Noah's Ark Historical Fact, Metaphor or Myth?

The story of Noah's Ark, according to chapters 6 to 9 in the Book of Genesis, begins with God observing mankind's sinful ways and deciding to flood the earth and destroy all life. However, God found one good man, Noah, "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time", and decided that he would save him. God instructs Noah to make an ark for his family and for representatives of the world's animals and birds.

Noah and his family and the animals entered the Ark, and "on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights". The flood covered even the highest mountains to a depth of more than 6 metres (20 ft), and all creatures died; only Noah and those with him on the Ark were left alive.

At the end of 150 days the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. For 150 days again the waters receded, and the hilltops emerged. Noah sent out a raven which "went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth". Next, Noah sent a dove out, but it returned having found nowhere to land. After a further seven days, Noah again sent out the dove, and it returned with an olive leaf in its beak, and he knew that the waters had subsided. Noah waited seven days more and sent out the dove once more, and this time it did not return. Then he and his family and all the animals left the Ark, and Noah made a sacrifice to God, and God resolved that he would never again curse the ground because of man, nor destroy all life on it in this manner. Man in turn was instructed never to eat any animal which had not been drained of its blood.

In order to remember this promise, God put a rainbow in the clouds, saying, "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

A devout Dutchman Johan Huibers has spent two years and a million euros rebuilding Noah's Ark after a dream that the Netherlands was suddenly submerged under water.

He has built a half-size working replica of Noah's Ark in Schagen, Netherlands---the ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

While the biblical boat was built from "gopher wood", the Dutch version is made from a mixture of American cedar and Norwegian pine over a steel hull.

Many cultures have flood legends, is it because they like us found fossils of what were plainly sea creatures high on mountain sides?

If so not knowing anything about plate tectonics and that mountains were formed by colliding plates the only conclusion they could draw was there must have been a great flood high enough to cover the mountains.

The gods shook like beaten dogs, hiding in the far corners of heaven,
Ishtar screamed and wailed:
"The days of old have turned to stone:
We have decided evil things in our Assembly!
Why did we decide those evil things in our Assembly?
Why did we decide to destroy our people?
We have only just now created our beloved humans;
We now destroy them in the sea!"
All the gods wept and wailed along with her,
All the gods sat trembling, and wept.

The Flood lasts for seven days and seven nights, and finally light returns to the earth. Utnapishtim opens a window and the entire earth has been turned into a flat ocean; all humans have been turned to stone. Utnapishtim then falls to his knees and weeps.

Utnapishtim's boat comes to rest on the top of Mount Nimush; the boat lodges firmly on the mountain peak just below the surface of the ocean and remains there for seven days

Noah's Ark is a bit difficult to explain as metaphor, what is the lesson for us to learn? It is also appears to imply that God is not infallible that he got things wrong. Many religious people find it hard to imagine that that all the pre-flood humans were evil even the children. There is also the odd story about Noah getting drunk and then banishing and punishing his son for uncovering his nakedness.

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On two occasions James led expeditions to Mount Ararat in Turkey in search of Noah's Ark. In 1982, he reached the 16,946-foot summit but fell on the glacier, suffering severe leg and face lacerations. He had to be carried down on horseback.

A year later, he surveyed the summit by airplane, looking down for possible remains of the Ark, which according to the Book of Genesis, came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

"It's easier to walk on the moon," he said. "I've done all I possibly can, but the Ark continues to elude us."

Arkologists produce complex theories about how big the Ark could have been quoting 522 railway box-cars, that instead of every species there were kinds, that animals were young, semi dormant, sometimes invoking that the fact that God could do anything he wanted.

At this point skeptics ask why couldn't God have simply started again without such a complex mechanism.

Whatever the case this debate won't end any time soon. If remains of the Ark can be found that will be sensational news and a stunning confirmation of the inerrancy of the Bible. Don't go away!

(Photo of Durupinar claimed to be the fossilized Noah's Ark)

Noah's Ark Farm in the UK has been causing a storm because of its creationist views. On their website they claim to believe in God plus Evolution, and they doubt that the earth is only 6000 years old but is not billions of years old.

They also tackle whether the Hebrew's Noah's Ark story had it's origins in the much older Gilgamesh legend.

The controversy is because currently the Zoo is approved by the local Tourist Boards and that most would not know they were visiting a Creationist Establishment.

Noah's Ark Exhibition", an indoor display whose centerpiece is a 14-foot scale model of the Ark itself, "designed to Biblical sizes", the sign boasts. Inside the glass cabinet animals, including dinosaurs, make their way on to the Ark in two-by-two formation. Posters explain how the great flood - an event "confirmed" by both written and geological records - came about as a result of "three simultaneous events: the eruption of the subterranean deep, the opening of the 'windows of heaven' and a downpour of torrential rain", and how Noah and his family set about rebuilding civilization. An educational panel reveals that "All the people in the world come from Noah's sons Shem, Ham and Japheth"

Age
Noah was 600 when he went into the Ark and 601 when it was all over, he died aged 950.

Who was on the Ark
Noah and his 3 sons and their 4 wives.

Date: 2348BC
According to the King James Version of the Bible, the Flood was 1656 years after Creation, which according to Bishop Usher was 4004BC. This gives a date of 2348 BC. (as a point of reference this is roughly the start of the 6th Dynasty in Egypt).

Dimensions
According to Genesis 6:15
the Ark's dimensions were at least 135 meters long (300 cubits), 22.5 meters wide (50 cubits), and 13.5 meters high (30 cubits). It was not until the 19th century that mankind constructed a larger ship.

And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

Shape
The Ark was not built to go anywhere so it was rather a dull rectangular block with one door and one window

Materials
Gopher wood (not satisfactorily identified) and pitch to seal joints

Flood duration
Rain falls for 40 days
the water rises 150 days
The ark rests on the mountains
the water recedes for 150 days

The ark includes a chapel where couples can marry.

Noah's Ark is a 1928 American movie directed by Michael Curtiz and written by Darryl F. Zanuck. It starred George O'Brien and Dolores Costello.

The film has the most realistic and moving flood scenes which have never been bettered. So real in fact that three extras drowned and Dolores Costello caught pneumonia. a young John Wayne played an extra.

Noah's Ark is a rehabilitation center for animals and a group home for children from birth to 18 years old. The non-profit facility is home to over 1,000 animals and is licensed by the State of Georgia to provide residential care for up to 24 children.

The wildlife from the rehabilitation center and the children from the Children's Care Home play a vital role for each other. The children participate in "pet therapy," nurturing the baby wildlife as the animals are rehabilitated in hopes of eventually being returned to their natural habitat. This is important because many of the children have been abused or abandoned and may have a hard time relating to people. They're able to learn to care for the animals that, in turn, are receiving much needed affection and attention.

Visit them here www.noahs-ark.org

Research has revealed details of the catastrophic Zanclean flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea more than five million years ago.

The flood occurred when Atlantic waters found their way into the cut-off and desiccated Mediterranean basin.

The researchers say that a 200km channel across the Gibraltar strait was carved out by the floodwaters.

Their findings, published in Nature, show that the resulting flood could have filled the basin within two years.

The team was led by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos from the Research Council of Spain (CSIC).

Full story here