Noah's Floating Zoo
Those who claim a universal flood say every species on earth was brought into the ark. The Bible tells us every "clean" animal were brought by sevens and the unclean animals by twos. (Genesis 7:2) For the universal theory to be correct, Noah would have been required to bring a sample of each species now living (and many hundreds more, now extinct) onto the ark. Could this even be possible considering the number of animals and the size of the ark? (see Genesis 6)
A cubit is about 18 inches long ... so the ark would have been about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. The total volume would have been about 1.5 million cubic feet. (I have seen measurements which claim this ark was configured in relation to the temple...)
Anyway, a squirrel or rabbit would need about 3 cubic feet -- an elephant about 1400 cubic ft. A turkey 9 cubic feet, a lion 120 and a giraffe, 900 cubic feet. We could justly figure about 10 cubic feet per animal on average --- this does not count the insects or any space for stalls or cages or containers.
We also have to consider food for the animals which God told Noah to bring on the Ark (Genesis 6:21). Since the ark was "home" to everyone for over a year, there would have to be storage space for food for everyone. The average person eats about 1300 pounds of food a year (about 7 times his weight) An elephant eats about 60,000 lbs. of food a year which is 7 to 8 times its weight. An ox or cow (clean animals BTW) can consume about 24,000 lbs of hay a year. A wolf can eat a sheep a week or 52 per year - 20 times its weight and a lion 35 times its weight. (well, the list goes on... but you get the idea)
With only 1.2 million cubic feet available on the ark, it appears Noah would have needed at least 43 arks to accomplish the job of storing all the animals and their required food. AND we have not considered all the vegetation and water for drinking and bathing.
We must also consider the impossible task of Noah gathering every species of plant and animal on the planet and then somehow, redistributing them back to their original habitat. Many animals require specific climate and habitat in which to live. How would Noah have provided this on the ark? I'm also not going to put you through the considerations of the monumental task of just 8 people tending to keeping this many animals, clean, groomed and exercised! Nor will we consider what might have been done with the waste products of these animals.
In all fairness to those who believe in a global flood, in was not necessary for Noah to gather the animals, because God could have brought all of them to him. To fit all the animals on the boat, the animals could have been all small or new borns, and not necessarily full grown animals. This way, the amount of food necessary to feed them would have been a lot less. It is also possible that, if there was a global flood, God could have caused a deep sleep to fall on these animals (many animals do go into hybernation), which would have helped Noah and his family greatly in tending these animals.
Then too, there is the problem of the salt water and the fresh water mixing. This would kill off the various species of marine life. It would also wipe out all of the trees and seeds of other vegetation as well. If the tops of the highest mountains (about 29,000 feet) were covered, this means the water level would have been five miles above the present sea level. The water pressure would have been about 800 tons per square inch. Ten months of this pressure, along with the lack of light and mixture of salt water would have destroyed all plant life and seeds on the planet. The entire life cycle, which depends upon plants would have ended. Still, the animals released obviously found vegetation to eat.
If the whole planet was covered with water, how did it drain away or evaporate in 164 days? This could not have taken place in 100 years.
The Bible is regarded as infallible and the fundamentalists believe it must be read in a literal context. This is done out of a misguided reverence for the Bible. There are many types and shadows throughout the Bible which revolve around certain words. Water, ark, saved, world, fire, etc. Many of these symbolic words can be found in Genesis, Daniel, Revelation and many of the prophecies.
We must also remember what we have is not the original word of God... but copies, versions and translations of the original words from God. Translations and copies of the Bible by men are not infallible. The Bible does contain poor or even wrong translations, some were by accident while some were intentional. Can these mis-translations be read at "face value?" To do so may render an understanding which may be in conflict with science, history, or the Bible itself.
The Map of History
The Flood of Genesis was a true historical event. According to historians, and Bible scholars, the date was from November in the year 2345 to November 2344 BC. These dates fall smack in the middle of the period in history known as the BRONZE AGE. (3000 BC to 1200 BC) This was a significant period in history. The technology to forge bronze increased trade routes, necessitated the domestication of draft horses, the invention of bellows, ox carts, potters wheels, as well as the invention of the plow for cultivating the soil. These were great advances. If there had been a global flood, it would have set civilization back to the Stone Age and it would have taken centuries to recover what was lost.
