The Noahic Flood - Part One
The Flood of Noah! This will be a multi-part presentation due to not only the various issues involved but anticipation of the numbers of questions that will arise as a result. Here are some links useful to the discussion:
Animals in the Ark?
Geology and the Flood
Problems with the Flood?
________________________________________________________________________
"Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did." Genesis 6:22
Often those who do not believe in the Noahic Flood write on the subject and many times their presuppositions immediately come into play and lead them to fallacy after fallacy. The first fallacy to address is whether Noah had the werewithal to design and build the Ark. Now in this series I will not be posting as an Intelligent Design proponent at all, but strictly from the point of view of a Creationist. Both evidence found in the fossil records and other evidence available to us will be presented, along with Biblical evidence.
The Design of the Ark
The Genesis account tells us that Noah built the Ark according to a design given him by God. The basics of the design that are transmitted to us in Genesis are sketchy at best, we know the dimensions and have a fair idea of what the measurement of a "cubit" might be. We know that a type of wood was the basis for the ship and that some kind of sealing substance, translated as "pitch", was used to keep the wood from rotting and help seal the ship from leaks.
Some have proposed that a "moon pool" may have been part of the design, thus aiding in the disposition of waste products among other benefits. It is a possibility, but we cannot know because the Bible is not specific. We do know that the dimensions of the Ark are wonderfully apt for an oceangoing cargo vessel.
"Korean naval architects have confirmed that a barge with the Ark’s dimensions would have optimal stability. They concluded that if the wood were only 30 cm thick, it could have navigated sea conditions with waves higher than 30 m" (S.W. Hong et al., “Safety investigation of Noah’s Ark in a Seaway”, CEN Technical Journal 8(1):26–36, 1994. All the co-authors are on the staff of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Taijon.)
The exact nature of the wood and the pitch are unknown to us, since the words in the Hebrew are not specific and we cannot be sure of the availability of substances pre-flood. Furthermore, we cannot be certain of the level of expertise held by the antediluvians. It is a subject for a future post, but certainly the belief that they were a primitive people is not in keeping with the store of knowledge represented by mankind immediately after the flood. Modern engineers still marvel at the construction of the Pyramids and there have been blocks of stone found that modern engineers cannot conceive of transporting even today. There is also the matter of artifacts found in coal and deep rock layers that are obviously manufactured, such as jewelry, pots and vases, screws and nails and so on. This subject is a sore point for Darwinists and will not be pursued here. Suffice it to say that God gave Noah a design that he had the capability of following and the capability of manufacturing.
There have been rumors for years that a remnant of the Ark has been found on the side of Mount Arafat. This has never been proven and it is likely that the longer such a item might be exposed to the elements, the less likely it would withstand the exposure and remain available for scrutiny. There would be no need for the Ark to be built so as to last for thousands of years, but rather simply to last long enough to sustain Noah and his shipmates until the voyage was completed.
In any event, the Ark was built specifically to house a certain number of people and animals and to withstand the rigors of a world-wide flood. The dimensions are such that modern engineers concede it could well have done so. One must suspect that God would know enough to design the Ark properly.
The Crew of the Ark
Noah and his wife plus his three sons and their wives. Eight adults entered into the Ark for the voyage, which would last for approximately one year and a good 150 days of which would be "out to sea". As I stated in an earlier article linked above, John Woodmorappe lays out how such a crew would be sufficient for the needs of the care and feeding of the animals on the Ark, even though he takes into account a number of animals I don't believe would have been included.
The Animals
"two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah." Genesis 7:9
Here is another place where Darwinist fallacies abound. Noah did not have to range far and wide to select the animals to place into the Ark, since God sent them to the Ark for Noah. The animals that God selected to enter into the Ark were:
Vertebrate land animals
Some extras of "clean" animals, domestic animals useful to man
Birds
The Bible language helps limit the kinds of animals that were included. No aquatic animals, no insects, no animals not included in the Bible language were needed. The conditions associated with the flood would make the survival of aquatic animals and insects, not to mention most plant life, possible.
God's intents and purposes are clear. He said in Genesis 6:13 the following:
"The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth."
God had no requirement or need to salvage every single species of life that was found in the pre-Flood world. He doesn't make that part of His intent. Rather, He sends to Noah the kinds of animals that He wanted to preserve. God surely knew of the conditions present during the approximate year of the deluge that would allow many varieties of insects and aquatic life and all other kinds of life to survive. The important thing to remember is that there was no requirement that every single animal or plant would survive.
