Fifty Questions That Christians Can't Answer

[AngelaRachnid]

5) It does seem like a daunting task to build a boat large enough to fit every animal on earth in it. Keep in mind most insects, bird and any sea-animals had no need to be on the boat and the fact that there aren't actually millions of species on the planet unless you include insects (most of which are miniscule and can fly), but a good resource for getting an actual idea of how many would actually have to BE on the boat is earthlife.net/mammals/welcome.html and the total comes in around something more like 110,000 - which is a considerably more manageable number and about 88,000 of which consists of different species of spider. Considering that you're already playing with the idea that the animals flocked to the boat from devine intervention, I think that the animals could survive for a few days on what was there and that a man could build a boat big enough to hold them really isn't much of a stretch, nor would be him dropping them off on their respective continents, but I believe the idea is they all got off and spread out slowly.

You haven't got a clue about the diversity of life have you?

where to start

yes there are millions of species on the planet, there are around 250,000 species of beetle for a start, then take into acount the numerous species of microorganisms, and the numbers just start rising

sea creatures, the vast majority of which would have died because the salinity of the oceans would have been diluted by the 40 days and nights of rain, so there would have had to be loads of aquaria on the ark, now consider the size of an aquarium required for a pair of blue whales, the ark would have to be made stronger to hold the weight of water just for them, and how many species are wee looking at? and that's not including fish, inverts, etc, then withthe rivers in spate and vast torrents of water running everywhere all the freshwater creatures that live in still water would have died, so more aquaria for them, and then there are the freshwater forms of life which would die as the whole world was flooded and fresh water mixed with sea water then for the freshwater species they couldnt take the increase in salinity.

So how many aquatic species are we talking about, how many aquaria and what weight of water?

So the few esturine species might be OK

Yep most birds can fly. but take hummingbirds for example they need to feed on a regular basis in order to stay alive, they also need to roost (like the majority of other birds) at night, then there are the insect eaters, 40 days and nights of torential rain, would have stopped virtually every insect flying, so the insect eating birds would have had no food,

land mammals, possible, but how long did Noah have to gather them all? so He and his family sailed to Autralia and South America collected pairs of all the mammals (as well as everything else and sailed back to put them onto the Ark, they would have needed an ark to transport them back to the main one in the first place,

Now then reptiles, 40 days and nights of constant rain would have darkened out the sun, rain comes from clouds clouds block sunlight, sunlight is heat (and without the heat you have also have to consider heated aquaria for the tropical aqatics, mammals birds, inverts etc, so how did they do this, and the reverse for montain ans polar life) so heated vivaria would have had to be built to house the tropical reptiles in, as they had no electrickery at the time it would have to be wood burning, so thats alot of fuel which also has to be stored on the ark,

Insects, yes many insects can fly but they would be destroyed with 40 days and 40 nights of torential rain, so they would have to have vivaria to live in, now then what do you do about mayflies? some of which need clear FRESH water to lay thier eggs in and as they live only for a day as adults, you would have to get a bunch of larvae to ensure you had a pair, many of these can only be sexed on dissection, but it was only a pair right? As many insetcs are nectar feeders, you need a large amount of soil to grow the flowers is, and considering many species of Apidae are nectar species specific you then have to have samples of nearly all the worlds plants and trees (as some bees only feed on the flowers of trees), which brings another problem, you have to coordinate all the bee species with their foodplants, when all the plants (and we are talking world wide) are in flower at the same time, which dosent happen, OH and you also have to build some very tall vivariums in the ark to house the trees.

and what to do with social insects? no one knows how many species of ant there are yet, most of Central and South America are entomologicaly under recorded for the majority of living species, and many ecosystems not fully understood, so how do you transport social insects? and I thought it was only pairs?

I could go on and on, but lets just mention 2 other small points

food, you have to feed all these animals (and plants), have you any idea how much food an elephant needs? and what about insectivorous shrews, they need to eat there body weight almost every day to survive/

Excretia you might have a problem here, but i suppose if you managed to collect all the species of dung beetle you might get over this mountain of shit,

I suppose you could throw it over the side,

In order to do what it says in the bible to collect a pair of every species (remember that as you are also collecting these species you have to care for them, and think of the average zoo, how many staff do they have?) you would need a ship about the size of India, and would probably have to deforest South America to build it.

Face the truth it is logistically impossible to do such a thing in the time period given

And why didnt god just wave his hand and wipe everything out and start again if he was that powerful, then again why not just make everything perfect in the first place?

OH and tell me where in the bible it says god made man with the CHOICE, to accept or deny him, direct me to the place where it actually says "he gave man the choice to accept or deny him"

I would love to answer your other replies but my internet time is up

A