Coragyps

I once calculated 17 cm = 6.7 inches each minute of the whole 40 days to get Everest covered by 15 cubits. Of course, that doesn't take Hydroplate Theory into account.

Liam

Ah.. but.. you forget that the mountains were formed during the flood... apparently????

Albion

Yes, and warp-speed plate tectonics would do interesting things to the notion of a nice flat sea.

The Lone Ranger

I read somewhere (in National Geographic, I think) that they found some timbers from what is widely believed to have been one of Zheng He's ships. From the size of the timbers, the ship would have been well over 300 feet long, but not as big as is generally claimed.

In any event, the absurdity of the Noah's Ark story is plain. First of all, the actual ark would have exceeded (or at the very least, been right at the limits of) the physical limits for a wooden vessel. That's assuming that the vessel in question is made with hardwoods (not softwoods) and advanced knowledge of naval architecture.

This is no trivial point. Wooden vessels that approach that size leak like seives even in port, and must be constantly pumped, as has been pointed out. Actually, wooden vessels approaching that size tend to collapse under their own weight before they can even be completed -- without water to help support the weight, the timbers simply can't take that kind of strain.

Then, of course, there's the problem that one simply can't build a seaworthy vessel of that size without a considerable amount of knowledge that Noah presumably would not have been privy to.

How did he acquire the sophisticated knowledge of naval architecture necessary to design and build an interior strutting network that would hold the vessel together? Did he and his family, mine, smelt and cast the iron to build these struts (wood isn't strong enough for the struts of really big wooden vessels)? Did they also mine and shape copper sheathing to help hold the hull together?

The British Empire, at the height of its power, required a year or more to build a large wooden vessel, and that's with scores of skilled shipwrights, carpenters and engineers dedicated to the task. How long would it have taken Noah and his family to accomplish a much larger task? (After all, who felled the trees and wrought them into timbers?)

Cheers,

Michael

Doubting Didymus

God.

pz

Tyrannosaurs. That's why they had those teeth, despite being vegetarians -- they chomped down trees.

Before you rush to call that ridiculous, I've actually seen a creationist use that argument.

Doubting Didymus

You have to be kidding. Have you posted that in Camabans 'weakest argument' thread yet?

Vorkosigan

Much longer. Remember, the wood for the big Ships-of-the-line was seasoned for years. In the case of the Victory the wood had been seasoned 14 years.

Stats (vary by source): The Victory required 2,500 prime oaks -- 60 acres of forest -- more than a century old, and was 226 feet long from figurehead to sternpost and had a beam of 51 feet, displacing 3,500 tons. Crew and officers, horribly cramped, came to 850.

Vorkosigan

The Lone Ranger

Good point, Vorkosigan. Trying to build a ship out of freshly-cut wood = very bad idea.

My wood-working friend has to age his wood for over a year before he'll even think about trying to build something as small as a cabinet with it. The bigger the object in question, the longer the wood has to be aged before he's satisfied that it won't warp.

Cheers,

Michael

[ November 27, 2002: Message edited by: The Lone Ranger ]</p>

Arrowman

Yup; which is why there are seashells on the top of Mount Everest - something which evilutionists cannot explain!!!!