The designation, "kind", is the one used by the Bible and God and is not synonymous with our word for species. Kind came before species and probably our word for "family" as biologists sort out types of life would be the closest approximation. In order for the life we now have on this planet to have been contained in the Ark, that life that could not have been sustained outside of the Ark, there would have had to have been about 16,000 kinds of vertebrates and birds carried along with Noah. Based upon the nutrional needs of these animals, Noah and his family could have theoretically worked in shifts and cared for their needs. It is certainly reasonable, however, that because of both the emotional impact that such a voyage would have on the animals and also the strain of constant care that would be placed upon the crew, that God caused the animals to enter some kind of state of hibernation for a good part of the voyage and that he probably sent along the smallest viable juveniles rather than full-grown adults. Hibernation is part of the life cycle of many animals today. Could God have caused all animals to be prepared to hibernate for much of the journey? It is a logical supposition although there is no evidence to enable us to know one way or the other.
If it was God's intent to repopulate the earth solely from the Noahic family line then He would only have had to include any animals and birds He deemed necessary to make mankind's survival in the manner in which God intended available. Since man had disobeyed God and was under a curse thereby, God apparently included numbers of animals that could be dangerous to mankind among the many that would be beneficial. He would have included kinds of animals that had within their genetic codes the ability to adapt to various climates. We have seen some animals become extinct within the last century. (My father used to lament the passing of Passenger Pigeons, which once flew in great clouds overhead but were hunted into extinction). We have evidence of many animals that have gone extinct in the last few centuries. Nevertheless, the animals that continue to live on are sufficient to inhabit all regions of the planet and populate various planes of the biosphere.
Some question how violent predators could have been included in the ship's manifest of animals without being a great difficulty to the crew and a danger to other animals besides. Yet we have seen that man can tame virtually any animal on earth and teach them to perform various tricks or tasks. Certainly a God capable of creating everything could cause the animals on the Ark to behave according to His specifications.
Destruction and Preservation
The Bible makes it clear that God intended to wipe out the culture that existed before the Flood. It appears that He did, indeed, succeed in that quest. Precious little remains of that which went before, other than the historical narrative and the occasional fossil clue. Neither are sufficient to give us a good idea of what that pre-Flood world was like.
There are clues in the fossil record that the Earth's atmosphere was somewhat different pre-Flood. The physical structure of dinosaur remains seem to tell us that the world included an atmosphere that was more oxygen-rich and that animals, like humans, had longer lifespans. Dinosaurs, being a kind of lizard, likely just continued to grow during their lives and therefore for them to reach such amazing proportions would have had the ability to live far beyond the lifespans of modern animals. However, these creatures should not have been able to live in an atmosphere like we have today.
The geneaologies of mankind presented in the Bible include people who live incredibly long lives. Many, like Adam, live over 900 years. Skeptics like to scoff at these ages. However, in records found post-Flood the ancient patriarchs are said to have lived much longer than man can attain to today.
"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3
The quote above indicates that God made the decision to make a change in the genetic code of man, in order to change his lifespan. Indeed, if one places the subsequent ages of patriarchs as they descend from Noah, their lessing ages fit perfectly into the decay curve one would expect. This decay curve also reflects the changes God enacted in the genetic code and it normalizes about the time David becomes King in Israel. God had changed the world with the Flood and the result would eventually degrade the life expectancy further, as Psalms 90:10 tells us.
"The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
One interesting note is that both Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, and his father, Lamech, perished in the year of the Flood. I have speculated that perhaps Methuselah was a righteous man but near the end of his days, so that God withheld the Flood until the time of Methuselah's passing. Lamech, however, in naming Noah displayed some bitterness towards God: "And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” " - Genesis 5:29. Perhaps Lamech was among those who had turned from God and so was destroyed in the Flood along with all other men.
I do not believe that God created the Universe like a top, that he set spinning and then walked away from, nor do I see it as an intricate machine fashioned by God and that He sits at the controls changing a setting here and there as it runs along. Indeed, I do not believe that God created the world as a self-sustaining entity at all. I believe that the Universe is continually sustained by God and were He to cease to sustain it, it would pass away in an instant.
