Atheists, could Noah's Ark Hold all the Animals?

Question

The answer is YES, read carefully, the volume of the ark would be 450 feet long by 75 feet wide by 45 feet high. This equals 1,518,750 cubic feet and is comparable to 569 modern railroad boxcars. Therefore each boxcar, by comparison, would be 1,518,750 divided by 569, or 2,669 cubic feet of space. The average size of an animal on the earth is smaller than a cat. But, just to keep it safe let's consider the average size of an animal to be a sheep. The average double deck stock car holds 240 sheep. The Ark capacity would be about 569 x 240 equaling 136,560 animals of that size. However, that still is not accurate for our needs. Since most birds, reptiles, and amphibians are much smaller, let's double the boxcar capacity for them. Therefore, the boxcars could each hold 480 different kinds of birds, reptiles, amphibians.

The total number of mammals would be 3,700 times two pair which equals 7,400 animals. 7,400 divided by 240 = 31 boxcars used.

Since Gen. 7:3 says to take seven pairs of every bird then the total for birds would be 8,600 times two pair times 7 or 120,400 animals. 120,400 x 480 = 250 boxcars. The reptiles and amphibians would be 6,300 plus 2,500 or 8,800. 8,800 times two pair equals 17,600 animals. 17,600 divided by 480 = 37 boxcars.

The total number of boxcars used would be 318 with a total number of animals at 145,400. There would be 251 boxcars left over. That means that only 56% of the ark would be used for storing the animals.

Checkmate.

Answer 1

You fail to grasp the dynamics of a vessel being able to float under such weight -- the animals and the 10x their weight needed to feed them. There is this thing called "displacement" and so any vessel doesn't sink it has to displace less water than its weight. That means, you need ate least 200 of those boxcars for simply air and ballast. Yes, air -- you're talking about piling every animal that wasn't forgotten on top of each other.



I'm glad you had fun with math...but you also failed to understand that the actual length of a cubit is still not known, only estimated.

Answer 2

First of all, the animals did not eat meat. Neither did Noah or his family. When God created Adam and Eve, the world was perfect and they did not eat meat, neither them or the animals, so animals would not kill eachother or be killed. It was not until AFTER the flood, in fact, it was during the covenant God made with Noah upon EXITING the ark (the promise God made to him to never again destroy the earth in such a way), that God finally permitted both man and animals to eat meat. So your statement about carnivores is completely irrevelant. Second, God said to take 2 of every KIND of animal, NOT species. Kind could mean any number of things, we do not really know but it could mean for example that "bug" could be a kind (not all the species of individual bugs) or "bear" could be a kind (not all the species of individual bears). Therefore, the amount of animals he would have to bring on the ark would be much, much less. So yes there was room. And finally, it's not like Noah loaded full size elephants on the ark. More likely, all the animals were babies or infants, thus much smaller than their normal size, making it perfectly possible that Noah could fit all the animals on the ark. Plus, many believe that God probably helped Noah by either making the animals hibernate during the trip through his power, or something of the sort so it would take much less to care for them during the 40 days. Do your research, its perfectly believeable.

Answer 3

Okay, that's nice. I don't really do math, so I'm not going to try to question any of your numbers here. Instead I'll just point out all the other problems with the flood story, like...



*A vessel that size made of wood would not have been seaworthy. Wooden boats today don't get bigger than 300 feet long and even they have to be heavily reinforced with steel and they still leak badly.

*A flood would have caused mass extinctions of plants, insects, fish, and even parasites (which need human or animal hosts to survive). Many species we have today couldn't have been alive before the flood if they were to have survived it, and yet they did. Going to try the "God sustained them by magic" argument? Why didn't God sustain ALL the animals by magic then, and for that matter Noah's family as well?

*A postdiluvian world would have been completely inhospitable to life. Virtually all plants would be dead from nearly a year spent underwater, so herbivores would die out quickly, and carnivores would find their prey long dead except the two of them that were on the ark.

*Geological and archaeological evidence of a global flood should be abundant if there was one. But there is none. Civilizations today predate the flood and make no mention of it in their history.

Answer 4

There are over 4000 mammals and over 9000 bird species not counting the ones that have gone extinct in the last thousand years. You also forgot to include reptiles and insects, not to mention that it was not just birds that he took 7 pairs of, but every clean animal. Then you need to account for structural supports, flooring and cages. Of course, there is the need for food and water storage. While the seas would be highly diluted, the outside water would have still been undrinkable.



Edit:

By the way, given a very short load time of 5 minutes per animal pair and just loading mammals and birds, it would have taken over 45 days of working around the clock to load and off-load. This also means that it would take all 8 people five days, working 24 hours a day, to feed water and clean each species - if they only spent 5 minutes with each species.

Answer 5

Ok, now explain how they didn't all rip each other to shreds, where all the food and /fresh/ water was kept, how they got fresh supplies of food and water (carnivores had to get fresh meat somewhere. Where did that come from when there was only two of every animal?), how they got all the animal crap off the boat, where all the water went (and no, it could not have evaporated or all gone to the ice caps), how they were able to know every animals needs, how they kept some certain animals alive (some are extremely delicate, and unable to be kept outside of their natural habitats), how certain animals didn't die of stress, how those animals were supposed to repopulate without their entire genetic line going to hell, being deformed and being eventually unable to breed without their offspring dying, etc.



