Noah's Ark and
   Earth History

History:... a chronological record of significant events including an explanation of their causes.

A remarkable account is told in the Bible, and similar stories can be found in legends from around the world. It describes the intentional flooding of the world by God to destroy all of mankind except one because of their wickedness, and in particular due to the influence of a race known as the Nephilim. Through specific instructions from God, Noah saved every type of terrestrial animal on earth by placing them on a large vessel called an ark.

Gen 6:7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."

According to the Biblical chronology the global flood occurred approximately 4500 years ago. If this event occurred as described in the Bible, the geological evidence left behind could never be correctly interpreted by a naturalist. Although the earth is covered in monumental volumes of sediment, the existence of modern animals atop these deposits must be explained naturally (i.e. many local floods, gradual deposition over millions of years). However, the Bible specifically says that God caused the earth to be flooded until the waters exceeded the highest mountain by 20 feet (Gen 7:20), and to the extent necessary so no human was capable of surviving without supernatural intervention. The evidence of this event covers the entire world, but can not be correctly interpreted by modern science due to their atheistic philosophy and naturalistic presuppositions.   

Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Noah's ark is described as a wooden barge-like vessel approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. According to the Bible, God brought pairs of every kind of terrestrial animal to the ark to save them from this catastrophe. A single breeding pair of "unclean" animals, and seven pairs of "clean" or potentially edible animals were brought to the ark before the flood. The animals that were saved and reintroduced, evolved into all the various species alive today. With few exceptions, the Biblical "kinds" of animals brought to the ark are believed to be analogous to groups like the mammalian "Family" level of scientific classification, such as the Canine or Feline.

According to scripture, the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat which are now in Turkey. There have been numerous reports of sightings throughout history, but the region remains largely unexplored. Although the ark probably decomposed completely since the flood, it remains a dream of Biblical archaeologists worldwide that the ark would be found. The ark's discovery would substantiate the Biblical account of a recent global flood and God's judgment. A vessel of that size would arguably verify that it was not millions of years, but divine intervention that was responsible for saving modern terrestrial animals from the global flood that deposited the geological column.

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