Noah’s Ark? Seriously?
Introduction
I still have the homemade craft of Noah’s ark shown in the picture above. When my twin girls at the age of four each made one of these, I felt very proud of them.
But doesn’t that cute little craft seem to illustrate that the whole idea of Noah’s ark and the flood is ridiculous? I mean, how could all of the different animals and birds we see on earth today have fit on that ark?
Well, the global flood, which basically destroyed the face of the earth at that time, and the ark, are not ridiculous. Serious feasibility studies show that not only would all of the required animals fit on the ark, but there would have been plenty of room to spare.
How Big Was the Ark?
Genesis chapters 6-8 give us the historical account of the great flood. And it is fascinating.
Concerning construction of the ark, God told Noah:
“Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.” (Genesis 6:14-16, NLT).
Now I really like that young children learn all about the flood, and put together crafts of Noah’s ark, in Sunday school. But they also need to know that the ark was a truly massive ship.
As long as a 45-story building is tall, the ark was an ocean liner sized vessel. Researchers estimate that the volume would have been the equivalent of about 522 livestock railroad cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep.[1]
How Many Animals Were Saved?
Concerning the animals, God told Noah:
“Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals. So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.” (Genesis 6:19-22 NLT).
Notice that we see the word “kind” used in this passage four times. This is the same word (Hebrew: min) used during the Creation account in Genesis chapter one when God created all of the world’s plant and animal life “each according to its kind.”
Recall from our prior post that most of the animal and plant kinds are at a family level of classification, with some exceptions that may be higher or lower. One guideline is whether or not animals are able to interbreed with each other. If so, they are probably part of the same kind.
For example, horses, zebras and donkeys are able to interbreed, so they are probably descended from the same equine (horse-like) kind. Dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals are probably from a common canine (dog-like) kind. All of the different types of domestic cattle are descended from a cattle kind, which probably also gave rise to the bison and water buffalo.[2]
God’s intention was to save the animal and bird kinds that were alive at the time. So, only representatives of each kind were needed on board. It’s a mistake, then, to think that representatives of all of the different species alive on earth today needed to be on the ark.
After the flood, the animal kinds saved on the ark would have multiplied, spread out, and diversified according to natural selection, resulting in the great variety of life on earth today. Note that this is not evolution. As explained in our last post, neither natural selection nor mutations provide any genetic information gain. Rather, information is lost as animals adapt to local habitats.
Researchers estimate that there were about 8,000 animal and bird kinds saved on the ark. This means that roughly 16,000 animals would have been on board.[3] I find it interesting that Noah didn’t have to go and find them. God chose the animals himself, and supernaturally called them to come on board the ark on their own (Genesis 6:20 NLT).
Is It Feasible?
Most of the animals on the ark would not have been very big. The vast majority would have been no bigger than the size of a beagle.[4] The median size of all the animals was probably about the size of a small rat. Only about 11 percent would have been much larger than a sheep.[5]
Recall that the volume of the ark was equivalent to about 522 livestock railroad cars. If the animals were kept in cages with an average size of 20x20x12 inches (some would be much larger, and some smaller), then 16,000 animals would occupy the volume of only about 14.4 out of the total 522 rail cars.
Even if one million species of insects were on board, with pairs in cages averaging 4 inches on a side, they would occupy a total volume of just 12 cars.
That would leave room for 5 trains of 99 cars each for food, Noah’s family, air space, and extra space for animals as needed.[6]
Dinosaurs?
Yes. If we take the Bible seriously, the dinosaurs would have been created on Day 6 with all of the other land animals. There is no reason to believe that any of the original animal kinds had gone extinct before the flood, so dinosaurs would have been rescued on the ark along with all of the other animal kinds.
Researchers estimate there were between 50 and 90 created dinosaur kinds.[7] Most of them were not big, and many of them were about the size of a chicken. The average size of all of the dinosaurs was about that of a sheep.[8]
The larger dinosaurs would have been brought on board as juveniles. The biggest known dinosaur eggs are only about the size of a football, so young dinosaurs, even huge fully grown, would have been rather small.
Conclusion
As Bible believing Christians, we consider the story of Noah and the great flood to be an historical account of real events that actually happened. Skeptics criticize the flood and the ark, suggesting that it’s unreasonable to think that all of the animals and birds required would have fit on board. But creation researchers have more than adequately responded with serious feasibility studies.[9]
It’s a mistake to think that all species alive today were needed on the ark. Rather, only representatives of the animal kinds alive at the time were needed. In this case, not only would all of the required animals fit on the ark, but there would have been plenty of room left over.
[1]Batten, Catchpoole, Sarfati, Wieland, The Creation Answers Book (Queensland, Australia: Creation Book Publishers, 2012), 186.
[2]Ibid., 184-185.
[3]Ibid., 185.
[4]Ken Ham, ed. The New Answers Book 3 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2018), 53.
[5]The Creation Answers Book, 185.
[6]Ibid., 186.
[7]Ken Ham, ed. The New Answers Book 1 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2020), 128.
[8]Ibid., 128.
[9]Consider the book by John Woodmorappe, Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study, Institute for Creation Research. Other sources can be found on Creation.com and AnswersinGenesis.org.
This is very interesting Greg…and a good way of explaining how all the animal kinds existed on the ark. It must have been fun for Noah and his children to wander around looking at & playing with the animals!
Elaine