Not to mention there are MANY more than 145,400 different types of animals. Look at all the different types of god damned fish, even just specifically the ones that require salt water (with all the supposed rain, there would be no salt water, the ocean would be effectively diluted). You're even leaving out the fact certain animals need much more space than others to survive.

Answer 6

Right, well that rather tenuously covers four of the five vertebrate groups (though your figures are all a little small), and fish, we can assume, lived in the water. Now what about the millions of invertebrate species?



How did all the marsupials get to the middle east, and then all get back to Australasia after the floods abated?



Why did no placental mammals go to Australasia?



How did Noah exercise the animals?



What happened to the manure?



Where was Gilgamesh during all this?

Answer 7

If the flood actually did cover the entire earth so that no one save those on the ark could survive then we can assume that it would have covered the mountains as well (not much point trying to drown everyone if they can hold onto a big rock). This leaves a problem. At these altitudes the air to too thin to breathe. A boat at these altitudes without proper (read: modern) equipment would kill all its inhabitants from asphyxiation.

Answer 8

Except there's no way to build a ship that large out of wood and still have it be seaworthy. Physics says it's simply impossible.



Case in point: The Vasa was a -real- wooden ship, and it foundered, broke up, and sank shortly after being rolled out of its slip. What you're proposing would be several times larger and even more unseaworthy.

Answer 9

problem is other than geology totally falsifying that myth--in 40 days your animals would have had to have had twice the volume of the ark in food. Enough hay to feed those critters would have had such weight as to sink the ark when it went into the water.





Sorry other than they needed food and freshwater you proved you can do maths. I'm quite surprised.

Answer 10

A stock car is allowed to hold animals for a maximum of 48 hours after which time they have to be disembarked. How you going to do that with the ark?

Answer 11

That's ridiculous. The number of species you are assuming is absurdly low (there are millions of unique species). Also, you have not taken into account all of the food and fresh water required for all of those species , some with very unique dietary requirements.

Answer 12

Checkmate? You didn't even have any opponents.



I'd like for you to also calculate the food necessary for each animal...do you realize how inefficient most animals are when it comes to retaining energy from eating??



2 elephants eat nearly 900 pounds of grass/hay per day...good luck with that dude.

Answer 13

And where did they store all the food for this? And what about room to keep animals that eat eachother away from eachother. What about the refrigerated parts of the boat for things like penquins?

Answer 14

There are millions of different species on this planet, the idea of someone gathering them all in one place at the same time is comical

Answer 15

No no no...

-Two of every animal doesn't give you enough genetic diversity to sustain a species.

-There's not enough water on Earth to flood all the land

-There are millions of species on this planet. 1,367,555 > 260,000 (the max number of species the ark could hold, as computed by your numbers)

Answer 16

If Noah took all the animals onto the ark, then why didn't he swat those two flies?

Answer 17

what about animals that eat each other?

what about animals that require grazing space?

what about animals that live in the water? you do realize that a global flood would kill about 99% of water dwelling creatures right?

where did all the water go?

Answer 18

Only a chess player or a true ar$ehole says "checkmate".

Noahs ark never existed.

Answer 19

I'd answer, but you have already been completely and totally Served.



Checkmate indeed. Go back to school, kid.

Answer 20

i think you forgot elephants.... and giraffes.... and lions... and hyenas... suffice it to say, theres a lot you didn't really include. (including how the fish survived on the ark... y'know, considering that fish and whales, and sharks, and.... well suffice it to say a lot of sea creatures are animals.)

Answer 21

nonsense

and you're not asking a question which is a violation, aka a SIN

Answer 22

There are literally millions and millions of species and I don't think that your calculations are right.

Answer 23

That never happened. Do you know that is defies science? Where do you think the water came from bro? "It flooded all the earth" my ***...

Answer 24

I am a Christian.



You are absolutely correct. I use similar calcuations when I answer this questions. Also consider that God sent the creatures to the ark. Many are under the impression that Noak went out hunting for the animals for the ark. Ergo, if God sent animals to the ark, then it was likely that God sent baby animals, not grown animals. Many young creatures like bears, lions, etc., can survive on milk and not need meat. Then when these young were released from the ark, there would be a period of time before these creatures become grown and switch from milk to meat as the world begun to be repopulated.

Answer 25

Now explain how the polar bears, pandas and kangaroos all arrived in time...

Answer 26

No, what you suggest borders on insanity.

Answer 27

the problem with your figures is that it would have taken noah and company more than their lifetime to build.

Answer 28

Yeah because that is the ONE problem in that story.

Answer 29

dream on! you have left a lot of infrastructure out of your calculations ...

Answer 30

yes and mary got pregnant without penis

Answer 31

And how about feeding them?

Answer 32

I like your calculations. The rest of the ark was for food and supplies for man and animal.

Answer 33

lol..besides that.. It was the animals of the time and region. Good job though. They still wont get it. John 8:44 God Bless

Answer 34

Splendid.

Answer 35

Bravo! Bravo!! Maybe this is the proof, the evidence, that so many posters here are seeking!! Good form!!..