Written records dating from this time are, of course, not too plentiful. But one cannot deny the existence of archeological evidence that many great civilizations existed in various parts of the world at the time of the Flood and continued through it. If Noah's flood had been universal, all civilizations would have been destroyed along with their inventions, language, art and whatever other advancement each unique civilization would have made. History does not reveal gaps or a large void in any of these cultures which would be the natural result of a catastrophic event such as a global flood.
Earliest written records of an advanced civilization are those of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. Their King Lists date to about 3350 BC. This shows an ongoing civilization well through the period of the flood.
Egypt's history shows no record of a sudden, complete disruption by a great deluge. The pyramids and other monuments erected there before the time of the flood would surely have been destroyed (or at the very least) badly damaged by a universal flood.
China's civilization experienced a prosperous period during the Yao Dynasty (between 2400 - 2200) with no record of a cataclysmic interruption.
The Minoan civilization on the island of Crete entered a cycle of cultural advancement about 2500 BC. These people had already produced works of art, established cities, had an alphabet and made use of bronze prior to the date of the Flood. It continued to develop and was established as a center of trade until is was destroyed by a volcano in 1470 BC. Though this civilization was based on and island, there was no evidence of a flood in written or archeological evidence.
The civilization of the Indus Valley was a thriving state in 2500 BC. It boasted of two great cities harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. This civilization rivaled that of Egypt and Mesopotamia and continued to exist uninterrupted until 1500 BC.
More evidence is found in Phoenicia. This was a thriving trade center which existed before, during and after the flood.
These along with other groups, the Japanese, the American Indians, and the Negro tribes of Africa, all survived the period of the Flood. There is no evidence that any of these millions of people suddenly disappeared from history and then suddenly re-appeared all over the world carrying the same culture, art, language, writing and architectural designs -- unique to each civilization.
The real tragedy is, when fundamentalists try to make history conform to their false notions about the Bible, it makes both them and God's Word seem foolish and unrealistic.
This is the last part of what I had planned for proof of a local flood. There are other proofs in archeology and evidence of racial types progressing through this period without interruption.
The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden to the East. Genesis 3:24, "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
This land East of Eden was to become Adam's new home. Since we learned in the first part of this study that the flood occurred in #127 Adamah, we can assume this land East of Eden was the general location of the flood.
It is a popular opinion that Eden was located near the Tigris-Euphrates river in a place now called Mesopotamia. However, at the time Moses would have written these words, this land (then called Shinar) was as well known and populated as the land of Egypt. He would have logically referred to it as the land of Shinar. Because this is how Moses referred to it in other places in the Bible i.e. (Genesis 10:10, 11:2, 14,1 14:9, and 24:10) This area was well known to Moses by it's familiar name.
According to L.A. Waddell, in his book "The Makers of Civilization, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia understood (even before the time of Moses) that Eden had been located East of their land.
Reading further in the Genesis account, we find other clues as to the exact location of Adam's land. There was a river with 4 heads. In Genesis 2:10, the account goes on to name the four rivers; Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates.
Frederick Haberman "Tracing Our Ancestors" considers the plateau of Pamir to be the original Eden. He believes this was the homeland of Adam's descendants up until the time of the Flood. Today this area is known as the Tarim Basin or Eastern Turkestan.
This region is surrounded by a ridge of very high mountains forming a gigantic basin in the midst of them. It measures 1,000 long and is about 350 miles wide. From the lakes of this plateau come four great rivers: the Indus, the Jaxartes, the Oxus, and the Tarim. The Oxus is still called by the natives the Digihun or Gihon; the Chitral branch of the Indus answers the description of the Pison; the Jxartes is the original Euphrates and the Tarim going toward the east is in all probability, the Hiddekl. It was a flood of gigantic proportions which brought judgment upon all that were in this land. It may have been "local" but it was my no means minimal.
Conclusion
If the flood was local, it would explain how, only 292 years after the flood, at the birth of Abraham, Egypt was a great nation. It would also explain how there were many other nations, such as the "The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites" (Genesis 15:19-21).
http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/flood.html