We're gonna need a bigger boat.

So, God was angry with humanity so instead of explaining how they could sort themselves out, he decided to wipe them all out with a massive flood.

To keep some humans alive, plus the animals he entrusted the secret of his plans to a 600 year old drunk called Noah.

Anyway, Noah and his sons made a boat and somehow magically 2 of every animal walked onto it pretty as you like and sat there quite the thing for 40 days and 40 nights while the godsent storm wiped out everyone else.

Now, a few questions I'd love anyone to clear up for me.

How big was this boat?
How did every animal get to the boat, is the world even connected like that?
If Noah and his songs were all white, where did all the black people come from?
How many songs did he have cause inbreeding is wrong.
How come no one else had a ship that worked?

Answers on a postcard.

I don't know exactly how it all was but Noah's ark has supposedly been found on Mt Cudi or Judi, which is somewhere between Iraq and Turkey, which is where we (Muslims) claim that the ark stopped. These links are pictures of the ark.

http://yuntravel.net/eng/image/tourdata/dogu/photo_ararat.jpg

http://whoyoucallingaskeptic.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/noahs-ark-national-park-10-km-from-ararat.jpg

It has been estimated (the ark) as being 40,000 square meters in size, which is about the Titanic's size, which is how it carried so many people and animals. It was made of strong wood and took about 120 years in the making, many people called him mad and ignored his warnings and so they did not know the flood was coming nor did they prepare for it, that long time also explains how the animals were gathered. It not only carried Noah and his sons, but also his companions and followers (which explains the diversity of races). I do not know if anyone else has a "boat" and was saved by it, who knows really, but if the storm was that strong no one would survive on a regular boat, but you never know.

The story of Noah and the ark is very old, he is the fourth prophet of god, so it is normal for the world to be more connected, the world wasn't always divided into 7 continents.

Since you like the wikifacts, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah's_Ark

It has a bit about research made about the flood and the ark itself.

The story is about 4500 years old, there are many things that will remain unknown and although these stories are an important part of religion, they are not all what religion is about... the important part of any religion is the message. At the end you decide what to believe and what not to.

NOw that is the kind of post I respect as a response to questions about religion, not just subjective opinions or bibel quotes, but a bit of research and some decent thinking.

Interest darksecrets.

Can I infer then how old Noah was when he finally set sail? He must have been well over 600 years old, so do you believe people used to live that long, even with the poor medical knowledge they had back then?

The pictures of Ararat, whilst interesting aren't really evidence enough for me, because geology throws up all kinds of weird shapes all over the world and rock formations can look like almost anything.

We make it fit.

Also, I don't see mention of Noah taking anyone else but his family with him, most notably his sons and their wives, who I'm going to assume where all of similar racial background.

I found this. Of particular note was Noah's age, which is rather alarming. Also the small size of the ark, particularly it's height considering the amount of animals and food it would need to store...

Also how long they were on board, and that it was only Noah, his wife, 3 sons and their wives...so 8 people left alive and only them to restart humanity.

If this was a pulp fiction novel, it would get sent back to the writer to fill up the massive plot holes.

* What was the ark made of? Gopher wood Gen 6:14
* What was the length? 300 cubits (about 450 feet)
* What was the width? 50 cubits (about 75 feet)
* What was the height? 30 cubits (about 45 feet)
* What shape does it resemble? A house or a block Gen 6:15
* How many floors were there in the ark? The ark had 3 floors filled with rooms Gen 6:14 & 16
* Did it have doors and windows? One window and one door (Genesis 6:16)
* Who shut the ark? God did! "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in." Genesis 7:16
* Who built it? Noah by God's direction & specifications
* Why did he build it? To save his family and representatives of all animals of the world (Genesis 6:18-19)
* Is it true that the animals came in ONLY 2 by 2? NO. God sent the CLEAN animals in 7 by 7 - Genesis 7:2 & The UNCLEAN went in 2 by 2 - Genesis 7:15
* What does the RAINBOW mean? God put a rainbow in the sky as a covenant and promise to remind His people that He would never destroy all mankind by water again. Genesis 8:13-17
* Do we know when the flood started? Well sort of. We know that Noah was 600 years old. And they went into the ark in the second month and the 17th day. Genesis 7:11
* How many days were between the times that Noah sent the dove to find land? Noah sent out the Dove out in intervals of 7 days. Gen 8:10
* Who built the Ark? Noah was the builder of the ark and survivor of the floods Gen 5:29
* How long did it rain? 40 days and 40 nights
* How many sons did Noah have? 3 Named SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH
* Were they married? Yes Noah and his son were all married
* How long were they on the ark? Actually it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. They entered in the second month. In the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month the ark rested. In the tenth month they could see the tops of the trees. So Just short of a year they were on the ark. They left in the second month on the seven and twentieth day of the month. (Gen 8:4-5 7:11 8:13-14)
* How long did it take for the water to recede? They entered the ark on the second month and ark rested on the seventh month. The waters decreased continually until the tenth month. The earth was completely dry by the second month of the next year. SO you would just take 40 days from the total time on the ark and then an additional 7 days because it waited 7 days to rain. (Gen 8:4-5 7:11 8:13-14)
* Where did the ark come to rest? The Ararat mountain range of Armenia. "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." Genesis 8:4
* How old was Noah when he went on the ark? 600 years old
* How long were they in the ark before it started to rain? Noah and his family were in the ark for 7 days before it started to rain. Genesis 7:4
* What does Ararat mean? The Hitchcocks Bible Names Dictionary says that it means "Curse of trembling". The Hebrew Lexicon says this: Ararat = "the curse reversed: precipitation of curse" 1) a mountainous region of eastern Armenia, between the river Araxes and the lakes Van and Oroomiah, the site where Noah's ark came to rest 2) (TWOT) the mountain where Noah's ark came to rest

