Episode 12 – What About the Animals

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes: (dramatic opening music)(music under voice over)

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good..

Genesis Chapter 1, verses 24 and 25, New International Version

The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

Genesis Chapter 7, verses 1 through 4, New International Version

********

VK: Hello! Welcome to another episode of Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K in the studio today with RD Fierro, author and Founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, we’ve been taking a look at the story of Noah and the ark with a focus on whether the story is literal history or just a sort of elaborate flood myth of that kind that is present in cultures all over the world. Today, you wanted to spend some time on one of the details of the flood story that often creates questions. And it might be fair to say no small amount of confusion? Today we’re going to talk about the animals and what the Bible is actually referring to when it talks about all kinds of animals being saved.

RD: Yep. And I’m glad you said all “kinds” of animals being saved because it turns out that the word “kind” is a very important word to properly understand what’s going on with the animals that got on the boat – and what happened in the world after they got off.

VK: Well, before we get into the review of Noah how about if we listen to another devotional piece from Purposeful Prayers? Today we’re going to listen to a meditation on God’s sovereignty because it was a sovereign God who made the determination to save Noah from the destruction that would destroy everyone else.

RD: Sounds good to me.

---- Creation Song

VK: It’s amazing to think about the early days of God’s creation and how God has sovereignly superintended everything throughout history. I mean the universe has been around for so long now that we pretty much take for granted everything that we see. We treat our world and in fact the entire cosmos as if it has always been here but the truth is that it hasn’t and it won’t be in the future. God created everything for a purpose and He is guiding everything to a conclusion that will fully fulfill all his plan. That’s part of the reason we wanted to tackle the story of Noah and the flood early on in Anchored by Truth. Noah’s story is a perfect illustration of God’s sovereignty over both his people and creation and His ability to bring all His purposes to fruition.

RD: Yes. That was part of the point that we made in an earlier episode where we contrasted uniformitarianism and catastrophism as differing ways for viewing how our earth came to exist in its current form. Most people today look to uniformitarianism to as the primary explanation for the earth’s current geology but as we have pointed out in previous episodes that there is substantial evidence that catastrophism is as good or better at explaining what we see around us in the rocks and in fossils.

VK: And of course the biggest catastrophe that shaped the earth’s crust in the past was the global flood that’s described in Genesis in chapters 6 through 8. But the notion that there was this global flood does open up some questions doesn’t it? Like, what about the animals? How does the Biblical flood account square with the biodiversity and biogeography that we see in the world today? I think it’s fair to say that even though most people in our culture are aware of the role the ark played in saving animals, there is a great deal of confusion about this subject. And unfortunately there are even some mischaracterizations of what the Bible says that are used in popular media and TV shows. What did you hear on one episode of the Big Bang Theory?

RD: “Sheldon” (the genius physicist on the show) says that his mother, who he acknowledges is a sweet woman, believes that “all the animals in the world got on one boat.” The line is intended to be comedic but it wouldn’t have been included if the writers didn’t think that their audience would get a laugh at the “simpletons” who accept the Bible’s flood account as literal history.

VK: But of course Sheldon’s question does raise the legitimate question of how many animals got on the ark? Even if it wasn’t – as Sheldon claimed – all the animals in the world it would have been a considerable number.

RD: Well, that question has two dimensions – the animals who got on the ark and the ones that didn’t. As we mentioned in a previous episode of Anchored by Truth the Hebrew word in the Bible translated as “kind” in today’s scriptures (“min”) does not refer to what are today called species.

(Consult article entitled “How could Noah get all the animals on the ark” available from creation.com) “Every species of living creature did not need to go on board. Only the animals that were air breathing (‘all flesh in which there is the breath of life’ (Genesis 7:15)) and land dwelling (‘all flesh died that moved on the earth’ (Genesis 7:21)).

“So fish did not go on; they are not air-breathing. Whales and dolphins did not go on either. Although they breathe air, they are not land-dwelling. Fish and whales survive under water, although some die during floods when sediment and other debris contaminate the water. We find many marine fossils that were buried during the Flood.

“Insects were probably not collected and housed on the Ark. They do not have nostrils (Genesis 7:22) to breathe air, and can survive floods on floating debris such as vegetation mats. No doubt many insects hopped on board anyway.

“So, that reduces the number of species. But how many animals?

