could have beamed all the animals to the ark like you said. He could have shrunk all the animals down so they would fit in the ark. He could have filled their stomachs with food via his magic powers. He probably taught Noah how to create heaters and air conditioning units to keep all the animals the right temperature. God could have sunk the boats of the other people by poking holes in them with his almighty finger. I'm sure god also told the animals to be nice to each other, so they wouldn't eat each other. How can you not believe the story of Noah's ark?! It makes so much sense ;) Side: Fact
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Well, let us just say for arguments sake that he got the boat built, and that he got all the animals on there (simply because these parts have been argued a million times over), this is where the fun begins. Noah's flood myth states that the Earth was filled to the top of the highest mountain with water. This is an extra 8.8 Kilometers (give or take) above sea level around the entire surface of the Earth, (where this water came from or where it went is another matter we'll have to ignore). Now, Noah and his rag tag crew are in this Gopher wood boat on top of this unimaginably large body of water, and what do we know about the movement of water? That's right, it's controlled by the moon's gravitational interplay with the Earth. If you are in that boat and are anywhere near the moon (i.e. at night) you will find your boat rising up on the sort of wave that would make the Burj al arab look like a dolls house, and then find yourself being fuck around like only an angry God can manage, probably (because this is magic wood) surfing along towards the bright side of the Earth at a speed reserved for interstellar travel (not that the animals will mind, they love this shit). But maybe God canceled that, and it didn't happen you say. OK, so this boat is sitting on top of this body of water, that has basically pushed all of the non water-soluble molecules into this now massively volumetrically reduced and highly pressurised atmosphere, volcanoes will still piss out all manner of nasty shit into this space and it'll go straight into their lungs/on to their skin/ into their food source (whatever that was and what exactly did they drink?) So, they must have been encased in a bubble of some sort to protect them. We all know the arguments about the animals on the boat and food sources and yadayadayada. What about the living things that were not on the boat? Every single aquatic life form would have been completely displaced, this body of water would massively change their habitat and push them so far away from their food source that they would all probably starve, or die in the desalinated or highly salted environment they now found themselves in; add to this the billions of tons of pressure that would be added means that most living things below a certain depth would be crushed to death (including microbes). Say that all of the above were avoided by our merry sailors, once the water subsided they'd find that there was no plant life at all, and that there was very little oxygen, given that plants don't function very well under miles of brackish water without sunlight or carbon sources, add the algae to this as well. So, with out plants for them or the herbivores and other omnivores to eat there'd be very little food add to this no potable water and fuck all breathable air and you are in trouble son. But hey, this is God right? surely he made it so they could survive anything. That leads to the question; What is the point? God is omnipotent, surely simply erasing all of the wrong doers would have been easier, or maybe, just maybe, not making the cunts in the first place. He's also omni-benevolent, but that must mean that benevolence is actually slaughtering every living thing on a planet in a very horrible way, that includes children, the mentally retarded and all of the other living things that were not lucky enough to be selected for the fun boat. 0 sec ago Side: Fiction
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What if Nazis? Honestly though, if this were the case, it would probably be a story exaggerated by a man that escaped a flooded valley on a log with a goat. Lets examine the questions though. What if they were only talking about the "world" they knew not the the entire planet? They would have known a fair bit of their own world, which is a fairly large expanse of land. What if it was only the local animals that got saved? And what of the aquatic creatures, insects and non migratory birds?
What if the it was only the local, tallest, mountain? Well, that would still have been pretty high, given that Noah's thought to have lived in the Ararat region, with Mount Ararat standing at an elevation of circa 5.5 km all of what I've stated above would still stand but to a slightly lesser degree. If this area were to be flooded for an entire year to that height it would be safe to assume that the entire planet was also under water given fluid's nature of fitting it's vessel. Also pertaining to the first two questions, this newly flooded planet would have only had a tiny amount of available land, did all the surviving animals move 5000 meters above sea level to the remotest corners of the planet to take up high altitude mountain dwelling? Side: Fact
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Alright, quick thing I need you to answer for me. How high was the tallest mountain at that time? How resistant were animals to pressure changes? (Remember, God supposedly created them perfect.) What was the pressure like back then? How deep were all the oceans? And finally, what kind of animals were there at that time? Were there as many breeds of dogs cats, etc. as there are today? Side: Fact
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How high was the tallest mountain at that time? The same as is now How resistant were animals to pressure changes? (Remember, God supposedly created them perfect.) That's not a realistic question, given that the same animals that were alive then are alive now, it wasn't supposed to be that long ago circa 5-6 thousand years. What was the pressure like back then? What was what pressure, atmospheric? Seafloor? How deep were all the oceans? I would suppose that they are the same now, relatively. And finally, what kind of animals were there at that time? Were there as many breeds of dogs cats, etc. as there are today? Probably not as many cats and dogs, no, given that this supposedly happened around the time of the agricultural revolution when animal husbandry was really taking off. Side: Fiction
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Then the fact that many cultures have similar stories about alien abductions must prove that those are real too. For the sake of argument, lets assume that there was a worldwide flood. That still does nothing to prove that the tale of Noah and his Ark are true. As we've pointed out, it is impossible for the story to be true. Until someone can come up with a reasonable explanation that answers all the issues that have been pointed out, it seems unreasonable to assume the story is anything other than fiction. Side: Fiction
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TalkOrigins.org does a very thorough job of explaining why the story of Noah's ark is fictional. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/ Side: Fiction
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