Amie

yeah Buffman,
Thanks for the link to the archive. It turns out this has been played out already.
Here is where I stand on the subject. I believe that the ark story to be true. Now someone has sent me a pm asking about the darn plants under the water and how could they possibly survive. I will answer here, because I see Bubba has the popcorn out, so what the hey...
As biology teacher I can say that many yerrestrial seeds can survive long periods of soaking in various concentrations of salt water. Salt water impedes the germination so that the seed lasts better in salt water than fresh water. Other plants could have survived in floating vegetation masses or perhaps a pumice from any volcanic activity and also many plants have devices for attatching themselves to animals and some could have survived the flood this way. I know that biblically speaking the olive branch was brought back to Noah by the dove and that shows that plants were regenerating before noah and his group left the ark. The one thing I do know about the olive tree itself is that it characteristically grows batter in bad soil and its growth is hindered in what we call "good soil" it is one of the trees that is able to withstand the harshest of elements and I think this flood would be construed as harsh. Many scientists believe that the geological evidence indicated that our world has undergone a catastrophic flood.
Is anyone buying this? and since I do believe the flood to have happened do any of you have any specific questions for me? I will be happy to answer them the best that I can. This is such a broad subject from size of the ark to the care of the animals to everything in between I thought I just might tell you my belief and answer anything that comes my way.
Now Bubba? may I please share the popcorn, here's some of my M&M's
Amie~

Amie

Yes It is quite possible Infinity

Bubba

For what it is worth both Helen and I are thiests, so don't feel totally in the lions den here. I'm not buying it yet but your arguements give at least a superficial appearance of being coherent, so your one giant step ahead of Kent Hovind and Ken Ham at this point. I think you'll find, though that a defense of a literal Noah's ark is an impossible task. Once you buy into the idea of an old earth and the geological collumn the evidence for a worldwide flood disappears.

Explaining away the geological collumn is much more diffocult than defending a literal Noah's ark. I tried and failed miserably. It was one of the things that made me realize that evolution/descent with modification was true.

I really don't think that an inerrant Bible or a literal belief in the first 11 chapters of Genesis are necessary for belief.

Actually, for what it's worth I find myself much more mentally healthy and able to understand the real text of the Bible since I abandoned fundamentalism.

Waiting for the next round...

Bubba

Abacus

You do realize that the tops of the highest mountains on Earth are nearly six miles above sea level? Do you believe that there was six miles of water covering the entire surface of the earth? Where did all of that water come from? And then, where did it go?

B. H. Manners

Aimee,

I unlike Bubba am an atheist and do not believe that there ever was a Noah's Ark. However, I just want to let you know to take your time and not get into a big rush. Good luck to you and your opponent.

Lone Wolf

a) Fresh water species that can't survive in salt water, as well as those only found in specific places. How did they survive, and if the answer is "on the ark", how did Noah collect a rare Peruvian fish? Same goes for salt water species that cannot survive in fresh water (corals).

b) Bacteria, viruses, parasites which depend on a host to survive. Were all species aboard the ark infected?

c) Olive trees take 12 - 16 months to reach just 30" in height in ideal conditions. Just how long did this flood rage before the waters receeded?

d) There are 1.7 million identified species on Earth, with another 10 to 100 million estimated yet to be identified. How many of these can you realistically estimate would survive in the described flood environment? Of those that can't... just how big was this barge?

Out of curiosity, are you a public or private school teacher?

MortalWombat

After the animals left the ark, what did the carnivores eat while they were waiting for the herbivores to build their populations up to a point to sustain both types of populations?

And the correlary to this is how did the herbivores survive the obvious onlsaught of predation from the carnivores, and then how did the carnivores survive once they had eaten all the herbivores?

Note: keep in mind that current predator/prey ratios in various ecosystems tend to be in the range of 1:10 to 1:100, depending on the size and metabolic rates of the predators and prey.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: MortalWombat ]</p>

Toto

I think you will find that *some* scientists believe that there was a catastrophic flood in the Black Sea region that *might* have been the basis for flood myths that eventually became the story of Noah and his Babylonian counterpart, after the application of a lot of human imagination. But this flood was not a world wide flood that wiped out most of humanity, and provides no basis for believing that Noah's Ark ever existed.

Where did you get your degree in biology, and where do you teach?

One of the last sane

Why would the water be salt water when the Bible specifically attributes the Flood to torrential rain for 40 days and 40 nights?

Kosh

Amy, could you please list the scientists who believe the flood to have occurred? Please include their respective degrees and the universities.

Thanks.