Hebrews 1:4 (emphasis mine)- "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
Colossians 1:15-17 - (emphasis mine)- "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
God does not enter into the world to perform miracles at all times, and yet miracles have been performed and He is the One capable to do so if necessary. Some consider the preservation of the Ark through the Flood to be miraculous considering the incredibly violent conditions associated with such an event. The scripture tells us that at it's height the water covered all land to a depth of 15 cubits and surpassed the highest of mountains. No local flood, this. God, knowing this, would have had Noah build the Ark in a location in which the initial influx of water would not have been terribly violent. His choice of Mount Arafat for a final resting place for the Ark doubtless was based in part because this was a location in which the Ark could rest without being battered by waves of the retreating flood and would be found in an area from which the wildlife could go forth and find sustenance and the ability to travel forth from the presence of man.
God certainly could have simply decided to miraculously cause Noah and all the other living beings to have been transported far from the earth and then returned to the post-Flood world. He could have caused all life he wished to delete to have simply disappeared miraculously. He has these abilities. However, the narrative indicates that God merely guided and helped Noah to obey Him. He allowed the cargo and crew to be kept within a container that would be sufficient to withstand all the rigors of the Flood without miraculous intervention on God's part. It has been God's calling card over the years to give mankind the answers and allow them to carry out their lives with the choice to obey or disobey.
God could make cloud formations spell out the name "Jesus Christ" in every language in every sky. He could take the form of a long-bearded old gentleman and appear to each of us individually, assuring us that He actually exists. He could broadcast thoughts like a radio program right into our brains. The need for faith could be completely eliminated so that mankind could simply know. But then, there would no longer be much of a choice, would there? How many of us would willingly choose to defy a God we absolutely know exists, one that could blot out our existence or send us to an endless state of oblivion and torment for our rebellion? Not many, I am thinking.
But God simply leaves us with evidence and His Word. It is up to man to either believe or disbelieve. The Bible is not a collection of mythical stories. It is evidence and instruction from God himself. I am able to take this evidence and along with the evidence of the nature of life itself and the rock formations, the stars, all that I can perceive of the Universe, and from this I am able to conclude that God is, and is the Maker of all I can perceive.
Tomorrow comes the Darwin is Dead Carnival. After that, and the resulting posts from that, will come more on the Flood.
Animals in the Ark?
Geology and the Flood
Problems with the Flood?
________________________________________________________________________
"Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did." Genesis 6:22
Often those who do not believe in the Noahic Flood write on the subject and many times their presuppositions immediately come into play and lead them to fallacy after fallacy. The first fallacy to address is whether Noah had the werewithal to design and build the Ark. Now in this series I will not be posting as an Intelligent Design proponent at all, but strictly from the point of view of a Creationist. Both evidence found in the fossil records and other evidence available to us will be presented, along with Biblical evidence.
The Design of the Ark
The Genesis account tells us that Noah built the Ark according to a design given him by God. The basics of the design that are transmitted to us in Genesis are sketchy at best, we know the dimensions and have a fair idea of what the measurement of a "cubit" might be. We know that a type of wood was the basis for the ship and that some kind of sealing substance, translated as "pitch", was used to keep the wood from rotting and help seal the ship from leaks.
Some have proposed that a "moon pool" may have been part of the design, thus aiding in the disposition of waste products among other benefits. It is a possibility, but we cannot know because the Bible is not specific. We do know that the dimensions of the Ark are wonderfully apt for an oceangoing cargo vessel.
"Korean naval architects have confirmed that a barge with the Ark’s dimensions would have optimal stability. They concluded that if the wood were only 30 cm thick, it could have navigated sea conditions with waves higher than 30 m" (S.W. Hong et al., “Safety investigation of Noah’s Ark in a Seaway”, CEN Technical Journal 8(1):26–36, 1994. All the co-authors are on the staff of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Taijon.)
The exact nature of the wood and the pitch are unknown to us, since the words in the Hebrew are not specific and we cannot be sure of the availability of substances pre-flood. Furthermore, we cannot be certain of the level of expertise held by the antediluvians. It is a subject for a future post, but certainly the belief that they were a primitive people is not in keeping with the store of knowledge represented by mankind immediately after the flood. Modern engineers still marvel at the construction of the Pyramids and there have been blocks of stone found that modern engineers cannot conceive of transporting even today. There is also the matter of artifacts found in coal and deep rock layers that are obviously manufactured, such as jewelry, pots and vases, screws and nails and so on. This subject is a sore point for Darwinists and will not be pursued here. Suffice it to say that God gave Noah a design that he had the capability of following and the capability of manufacturing.