“Take dogs, for example—would Noah have taken two Alsatians, two cocker spaniels, two collies, two red setters, etc.? No, he would have needed just one pair of dogs, like the wolf kind, with much genetic variation, somewhat like mongrels today. We know that the different breeds of dogs have been produced from a wolf-like dog, and this only took a few thousand years. That is not evolution; that’s just variation within the original created kind.1 

“So we have many more different kinds of animals today than Noah took on the Ark. They have diversified in the 4,500 years since the Flood. The actual number of animals Noah put on board depends on what a biblical ‘kind’ is.

“[John] Woodmorappe in his book Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study calculated that the number of animals would have been less than 16,000, assuming that a biblical kind is roughly equivalent to the group of animals we call a genus today. However, if the biblical kind is equivalent to the ‘family’ grouping, then there would have only been 2,000 animals. Probably it was somewhere in between.

“The animals would have been easily housed in small enclosures because most animals are small, on average the size of a rabbit. Even large animals, such as the biggest dinosaurs, began their lives small. In selecting creatures to repopulate the earth, it would make more sense to choose those that were young and healthy, rather than the older, mature ones.”

VK: Why did Noah bring seven pairs of clean animals but only one pair of unclean animals?

RD: This is a time before the Mosaic law but evidently even then God had designated certain animals as acceptable for use as sacrifices. Clean animals could be used for sacrifices so Noah brought more of them so when some were used as sacrifices there were still pairs available for breeding.

VK: Well, that raises the next question about what did all the animals eat while they were on the ark? We know that today there are many animals that are primarily meat eaters, but that certainly wouldn’t have worked on the ark.

RD: All animals were originally plant eaters (herbivores).

Genesis 1:29 – 30

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

VK: Well, all that makes sense, but I guess that leads to the next question. If Noah brought only one pair of a particular “kind” how did we wind up with all the different species of animals that we have today?

RD: Contrary to popular belief “natural selection” was recognized by scientists who believe in Biblical creation before Charles Darwin popularized the concept in book Origin of the Species in 1859.

(Consult Chapters 2 and 3 of “The Greatest Hoax in the World” by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati available from creation.com) “In 1668 Anglican Bishop John Wilkins (1614 – 1672) the founder of the metric system and the first Secretary of the Royal Society … argued that all the varieties of cattle today, including the American “buffalo” or bison, would have arisen from two (or probably seven) cattle ancestors on the Ark.

“There being much less difference betwixt these, than there is betwixt several Dogs; And it being known by experience what various changes are frequently occasioned in the same species, by several countries, diets, and other accidents.”

His contemporary , German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602 – 1680) … had the same idea in his meticulously illustrated book on Noah’s Ark. “Kircher expressed his belief that our modern species had developed by transmutation within definite series of forms.”

Even the award winning evolutionary biologist and paleontologist acknowledged that ““Natural selection ranked as a standard item in biological discourse” among pre-Darwinian creationists.” Gould believed that Darwin’s great contribution was not the identification of natural selection as an adaptive mechanism but as a “creative force.”

VK: So that brings up a final question of how did the animals spread all over the earth when they all got off a single boat that likely landed somewhere in what today we call the Mideast? Obviously, there are animals that are present on islands or continents that are pretty remote from the place where the ark must have landed.

RD: There are two possibilities – land bridges between spreading tectonic plates or vegetation mats similar to floating islands that are seen around the world today. The Uros people of Peru live on about 40 floating islands on Lake Titicaca. Floating islands are found on six of the seven continents. All but Antarctica.

VK: So – notwithstanding Sheldon’s obvious skepticism about the accuracy of the Bible’s flood story – there are sensible answers to the questions that most people might have. And as we observed before these answers make sense in the real world. They are consistent with current observations about science and geography and biology and how world just functions in general. In other words the Bible flood account has all the hallmarks of history so it serves to validate the accuracy and reliability of the Bible even when the Bible describes events that are outside our normal experiences today. All that seems to call for us to express our appreciation for the One who created everything, so for our closing prayer today how about if we spend some time adoring the Father of all the created order.

---- Prayer Adoration for the Father

VK: Next time on Anchored by Truth we’re going to change directions a bit and discuss some of the issues currently facing Christians with noted attorney and commentator Ken Connor. We hope you’ll be with us then and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the New International Version)

The Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 24 and 25

The Book of Genesis Chapter 7, verses 1 through 4,

https://creation.com/how-could-noah-get-all-the-animals-on-the-ark