How could Noah's Ark have held two of every kind of animal? Many people assume that this is an impossibility and reject the Bible on other matters, as well. Unfortunately, these skeptics seldom take time to test the feasibility of the account.
Only air-breathing, land-dwelling animals needed to be rescued from the worldwide Flood aboard the Ark. There was no need for fish, insects, amphibians, or whales. Furthermore, a biblical “kind” (animals that could breed) is different than the modern species. Only one pair of dogs was needed and these would have had all of the genetic information needed to later breed different dog varieties, such as wolves, coyotes, foxes, dingoes, or domestic dogs. Taking this into account, at most 16,000 mammals, birds, and reptiles would have been on board, with an average size smaller than a sheep. The size of the Ark was approximately 1.4 million cubic feet. Modern railroad stock cars totaling a volume of 1.4 million cubic feet would be capable of housing 125,000 sheep-sized animals! Only a small fraction of the huge vessel would be needed to house the required animal life; and plenty of room remained for people, food, and supplies.
The enormous size of the Ark only makes sense if it was built to save every kind of land animal alive before the worldwide Flood. Every detail in the Bible is there for our benefit. The very dimensions of the Ark allow us to confirm the credibility of the account of Noah's Flood.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, April 18.