Yeah i agree ^

Cool story, bro.

Thanks Kevin
What you mentioned is also true.

The record of others besides Noah and his family on the ark is only in our resources (Muslims) and specifically the shia sect because that's what I'm from and that's what I know and believe, because of that our beliefs are a bit different and we get the credibility of our information from other resources. Some of the resources say that 72 others were on the ark and others just say the believers. Anyway, here are some links that might be useful.

Last line here: http://english.bayynat.org.lb/messengers/PNoah.htm
First paragraph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah , although it says that the others saved do not reproduce.

There is also another explanation to this. Historical/genealogical records say that Adam and Eve carried the full genes of mankind and so his children carried half from their mother and half from their father and so created a diversity of races, also in our records of Adam's story, god created mates or partners for each of Adam's sons and daughters (in addition to the fact that cousin marriage is promoted in Islam) it became more and more diverse, a network of related different races. It could be and is recorded in Islam that Noah's sons had similar gene qualities Ham was recorded as the forefather of the southern peoples (Hamitic Africa), Sam, forefather of the middle peoples (Semitic), Japheth, forefather of the northern peoples (Japhetic Eurasia).

More on the linked incest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Noah

As for Noah's age; I do believe that he lived that long, they say that lives of mankind used to be longer and their bodies and structure was stronger and bigger, some graves that are supposedly human graves of prophets and other people are huge, if you look at them you imagine giants. If you notice even now, a few years ago the life expectancy of humans was 80 something, now it's sixty something and as we go on in life lives are getting shorter and shorter. I don't have any evidence on this but you judge for yourself, how many deaths have we currently had in this world for people between the ages of 15 and 45? And as those increase the world's life expectancy increases. If you look at the lives of prophets, you'll see that it is recorded that Adam lived some thousand years and lives decreased and Prophet Mohammad was the shortest living prophet of them all, he died at the age of 63.

Another thing Kevin, the record of Noah being 600 something years old may not be in earth solar years, people have used may ways to define and count time and they haven't always been how we count it now... even now some Hebrew tribes and people still use the Hebrew calendar, Chinese use the Chinese calendar and Muslims use the hijri calendar of the lunar year. So how about 4500 years ago, did they count and define years like they did, after all the solar calendar only starts after the birth of Christ and the lunar hijri starts after the migration of Mohammad. they deffinatly used another calendar and they had other ways to count time 600 years may be less than they are and 6 or 7 days for the creation of the universe may be counted in a way that makes them more than 6 or 7 earth days.

Interesting info, I'm pressed for time right now so I'll post more tomorrow.

For now, I thought I'd inform you that people are in fact, at least in my country living longer and getting taller. I might dig up some records to prove this tomorrow, but the idea that humans used to live for 600+ years, is a bit "lord of the rings" for my liking.

There is nothing in evolutionary biology to suggest this has ever happened to our ancestors, ever.

I'm pretty sure the Bible isn't something to be taken literally.

It isn't about taking the words for every literal aspect of it, but to see what it represents. For example the tree of knowledge and the fruit with Adam and Eve. Sure you can look at it in its literal context, but what it represents is ignorance and its bliss.

Sorry if that's off topic, my eyes are playing games with me, so I couldn't bear to read it ^^;;