What's this about Noah's Ark being perfect dimensions?

[Vincent]

I don't know much about the Bible stories, so can someone enlighten me?

Noah's Ark was built 30:5:1 ratio, which are the dimensions of huge cargo ships built fairly recently. How did he gets these numbers, or how did someone write these numbers into the Bible? Are there other theories outside of God told him?

Also, it seems like whether or not Jesus existed isn't much of a debate, since many people from Muslims, Christians, atheists seem to be believe he did (or maybe I'm wrong). How much of a debate is it that Noah's Ark existed?

[hmkpoker]

Cool icon /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[spanshcastlemagc]

noah's ark seems pretty ridiculous to me, i think it supposedly took noah 100 years to build, then supported a male and female frome each species for 40 days and 40 night (correct me on specifics) perfect dimensions? i dont even want to calculate the volume needed for the millions of species, just a story if you ask me

[bunny]

I dont think many would claim the dimensions of Noah's Ark are perfect - but I think there is little doubt that Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.

I would speculate that people who believe the story of Noah's Ark is literally true are a small minority. No evidence to back it up though, other than anecdotal.

[theweatherman]

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I dont think many would claim the dimensions of Noah's Ark are perfect - but I think there is little doubt that Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.

I would speculate that people who believe the story of Noah's Ark is literally true are a small minority. No evidence to back it up though, other than anecdotal.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for a huge flood though. It's very strange that almost every major civilization has a flood story in their antiquity. Although not as many have an Ark story.

Maybe Noah only had to round up hte species in his region, If the floodwastruely global maybe each region had their own "Noah" who could save all the local animals. This would certainly help with the logistics of such an undertaking. Sucks to be the guy in India, lots of [censored] there. The badlands of Egypt/Palestein dont seem to vibrant though.

[Lestat]

Why do people always forget about the "rest" of the things on earth? It's not just people. A flood of such proportions would wipe out most trees and plant life.

How do you propose all this plant life came back into being? Without plant life, what do you think would happen to oxygen levels? And even if one was gullible enough to think plant life did make such a quick comeback, what did these people and animals eat for the next hundred or so years?

You almost couldn't invent a more far-fetched story than Noah's Ark.

[madnak]

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There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for a huge flood though. It's very strange that almost every major civilization has a flood story in their antiquity.

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No, it isn't. Floods were one of the major environmental hazards in most settled cultures, and large ones tended to have severe impacts. Also water and floods are highly symbolic and resonant, water as a metaphor is very common through human society.

[Alex-db]

Someone put an excellent post on this forum about the difficulty Noah would have had sexing dangerous lizards, nevermind dinosaurs, if we were to get exactly a male and female of each.

I imagine Noah was the prehistoric Steve Irwin; "put ya glasses on Noah, she's a little grumpy"

[guesswest]

More to the point - not that it's my own observation, but what about all the evil fish?

[Hopey]

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Someone put an excellent post on this forum about the difficulty Noah would have had sexing dangerous lizards, nevermind dinosaurs

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That's why we don't have dinosaurs anymore...duh.

[LadyWrestler]

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I dont think many would claim the dimensions of Noah's Ark are perfect - but I think there is little doubt that Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.

I would speculate that people who believe the story of Noah's Ark is literally true are a small minority. No evidence to back it up though, other than anecdotal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi! IMHO: There is evidence to back up a local flood, which I believe it was. My common sense tells me that Genesis was written from the perspective of the writer (Moses) and how he related to the visions he was given of past events. He did a great job of it, considering the times and conditions he lived under. Have a great day! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Sharkey]

Do you have evidence that the story of Noah was intended by its author(s) to be taken literally?

[Hopey]

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Do you have evidence that the story of Noah was intended by its author(s) to be taken literally?

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have any evidence that it wasn't?

[AvivaSimplex]

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Noah's Ark was built 30:5:1 ratio, which are the dimensions of huge cargo ships built fairly recently. How did he gets these numbers, or how did someone write these numbers into the Bible? Are there other theories outside of God told him?

[/ QUOTE ]

They had ships back then. Coming up with the rough proportions wouldn't have been difficult.

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Also, it seems like whether or not Jesus existed isn't much of a debate, since many people from Muslims, Christians, atheists seem to be believe he did (or maybe I'm wrong). How much of a debate is it that Noah's Ark existed?

[/ QUOTE ]

There isn't much debate. Only a few literalists believe it physically existed.

[tomdemaine]

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Do you have evidence that the story of Noah was intended by its author(s) to be taken literally?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well no I also have no evidence that the stories about Jesus' ressurection were intended to be taken literally. Whoops!

[Sharkey]

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[ QUOTE ]
Do you have evidence that the story of Noah was intended by its author(s) to be taken literally?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well no I also have no evidence that the stories about Jesus' ressurection were intended to be taken literally. Whoops!

[/ QUOTE ]

Incorrect.

Many of the biblical accounts, those in the New Testament especially, were presented in explicitly historical contexts.

[Hopey]

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Do you have evidence that the story of Noah was intended by its author(s) to be taken literally?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well no I also have no evidence that the stories about Jesus' ressurection were intended to be taken literally. Whoops!

[/ QUOTE ]

Incorrect.

Many of the biblical accounts, those in the New Testament especially, were presented in explicitly historical contexts.

[/ QUOTE ]

And were written almost 100 years after the events in question ocurred, by Roman writers who were trying to lure people to their religion.