There have been rumors for years that a remnant of the Ark has been found on the side of Mount Arafat. This has never been proven and it is likely that the longer such a item might be exposed to the elements, the less likely it would withstand the exposure and remain available for scrutiny. There would be no need for the Ark to be built so as to last for thousands of years, but rather simply to last long enough to sustain Noah and his shipmates until the voyage was completed.
In any event, the Ark was built specifically to house a certain number of people and animals and to withstand the rigors of a world-wide flood. The dimensions are such that modern engineers concede it could well have done so. One must suspect that God would know enough to design the Ark properly.
The Crew of the Ark
Noah and his wife plus his three sons and their wives. Eight adults entered into the Ark for the voyage, which would last for approximately one year and a good 150 days of which would be "out to sea". As I stated in an earlier article linked above, John Woodmorappe lays out how such a crew would be sufficient for the needs of the care and feeding of the animals on the Ark, even though he takes into account a number of animals I don't believe would have been included.
The Animals
"two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah." Genesis 7:9
Here is another place where Darwinist fallacies abound. Noah did not have to range far and wide to select the animals to place into the Ark, since God sent them to the Ark for Noah. The animals that God selected to enter into the Ark were:
Vertebrate land animals
Some extras of "clean" animals, domestic animals useful to man
Birds
The Bible language helps limit the kinds of animals that were included. No aquatic animals, no insects, no animals not included in the Bible language were needed. The conditions associated with the flood would make the survival of aquatic animals and insects, not to mention most plant life, possible.
God's intents and purposes are clear. He said in Genesis 6:13 the following:
"The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth."
God had no requirement or need to salvage every single species of life that was found in the pre-Flood world. He doesn't make that part of His intent. Rather, He sends to Noah the kinds of animals that He wanted to preserve. God surely knew of the conditions present during the approximate year of the deluge that would allow many varieties of insects and aquatic life and all other kinds of life to survive. The important thing to remember is that there was no requirement that every single animal or plant would survive.
The designation, "kind", is the one used by the Bible and God and is not synonymous with our word for species. Kind came before species and probably our word for "family" as biologists sort out types of life would be the closest approximation. In order for the life we now have on this planet to have been contained in the Ark, that life that could not have been sustained outside of the Ark, there would have had to have been about 16,000 kinds of vertebrates and birds carried along with Noah. Based upon the nutrional needs of these animals, Noah and his family could have theoretically worked in shifts and cared for their needs. It is certainly reasonable, however, that because of both the emotional impact that such a voyage would have on the animals and also the strain of constant care that would be placed upon the crew, that God caused the animals to enter some kind of state of hibernation for a good part of the voyage and that he probably sent along the smallest viable juveniles rather than full-grown adults. Hibernation is part of the life cycle of many animals today. Could God have caused all animals to be prepared to hibernate for much of the journey? It is a logical supposition although there is no evidence to enable us to know one way or the other.
If it was God's intent to repopulate the earth solely from the Noahic family line then He would only have had to include any animals and birds He deemed necessary to make mankind's survival in the manner in which God intended available. Since man had disobeyed God and was under a curse thereby, God apparently included numbers of animals that could be dangerous to mankind among the many that would be beneficial. He would have included kinds of animals that had within their genetic codes the ability to adapt to various climates. We have seen some animals become extinct within the last century. (My father used to lament the passing of Passenger Pigeons, which once flew in great clouds overhead but were hunted into extinction). We have evidence of many animals that have gone extinct in the last few centuries. Nevertheless, the animals that continue to live on are sufficient to inhabit all regions of the planet and populate various planes of the biosphere.
Some question how violent predators could have been included in the ship's manifest of animals without being a great difficulty to the crew and a danger to other animals besides. Yet we have seen that man can tame virtually any animal on earth and teach them to perform various tricks or tasks. Certainly a God capable of creating everything could cause the animals on the Ark to behave according to His specifications.
Destruction and Preservation
The Bible makes it clear that God intended to wipe out the culture that existed before the Flood. It appears that He did, indeed, succeed in that quest. Precious little remains of that which went before, other than the historical narrative and the occasional fossil clue. Neither are sufficient to give us a good idea of what that pre-Flood world was like.
