Oolon Colluphid

Because of The Fall™, of course. Everything was cursed because of the incident with the apple (hence the need to eliminate all the animals too), and even the "just and righteous" Noah (6:9, 7:1) couldn't be let off scot-free. Gotta make the buggers suffer!

Queen of Swords

When I was a kid, we were given a videotape called "Noah's Ark". Or maybe it was "Noah's Animals", I'm not sure. Either way, it was one of the cutesiest movies I've ever seen - more saccharine than anything Disney ever put out. I think this is one reason creationists believe in and defend the Noah's Ark story so strongly: it's a treasured part of their childhood, and mentally they see it as the Noah's Ark in the cartoon.

Just in case you're wondering, in the movie this marvel of engineering did have just the one window, but Noah got plenty of ventilation because he was out on deck, at the wheel, steering the ship. Where he thought he was steering it to is unclear. He was fine out there, though, because the rainfall was just a gentle drizzle.

Ezkerraldean

the Noah's Ark story is true....................... because it's cute, and mummy said it was when i was a kid.

Sven

Yes. I like to question fundies with: "Which kind of flood story would you expect from primitive nomads, believing in a tribal god? Which differences to the flood story of the Bible would you expect?"

TomboyMom

Werner Gitt is a computer scientist and information theorist (and Young Earth Creationist) with no more engineering background than you.

ElectEngr

Must...resist...temptation.....nnnaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

So Noah was a Time Lord ???

Later,
ElectEngr

Babylon Sister

Why didn't we think of that before! The ark was dimensionally transcendental! That how it was done! Yeah....

Helo

The biblical measurements for the ship are as follows (Converted from Royal Egyptian Cubit to feet)

515 feet long
86 feet wide
51 feet high

Lets look at the materials. The biblical translation of the materials used dont agree, the translations favor gopher, cypress, or cedar.

We can throw cedar out instantly. Cedar was highly prized by ancient peoples for its aeromatic qualities and its fine finish. It was on par with gold and silk in terms of expense and would have been a poor shipbuilding material. If Noah cut enough cedar to build an ark, he could have sold the cedar and bought a fleet of ships with the revenue he had earned

Cypress can also be ruled out. Cypress does grow in the area where Noah reputedly lived but one cypress tree does not produce a great deal of wood so you'd need so many trees you'd spend all the time alotted to you chopping down trees.

We arent real sure what gopher wood is but lets assume its abundant and avalible.

The largest wooden cargo vessel ever build was the Wyoming, launched in 1909, measured 305 feet long and it needed 90 iron crossbars to make sure it didnt buckle at sea. The boak reportedly snaked badly (The stern of a vessel moves back and forth visibily in a snake motion, often observed in poor quality vessels) and still leaked fiercely untill the day she sank 14 years later.

In Noah's time, metal was not used in ship construction. Nails consisted of wooden pegs driven through pre-drilled holes. The wood would swell when wet and lock the two pieces of wood together.

It is inconcieveable that Noah with such primitive technology could have built a ship thats almost twice the size of the Wyoming and had no problems with it

Coragyps

[QUOTE]Everything was cursed because of the incident with the apple.../QUOTE]

Except gopher wood. It wasn't cursed but triply blessed: cuts and drills like balsa, stronger than titanium alloy, exudes its own pitch that can also be used to glue it together. Repels termites and shipworms. And creatures of the Gopher and Woodchuck Kind won't gnaw holes in it while at sea. You just have to look at these things from a Biblical Perspective(TM).

Monad

No Cedar was commonly used for shipbuilding in those times and in that region - for example the Egyptians used it to build their largest boats (although their earlier, smaller ships were made mainly from Acacia wood) - using pitch to waterproof it just as Noah was said to have done.

http://touregypt.net/village/exhibits_boats.htm