[hyde]

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i dont even want to calculate the volume needed for the millions of species, just a story if you ask me

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"hey Lord, what's a cubic?"
Noah ( as told by Bill cosby)

[TomBrooks]

Noah's Ark is a myth dude.

Myths are not bad. They're generally meant to convey an ideology or provide guidance to people on the right way to live.

When the story of Noah's Ark was written, it probably seemed at least somewhat plausible. Today with what we know about geography, animals and natural science, it rightfully stikes intelligent and logical people as absurd. However, we may still be able to glean some lessons about life that it was trying to convey.

[Vincent]

http://www.flood-myth.com/

I found this site, I thought it was interesting. The author, Robert Best, says Noah was king of the Shuruppak around 2900BC, and a local river flood submerged his city.

[CORed]

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There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for a huge flood though. It's very strange that almost every major civilization has a flood story in their antiquity. Although not as many have an Ark story.

[/ QUOTE ]

There were some massive floods at the end of the last ice age. In particular, both the Red Sea and the Black Sea partially dried up during the ice age, so there was a lot of dry land below sea level. As the sea level rose, it reached the level necessary to flow into the basin, which would have filled very rapidly. This of course would have been disastrous for anybody living in the basins. Some people have hypothesized that oral tradition about floods at the end of the ice age may have led to the many flood myths.

[morphball]

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There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for a huge flood though. It's very strange that almost every major civilization has a flood story in their antiquity. Although not as many have an Ark story.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not strange at all. They're called tsunamis...

[Nottom]

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Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.


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You don't have to be an atheist to think that.

[bunny]

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Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.


[/ QUOTE ]

You don't have to be an atheist to think that.

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No, I guess not. I meant an atheist would say "someone other than God". I imagine all christians think God wrote the bible in some way.

[Nottom]

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Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.


[/ QUOTE ]

You don't have to be an atheist to think that.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, I guess not. I meant an atheist would say "someone other than God". I imagine all christians think God wrote the bible in some way.

[/ QUOTE ]

I consider myself a Christian, but I don't think God wrote the bible. Some guys wrote the bible, likely after many generations of the stories being passed down orally.

Whether or not the original stories were literally "the Word of God" doesn't really matter to me, but I can confidently say what is written in the Bible is certainly the word of man.

[AJFenix]

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I don't think God wrote the bible

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!!!!!!!

[Prevaricator]

they didn't have evolution in Noah's time, so its okay to assume that one male/one female of each species could fit into a boat because there weren't that many species at the time.

[bunny]

[ QUOTE ]
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Christians would say God gave him the numbers, atheists would say whoever wrote the bible made up the numbers.


[/ QUOTE ]

You don't have to be an atheist to think that.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, I guess not. I meant an atheist would say "someone other than God". I imagine all christians think God wrote the bible in some way.

[/ QUOTE ]

I consider myself a Christian, but I don't think God wrote the bible. Some guys wrote the bible, likely after many generations of the stories being passed down orally.

Whether or not the original stories were literally "the Word of God" doesn't really matter to me, but I can confidently say what is written in the Bible is certainly the word of man.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you think God had no part in it? This seems an unusual position for a Christian. I am not a literalist and think there is a human element - the history of the church as a secular organisation makes it unbelievable to me that they didnt alter or edit it in some way (a la copernicus's argument). Also, I dont think human prophets are fully able to comprehend any supposed divine revelation. Nonetheless, I think God was the originator of the whole shebang and it seems hard to believe christianity is "correct" if you think the bible is purely a product of humans.

[Nottom]

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Do you think God had no part in it? This seems an unusual position for a Christian. I am not a literalist and think there is a human element - the history of the church as a secular organisation makes it unbelievable to me that they didnt alter or edit it in some way (a la copernicus's argument). Also, I dont think human prophets are fully able to comprehend any supposed divine revelation. Nonetheless, I think God was the originator of the whole shebang and it seems hard to believe christianity is "correct" if you think the bible is purely a product of humans.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never said he didn't have a part in it, just that its certainly not an exact transcription of anything God may have ever told anyone. Along those lines its very possible and likely that at least a few stories in the Bible were added by men that had their own agendas that may or may not have had anything to do with God.

I'm certainly not a religious person by any means, but I'm certainly not an atheist either. I suppose I'm borderline agnostic, but I'm willing to but aside many of my questions and just have some faith that the unbelievable might just be true.

[bigbrother36]

You guys can be such nits. I think you enjoy it. A quick 10 second read of this (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=parable) ends this thread.

[Copernicus]

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You guys can be such nits. I think you enjoy it. A quick 10 second read of this (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=parable) ends this thread.

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Since youve only been here since February, I will give you a hint: If you think any thread in SMP ends with an appeal to logic or intimation that the bible is not to be taken literally, page through some other threads.

[Nottom]

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You guys can be such nits. I think you enjoy it. A quick 10 second read of this (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=parable) ends this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since youve only been here since February, I will give you a hint: If you think any thread in SMP ends with an appeal to logic or intimation that the bible is not to be taken literally, page through some other threads.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to mention that his link referenced mostly the teachings of Jesus, not the old testament creationalist stories.

[HLMencken]

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My common sense tells me that Genesis was written from the perspective of the writer (Moses) and how he related to the visions he was given of past events. He did a great job of it, considering the times and conditions he lived under.

[/ QUOTE ]

He did a great job of passing on some silly story about how the universe was created? Every culture on every corner of the planet had a story for the universe and I'd argue that they all are at about as interesting if not more so as that found in the Bible.