There are clues in the fossil record that the Earth's atmosphere was somewhat different pre-Flood. The physical structure of dinosaur remains seem to tell us that the world included an atmosphere that was more oxygen-rich and that animals, like humans, had longer lifespans. Dinosaurs, being a kind of lizard, likely just continued to grow during their lives and therefore for them to reach such amazing proportions would have had the ability to live far beyond the lifespans of modern animals. However, these creatures should not have been able to live in an atmosphere like we have today.
The geneaologies of mankind presented in the Bible include people who live incredibly long lives. Many, like Adam, live over 900 years. Skeptics like to scoff at these ages. However, in records found post-Flood the ancient patriarchs are said to have lived much longer than man can attain to today.
"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3
The quote above indicates that God made the decision to make a change in the genetic code of man, in order to change his lifespan. Indeed, if one places the subsequent ages of patriarchs as they descend from Noah, their lessing ages fit perfectly into the decay curve one would expect. This decay curve also reflects the changes God enacted in the genetic code and it normalizes about the time David becomes King in Israel. God had changed the world with the Flood and the result would eventually degrade the life expectancy further, as Psalms 90:10 tells us.
"The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
One interesting note is that both Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, and his father, Lamech, perished in the year of the Flood. I have speculated that perhaps Methuselah was a righteous man but near the end of his days, so that God withheld the Flood until the time of Methuselah's passing. Lamech, however, in naming Noah displayed some bitterness towards God: "And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” " - Genesis 5:29. Perhaps Lamech was among those who had turned from God and so was destroyed in the Flood along with all other men.
I do not believe that God created the Universe like a top, that he set spinning and then walked away from, nor do I see it as an intricate machine fashioned by God and that He sits at the controls changing a setting here and there as it runs along. Indeed, I do not believe that God created the world as a self-sustaining entity at all. I believe that the Universe is continually sustained by God and were He to cease to sustain it, it would pass away in an instant.
Hebrews 1:4 (emphasis mine)- "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
Colossians 1:15-17 - (emphasis mine)- "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
God does not enter into the world to perform miracles at all times, and yet miracles have been performed and He is the One capable to do so if necessary. Some consider the preservation of the Ark through the Flood to be miraculous considering the incredibly violent conditions associated with such an event. The scripture tells us that at it's height the water covered all land to a depth of 15 cubits and surpassed the highest of mountains. No local flood, this. God, knowing this, would have had Noah build the Ark in a location in which the initial influx of water would not have been terribly violent. His choice of Mount Arafat for a final resting place for the Ark doubtless was based in part because this was a location in which the Ark could rest without being battered by waves of the retreating flood and would be found in an area from which the wildlife could go forth and find sustenance and the ability to travel forth from the presence of man.
God certainly could have simply decided to miraculously cause Noah and all the other living beings to have been transported far from the earth and then returned to the post-Flood world. He could have caused all life he wished to delete to have simply disappeared miraculously. He has these abilities. However, the narrative indicates that God merely guided and helped Noah to obey Him. He allowed the cargo and crew to be kept within a container that would be sufficient to withstand all the rigors of the Flood without miraculous intervention on God's part. It has been God's calling card over the years to give mankind the answers and allow them to carry out their lives with the choice to obey or disobey.
God could make cloud formations spell out the name "Jesus Christ" in every language in every sky. He could take the form of a long-bearded old gentleman and appear to each of us individually, assuring us that He actually exists. He could broadcast thoughts like a radio program right into our brains. The need for faith could be completely eliminated so that mankind could simply know. But then, there would no longer be much of a choice, would there? How many of us would willingly choose to defy a God we absolutely know exists, one that could blot out our existence or send us to an endless state of oblivion and torment for our rebellion? Not many, I am thinking.
But God simply leaves us with evidence and His Word. It is up to man to either believe or disbelieve. The Bible is not a collection of mythical stories. It is evidence and instruction from God himself. I am able to take this evidence and along with the evidence of the nature of life itself and the rock formations, the stars, all that I can perceive of the Universe, and from this I am able to conclude that God is, and is the Maker of all I can perceive.
Tomorrow comes the Darwin is Dead Carnival. After that, and the resulting posts from that, will come more on the Flood.