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The Great Flood Many, many cultures across the globe have myths about a great flood that swept over the earth, destroying almost all life. The oldest is probably in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the most well known is, of course, the Noah's Ark story. There seems to be a lack of geological evidence of any disaster of that magnitude. Again, many evolutionists do not accept the theory of the great flood because, unlike creationists, they do not accept the Bible as an authority. |
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Religion's Answer: The Noah's Ark story can be found in the Book of Genesis (in Hebrew, Bereshith). According to the Bible, God was incencsed at the wickedness of humankind and decided to destroy them all, save one righteous man, named Noah, and his family. He commanded Noah to "make [himself] an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch." (Genesis 6:14). God then promised to "bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth shall die" (Genesis 6:17). Noah was to take upon the ark seven pairs of each 'clean' animal and one of each unclean animal and seven pairs of each kind of bird. It rained for forty days and forty nights, and then the ark lit upon dry land. God, regretting the loss of his creations, made a covenant with Noah, promising never to wreak such a destruction again.
Creationists have gone to great lengths to prove the legitimacy of a Great Flood, despite the lack of geological evidence. For more information on their answers, click a link below. |
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Science's Answers: Since we have already stated that there is questionable geological evidence of a cataclysmic flood, here we will deal with problems researchers have found with the Biblical flood story. First, the ark was too small to accomodate from two to fourteen of each of the thousands of species, some of them very large and heavy. Also, it is unlikely that he could have found rare creatures that inhabited far-off places. Secondly, the living arrangements would have been complicated, since it wouldn't do to place carniverous animals alongside their prey. Although many creationists claim that all water animals were left off the ark, this cannot be, since the rains changed the salinity of the waters to such a degree that it would have left the earth with no fresh-water creatures.
Other arguments against the Ark story involve how Noah and his family would have been able to feed the creatures for so long, since they were aboard the ark for over a year. He would have also had major problems with sanitation. Lastly, no one has ever been able to locate the Ark itself, although the story goes that it lit on Mt. Ararat in the Middle East. Many hoaxes about the Ark have come out, but no real evidence. |
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