How Could Noah Fit All The Animals Into The Ark?

My friend Shari Abbott wrote this article for Reasons for Hope 

This is a common question and it’s a question we have answered with one of our popular deBUNKED videos.  Borrowing from the study guide that accompanies the deBUNKED DVD, I will answer this question. 

Skeptics claim that there’s no way Noah could have fit all the animals on the ark.   

Michael Shermer,  a self-proclaimed atheist, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and director of the Skeptics Society, is quoted as having said, “There’s no possible way that Noah could have retained all 10 billion species on a single boat and then distributed them appropriately where the marsupials are all in Australia and so forth.  This is ridiculous.  It is so ridiculous I find it embarrassing for people who attempt to prove that it’s true.”

 We actually agree with Shermer that it would been impossible for Noah to have taken every known species (10 billion, according to Shermer) onto the ark.  But let’s look at the plan God had and what He told Noah to do.  This will answer the skeptics claims.

 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind…(Genesis 1:21)

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind… (Genesis 1:25)

 Genesis tells us that God created land and sea creatures after their kind.  Kind is not the same thing as species. It’s closer to what biology calls families, with some exceptions.  Take for example the dog kind.  One female dog and one male dog can mate and produce various species—e.g. coyote, wolf and all domestic dogs. So the different species we have today could have easily been generated after the flood from the information already present within the parent kind.  A plain reading of the Bible teaches that Noah only had to take representatives of the different kinds of land-dwelling, air-breathing animals.  

 Genesis 6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 

 Through His Word, God is also very clear in telling us what died outside the ark:

 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. (Genesis 7:22)

 Noah did not need to take any sea creatures on the ark.  They are not “dry land” dwellers.  He also did not need to take any plant life on the ark.  He only took those creatures that had the “breath of life” in their “nostrils” and lived on “dry land.” 

 So how many animals is that?  Let’s do the math.

 From the genus level we can get all the different animals we see today—about 8,000 animals.  The Bible says “two of every” so let’s double that number to 16,000.  The Bible also says seven of some, so let’s increase it to 30,000.  The question arises, could 30,000 animals fit on the ark?

 Let’s consider what the average size of the animals would have been.  Take all young adult animals (the Bible doesn’t say it had to be the oldest or biggest) and calculate the average size of land animals.  The size is actually smaller than a sheep, but let’s use a sheep as the average size.  So we’ve increased both the number and the size of animals for our calculation.  

 Now the question becomes, could 30,000 sheep fit on the ark?  To answer that we must determine the size of the ark, which is not difficult.  God clearly gives us this information:

 Genesis 6:15-17  The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.  You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 

Using a small cubit to be conservative, we can calculate the ark to have been 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, with three decks, a door and a window.   This was a huge sea-worthy vessel with more than 100,000 square feet of floor space and a  cubic volume of more than 1.5 million  cubic feet, which is about the capacity of 522 railroad stock cars!

Now we must ask, how many sheep can fit into 522 railroad stock cars?  The average railroad double-deck stock car can hold about 240 sheep.  Here’s the math:  522 stock cars x 240 sheep = 125,280 sheep.

 

CONCLUSION: 125,280 sheep-sized animals can fit on 522 railroad cars.  Remember, the ark would have carried only 30,000 sheep-sized animals (average size of land animals).  There was plenty of room for all the animals, all the supplies for the year-long stay on the ark…and eight people on the ark that Noah built!  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVJwaU6JRNU

It’s really amazing and assuring that in God’s Word we can find answers and reasoning to our questions.  Through the power of His Holy Spirit, our great God teaches us all things:

…the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)