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| | *''And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.'' (Gen. 6:5) | | *''And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.'' (Gen. 6:5) |
| | God had repented of His creation, and decided to destroy it; only Noah was righteous before Him, and God decided Noah and his family was to be spared the destruction of the world by a flood. Noah was told to build an ark, place onboard pairs of animals, and ride out the waters. The ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, where Noah made a sacrifice to God, who accepted it and swore never to destroy the earth with a flood again, giving the rainbow as a sign of His covenant. | | God had repented of His creation, and decided to destroy it; only Noah was righteous before Him, and God decided Noah and his family was to be spared the destruction of the world by a flood. Noah was told to build an ark, place onboard pairs of animals, and ride out the waters. The ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, where Noah made a sacrifice to God, who accepted it and swore never to destroy the earth with a flood again, giving the rainbow as a sign of His covenant. |
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| | + | ==Controversy== |
| | + | Many people, including some Christians do not believe that Noah's Ark existed and have raised many objections to the existence of the Ark and the Flood. These include the following: |
| | + | * a lack of room for all the animals, usually on the basis of the biblical reference to ''kinds'' being the same as ''species'' (and there are about 1,250,000 identified animal species on Earth <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species</ref>). Supporters of the account reject that ''kinds'' is to be equated with ''species'', so use a much lower number. |
| | + | * a lack of geological evidence for a global flood. <ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html</ref><ref>[http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/other_papers/rapid_post_flood_speciation.shtml A Critique of Rapid Post Flood Speciation] by [[Reasons to Believe]] an [[Old Earth Creationist]] ministry</ref> |
| | + | * The inability of the eight humans on board to care for all the creatures on board. |
| | + | * The difficulty some animals would have getting to or from the ark, especially those adapted to a specific habitat, such as the sloth, which can only travel hanging on the branches of trees, and animals that live on islands and could not swim to those islands after the flood. |
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| | + | Young Earth Creationists have written a number of responses to such criticisms, such as John Woodmorappe's ''Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study''<ref>http://www.rae.org/noah.html</ref> which argues that ''kinds'' is not to be equated with ''species'', and that there would therefore be a much smaller number of creatures on the ark, and that there are ways that the humans on board could have cared for all the creatures on board. Creationary geologists have also pointed out that much of the Earth's geology is sedimentary (water-laid) rocks, as one would expect from a global flood. |
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| | ==Babylonian flood story== | | ==Babylonian flood story== |