Do atheists believe the Noah’s Ark myth never happened or do they know it never happened?

Question

I know the Noah’s Ark myth is impossible so therefore, I know it didn’t happen. This is not a faith statement, like, I don’t have faith that it didn’t happen. I understand geography and biology and my understanding of these sciences allows me to determine without doubt that the Noah’s Ark myth is impossible. It is not possible to flood the entire world with freshwater, it is not possible for entire species to come from just one breeding pair and it is not possible for two of every plant, animal, insect and microorganism to live on a boat for any length of time. So therefore, I know the Noah’s ark myth is not true. Am I being closed-minded here?

Answer 1

I know that didn't happen, not the way the bible tells it. Certainly, floods have happened and communities were destroyed at various times, but never a worldwide flood, etc.



You are not being closed minded, but it is likely that those who believe the myth will say you are.



~Ex-fundie-xian; agnostic atheist

Answer 2

I feel it may be based on true stories as floods were endemic to Mesopotamia. Indeed, much of what is now the Persian Gulf was dry land when the sea level was lower (during & shortly after the last Ice age), and may also have been the setting for the stories that became the Garden of Eden tale.



So likely there were all sorts of events involving floods, maybe even notable stories of farmers rescuing their livestock in boats to get them to a Ziggurat, which were used as flood refuges. As myths are often embellished versions of real events (e.g. the Iliad,Trojan War, archaeologists finding Troy), it makes sense that the Biblical version may be an embellished version of a particular tale that was passed down and modified through the ages.



So the reality behind it is likely a peasant farmer with a boat rescuing his pigs and chickens, and having to spend a whole day before he got to the safety of a Ziggurat!



However, the myth as described in the Bible is essentially impossible, so you're not being closed minded to disbelieve it. I do too.

Answer 3

In the same way there are not people going around calling themselves ex evolutionists. The people who do not believe in evolution have a misconception of what evolution is all about or have not studied it to the point where they say aha this is true. From your point of view an ex-evolutionist obviously never really believed in evolution. There are many misconceptions about god. Rejecting god because some gods are myths is like rejecting evolution because some hypotheses have been found to be untrue. It does not make any sense. Yes, the 9-year-old belief in Santa did not make Santa true. Suppose the precocious 9-year-old believed in Saint Nicholas; if ten years down the track he or she denies the historical Saint Nicholas then we would say that the precocious 9-year-old was not as precocious as we thought. Based on the fact that we understand the difference between the myth of Santa Claus and the historical Saint Nicholas. I am not aware of any however if you did come across someone who said I am an ex evolutionist what would you think about their ideas on evolution?

Answer 4

I know it could not have happened. According to the bible, the ark was 500 feet long, 85 feet wide and 50 feet high, had one door, and one window. Aside from the 8 humans, Noah was to have taken a pair of each animal, and by sevens the clean beasts and the fowls of the air.



Forgetting the logisitics involved in keeping the animals from eating each other, and the termites and wood-eating insects from devouring the boat, and how the humans got rid of the waste generated. The storage of food for over 400,000 varieties of animals would be impossible for that size of a boat.

Answer 5

Myths don't have to be possible. That's the beauty of myths.



Stories of a great deluge occur widely in mythology throughout the world. The biblical story of Noah is a version of a flood myth that originated in Mesopotamia and was familiar throughout the ancient Near East from the time of the Sumerians (around 2500-2000 BCE). All the known versions of this myth have the same basic outline: a deity or deities send a deluge to destroy the world, but one righteous man is fore-warned of the disaster and builds a ship in which he and his family survive the flood. After the flood has subsided, the world continues to exist and is repopulated.



Before God sends the flood, the Bible tells us that human beings "began to multiply on the face of the ground" (Genesis 6:1). A similar expression occurs in the flood story in the Mesopotamian epic of Atrahasis, where the reason for the deluge is the gods' desire to curb human overpopulation.



There are striking resemblances between the Genesis story and the account of a great flood related by Utnapishtim, who is the equivalent of Noah, in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. For example, Utnapishtim survives the flood by building a ship. The vessel finally comes to rest on Mount Nisir, which is in the same region as "the mountains of Ararat", where Noah's ark comes to rest (Genesis 8:4). Utnapishtim opens a window of his ship and sends out a dove, a swallow and a raven to reconnoitre the ground, much as Noah opens the window of the ark and sends out a raven and a dove.



On emerging from the ship, Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice which propitiates the gods when they smell its sweet savour, and they agree that in future humanity should be punished if it behaves wickedly, but not destroyed. Noah likewise offers a sacrifice, and after smelling its "pleasing odour", Yahweh promises: "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind ... nor will I destroy every living creature as I have done" (Genesis 8:21). Finally, both Utnapishtim and Noah are blessed and rewarded. Utnapishtim is granted immortality, while Noah lives for another three hundred and fifty years and is granted a fecund progeny that will repopulate the world.



Similar stories include the ancient Greek myth of Deucalion, and the Hindu story of Manu.

Answer 6

I am confused at whether you believe it happened or not... But let me share some interesting facts for anyone who is reading. :)



Some may wonder where the flood waters went, and evidently, they are right here on earth. Today, there us about 1.4 billion cu km (326 million cu mi ) of water on the earth. It covers more than 70% of the globe's surface. The average depth of the oceans is 4km ( 2.5 miles ); average elevation of land is only 0.8 km ( 0.5 miles ) above sea level. If the earth's surface was smoothed out, it would all be covered with water to a depth of 2,400 m ( 8000 feet ).



Also, some wonder if the ark could have actually held all the animals. It is true that encyclopedias refer to over a million species of animals. But Noah was instructed to preserve only representatives of every "kind" of land animal and flying creature. Some investigators have said that just 43 "kinds" of mammals, 74 "kinds" of birds, and 10 "kinds" of reptiles could have produced the great variety of species of these creatures known today. The ark had about 40,000 cu m ( 1,400,000 cu ft ) of usable space - ample for the passenger list.



