It is nearly impossible to find even two public-arena advocates of the global flood story who agree on such issues as the number of animals aboard Noahs ark, the kinds of animals aboard the ark, whether the they were infant or adult animals, where the water came from, where the water went to after the flood, how much water was needed, what and how much the animals ate, how the food was kept sufficiently fresh, how the animals got to the ark from distant continents, what the animals ate after the flood, and very many other issues. Some other issues are very seldom talked about at all, such as how the salt-water fish were able to survive in nearly fresh water. Nearly all of the public-arena advocates of the global flood story claim that Genesis 6-8 is a historical narrative that should be interpreted literally, but at the same time severely alter the story by adding to it a vast multitude of miracles that refute the very point of the narrative.
Students in high school have noted the following problems with the story:
There are today about 2,000,000 genetically distinct populations of animals living on the earth. If we assume a date of about 2,349 B.C. for the flood (Bishop Usshers date), microevolution reduces the number of kinds of animals that must have been aboard the ark (to account for the about 2,000,000 genetically distinct populations of animals living on the earth today) to a few hundred thousand kinds.
The several thousands of kinds of animals, including the dinosaurs, mammoths, giant ground sloths, etc., which have become extinct must also be considered. Did they all become extinct before the flood? If not, they were, according to the account in Genesis, aboard the ark.
The ark, as literally described in Genesis, was much too small because the amount of water that it would be capable of displacing would weigh less than the animals on board, thus making it impossible for the ark to float.
The floor space on the ark was too small to hold any more than a tiny fraction of the cages that would be necessary to keep the animals in place (and from eating each other).
The amount of food required for the animals would weigh at least nearly as much as the animals, and would require a vast amount of storage space.
Many of the animals aboard the ark would have required specific FRESH fruits, vegetables, leaves, grass, bark, roots, etc., including fresh fruits that are produced only on MATURE plants. Therefore, these mature plants would necessarily have been kept and maintained aboard the ark, and subsequently planted in the ground after the flood.
Most of the genetically discrete populations of fish (including many VERY LARGE fish) would have to be taken aboard the ark and kept in tanks of water that met their very specific water chemistry needs in order to survive.
The weight of the water on the earth would have crushed to death any of the land plants that did not drown in the water.
After 150 days when the water abated, there would be no vegetation on the earth for the herbivores to eat, and no meat for the carnivores to eat, therefore a vast amount of food would necessarily have been kept aboard the ark to sustain the animals AFTER the flood.
The Animals could not all be released all at once or in the same place because many of them would eat each other.
The coming of the animals to Noah from all over the earth would have been a physical impossibility no less impossible than Santa Clause delivering presents to every boy and girl on the night before Christmas. The polar bears and penguins, not to mention all of the unique kinds of animals in Australia, would have posed more than a few special difficulties.
After the flood, the animals could not be returned to their original habitat because all habitats would have been destroyed by the flood.
Many of the necessary habitats would take 50 years or more to be reestablished and their reestablishment would have required the effort of many thousands of persons.
Until all the necessary habitats could be reestablished, the animals requiring these habitats would have to be kept and cared for by Noah and his family.
There was not enough water to cover the entire earth, and even if there was, where did it go after the flood?
If the reported sightings of the Ark are factual, the Ark came to rest on a VERY high mountain on VERY rugged terrain from which the large majority of the animals would not have been able to descend.
A literal reading of Genesis 6-8 includes only four miracles:
1. God spoke to Noah (Gen 6:13-21; Gen. 7:1-4; Gen 8:17-18)
2. The LORD shut Noah in the ark (Gen. 7:16, KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, NAB, etc.)
3. all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. (Gen. 7:11, NRSV)
4. God made a wind blow over the earth (Gen. 8:1, NRSV)
Therefore, the narrative of Noahs Ark cannot be a literal account of an historic event. Indescribably huge and very numerous miracles would have been necessary, and a literal interpretation of Genesis does not allow for these miracles because the point of the narrative is that through the natural, physical means of an ark built by Noah and his family, mankind and all the kinds of animals were saved from the floodwaters.
