Magus55

What do you mean, what technology available to Noah? He was instructed by God. God could have told him the technology to build the space shuttle and colonize the moon.

EGGO

Did anybody talk about just how hard it would be for the ark to be staying in one piece with all the waves going around (assuming it can be built).

I know they're different structurally, but I think the same principle can be applied. A long bus or a bridge is put off into sections to help it kind of bend so there will be no structural damage.

The waves that would be going around the earth if the flood was happening would've been immense, along with the sheer magnitude and strength of the rain that would be falling.

Structurally, the ark would be unable to withstand all of this, it would break apart easily with so many segments of it having go through a tremendous amount of power hitting it at different angles.

[edit] why isn't this in the science/skepticism sub-forum or biblical criticism/history?

handle_2001

For one thing, modern technology can create replicas of the pyramids, and we have determined the methods the ancients used to build them. All of your other examples of "breaking natural laws", are flawed, because none of those achievements actually break any natural laws. Explain to me why we would even have attempted to do such things if we "percieved" they were perpetually beyond our reach?
Again you make the mistake of assuming that available technology is the only barrier to creation of the ark. The fact of the matter is it is physically impossible for an ark of the type described by the bible to exist without help of some supernatural form. But if God was going to resort to using supernaturalist means to his end, again I ask why not just make all the evil people drop dead in their tracks?

enigma555

There is a reason why, and an introductory course in mechanics of materials will show it.

Each material in the universe has certain properties. One of those is yield stress. Yield stress is the stress where the material fatigues to the point that it loses its shape and bends or stretches such that it won't return to the starting point.

Stress is force per unit area. What this means for a boat is once you hit a certain size, adding more re-enforcement won't do a lick of good. The re-enforcment is so long and massive that it will at best maintain the stress at a constant level (the area goes up due to the added reenforcement, but the force goes up proportionally).

Roland98

Um, no. Those are not beyond the laws of nature, but rather simply beyond man's ability without technology. The amount of water needed to flood the earth, in the amount of time allocated in the Bible, however, certainly would be contrary to physical laws. As would the survival of a ship made from the materials outined in the Bible during the flood of this type.

Magus55

Except the materials outlined in the Bible don't exist anymore, so how do you know they would violate the laws of nature? And once again, i'm well aware that we are talking about a supernatural event here. I would never believe in Noah's Ark or the flood if I didn't believe in God.

Roland98

Besides the fact that, presumably, they are natural, and by definition, obey the laws of nature?

Quoll

So if God had to make water from nowhere to flood the earth, provide supernatural qualities to earthly building products to hold the ark together, wave the magic wand to calm the oceans so the ark didn't shatter, transport animals from all over the earth (after sexing the relevant ones), magically replenish food/water, somehow keep host specific parasites alive, return the animals to the correct places after the flood, replenish vegetation etc etc etc why didn't he just use magic to directly achieve his aims? Why so indirect that he had to use the very natural drowning capability of water in an otherwise supernatural episode?

Doubting Didymus

Of course, most christians including magus consider the flood miraculous. It's only those creation scientists who insist that the flood is a naturally plausible and therefore scientific theory that are refuted by pointing out the physical impossibility of the flood.

Roland98

Absolutely.