It is also of interest that the Chinese character for "ship" is derived from the idea of "eight persons in a vessel." This bears a striking resemblance to the bible account about Noah and his family, eight persons, who survived the Flood in an ark. ( 1 Peter 3:20 )



One last thing... :)



Reconstruction of a frozen mammoth uncovered in Siberia in 1901 was found to still have vegetation in it's mouth after thousands of years. Some see in this, as well as in such other things as marine fossils found on high mountains, convincing evidence of a sudden, catastrophic global flood.



I hope you found at least some of this interesting! :) Have a nice day!!

Answer 7

well, unless Noah's ark was like Mary Poppins bag, where everything can fit, then the whole thing is twaddle. Try fitting each type of animal into an ark of those measurements?



PS. it would have been easier if he had waited a few thousand years so that mankind could destroy all the animals, and then he could have built a twenty five footer.

Answer 8

It is not closed-minded to disbelieve an outrageous claim that has no evidence to back it up. It would be closed-minded if you heard the claim and disbelieved it without seeing if there was any evidence to back it up. For example, I reject astrology because there is no evidence to illustrate that it is true, and a great deal of evidence showing it is incorrect. Astrology buffs would call me "closed-minded". What I am is logical and skeptical, and that is a vast difference.



It is never "closed-minded" to reject a claim that has no validity or support. It is RATIONAL. I find that believers in a particular claim tend to call people "closed-minded" when someone explains just how their favorite sacred cow is not possible or probable.

Answer 9

Its what they believe, like a religion.

Is it just a coincidence that a person wrote in the scripture, thousands of years ago, specifically, that people in the future would be ignorant of the flood of Noah? How did that, so called, "goat herder", know what people like you would be thinking and exactly what your arguments were going to be, thousands of years before hand, even on this very subject? I think maybe he knew things you don't.

Answer 10

it's an absurd myth. strangely it's the one that effected my disenchantment with the whole story. a sunday school teacher tried to tell me they had never experienced rain before that time. (some people really believe that). where'd they get their water? oh, out of wells in the ground. oh? and where did that water come from? class, let's move on now...

Answer 11

It's impossible. There are too many kinds of living things in this world. The size of a vessel large enough to carry two of them all would be absurd.

Answer 12

Neither.

I see no reason to accept claims it did happen, both because it's physically impossible and because there is no evidence to show it did (as well as a mass of evidence showing it didn't).



I try really hard not to make claims of "knowing" things that aren't really "knowable" like the believers do. I find that rather silly.



Peace.

Answer 13

Nope you're being intelligent which is nice to see. Your argument is perfectly correct and based purely on logic so no you arent being closed minded, you're just using your brains.

Answer 14

You do not know, because to know would be to assume that you know everything and therefore you would know about that as well. You do not know everything.



You cannot prove a negative, therefore you cannot prove that it never happened, therefore you BELIEVE it never happened.

Answer 15

As mentioned in Genesis 6v13 God repented having created man on Eden and sent Noah, his family and all species of animals to Earth, so the question arises: How could God transfer all species of animals from other planet?



God used the same engineering to form man and animals on Eden, he brought them in the form of stem cells or embryos to be genetically developed on Earth. Noah and his family came in life. The evidences of this logistic are listed below:



a) There was no physical space on the ark to accommodate all species of animals of Eden.

b) There was no air supply and enough food for all species into the ark.

c) The weight of the animals would not be supported by the ark.

d) The long stay inside the ark would cause animal mortality.

e) A single couple in order to ensure the survival of the species would result in inbreeding diseases.



Food brought into the ark, was intended to Noah and his family, it is understood by the texts in Genesis 6v21 (gather it to thee and it shall be for food for you and them).



● Genesis 6v21» And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.          



In Genesis 7v15, mention that " went in unto Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life." It is understood that they were not living animals but the stem cells or embryos to be genetically developed on Earth.



● Genesis 7v15» And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life.         

● Genesis 7v16» And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him: and Jehovah shut him in.           



The Noah’s ark size was 144 meters long by 24 meters wide and 14 meters high, considering the common cubit of 48 cm According to the technical knowledge; a wooden structure of this size tends to disintegrate with its own weight. The gopher wood mentioned in Genesis 6v14, used to build the Ark was wood of Eden. God gave Noah the project for the construction of the ark, it is understood that Noah has worked in a wood ship building.



The ark was not a ship had no rudder or any means of navigation itself, was a large wooden packing with some resources for air renewal and adaptation to the atmospheric pressure on Earth. As text in Genesis 6v16, the ark had three floors, a window of 48 cm and a door beside the window. This ark, tarred inside and outside, stayed for 10 months (from17/02/600 until 01/01/601 of Noah's life), when it was possible to remove the covering of the ark.



The constructive aspects of the ark will now be elucidated, since Noah's ark was found in 2009 by a group of Chinese and Turkish archaeologists at the top of Mount Ararat (see article on the website: http://www.noahsarksearch.net/eng/ ).



See full subject ==> http://w

ww.soeverythinghappened.blogspot.com/

Answer 16

Nothing you say makes sense as you were not there and have no understanding of God, therefore your rant is moot. God will do away with those wise in their own eyes.

Answer 17

If you're asking if I know the difference between real and imaginary. Yes :)

Answer 18

no. you are being perfectly reasonable and using logic. you are in no way closed-minded.

Answer 19

Atheists are on their way to hell

Answer 20

Oh you know? I didn't know you where there.

Answer 21

Yes, you are. Because you don't believe in an awesome God.

Answer 22

With God all things are possible.