The Animals and Insects

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Faith1960

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I’m reading a book by a former atheist turned Christian, Counting to God, by Douglas Ell.
He brought up some good points about Noahs Ark that he wondered about when he was an atheist.

I think the flood was regional .

How did Noah get all the spiders, flies and other insects on the boat?

How did he get lions and tigers without no one being attacked?

There are dozens and dozens of variety of antelope and other animals?

There are millions of types of beetles…you get the idea.

How can this story be literal?
 
I personally don’t take it as a completely literal story, I mean, if one does, power to them, and if one doesn’t, power to them as well. I don’t know how much I believe of it to be literal, I honestly don’t really think about it. Whether it’s literal or not doesn’t affect my faith in God.
 
Sneaux said:
I personally don’t take it as a completely literal story, I mean, if one does, power to them, and if one doesn’t, power to them as well. I don’t know how much I believe of it to be literal, I honestly don’t really think about it. Whether it’s literal or not doesn’t affect my faith in God.
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Nicely stated.
 
Faith1960 said:
How did he get lions and tigers without no one being attacked?
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Perhaps the same way Daniel was delivered from lion’s den:
My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.” (Daniel 6:22)
 
Lions 'n Tigers is easy, doors on opposite sides of the ark! 🙂
 
There are many genres of writing in the Bible.
All of them illustrate a TRUTH of faith.
How they tell it, varies.
 
pianistclare said:
There are many genres of writing in the Bible.
All of them illustrate a TRUTH of faith.
How they tell it, varies.
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So the story is not 100% literal? Or should I say, are us Catholics allowed to believe it’s not 100% literal?
 
1Lord1Faith said:
As the story is told in Genesis, it cannot be literal. Who believes Adam & Eve or Noah’s Ark are literal?
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I believe it is literal.

The reason I was taught in catholic grade school, and up until middle school was, God created all these animals, he ‘told’ them where to go, so they could enter the ark, Im sure if he could ‘instill’ them with this kind of information/motivation, he could assure, during the time they were all in close quarters, there was no attacking or violence.

I guess you think of it like God had them under a ‘spell’ during this time period, so everything was peaceful and calm.
 
You can believe it actually happened, or didn’t actually happen as written (but happened in some other fashion.) The thing is we are supposed to be learning lessons from it that are not ‘scientific’ lessons but theological lessons. Knowing the style of writing helps tremendously in figuring that out. That’s why when we look at a piece that is ‘epic’ in nature, like the story in the Garden of Eden, we don’t read it for factual information… but for the lesson it is supposed to impart.

At some point there was an Adam (first man) and Eve (first woman.) That’s just truth. Is that story really only 6000 years old? That’s not important. What is important is the lesson learned from it. That God and man once walked face to face and man fell. Now we seek to restore that relationship.

The story of Noah isn’t supposed to be a scientific treaty on how spiders go through the flood etc… It’s about sin. It’s about cleansing. It’s about God’s love and protection of his chosen people. etc. The other questions are usually an attempt to discredit the story to make it impossible… for if it didn’t happen just as written… it must not have happened at all… but we Christians aren’t asking those questions. We are asking, Who is God? Who are we? And what kind of relationship can we/do we have with Him? Theology. Not science.
 
mikekle said:
I believe it is literal.

The reason I was taught in catholic grade school, and up until middle school was, God created all these animals, he ‘told’ them where to go, so they could enter the ark, Im sure if he could ‘instill’ them with this kind of information/motivation, he could assure, during the time they were all in close quarters, there was no attacking or violence.

I guess you think of it like God had them under a ‘spell’ during this time period, so everything was peaceful and calm.
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👍

Many saints also had extraordinary influence with animals.
mycatholicsource.com/mcs/dusub/animals_in_church_history_saints_and_animals.htm
 
I think that too often people have doubts because they fail to consider the power and wisdom of Almighty God. If God tells me to do something, no matter how implausible it seems to me rationally, then I have to believe that He is perfectly capable of making it happen because of who He is.🤷
 
I don’t remember dwelling on this much in school. Granted that was very very long ago, but as I recall, the whole event from beginning to end is miracu!ous. From the calling of Noah to build the Ark to the final word of the story. Why shouldn’t I believe that God could arrange a peaceful co- existence onboard the Ark?
 
1Lord1Faith said:
As the story is told in Genesis, it cannot be literal. Who believes Adam & Eve or Noah’s Ark are literal?
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I take it literally as well. I think that Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17, and Matt. 18:2-4 is in order here, “receiving the kingdom of God as a child”. If a child hears the story of Adam and Eve, or Noah’s Ark, they are more than likely going to accept the story as absolutely true as written, and would never think otherwise. When we become adults, some tend to want to use their own judgement about such stories being true as written. The Bible was not written just for children.
 
IMO, this just shows how lost our world is today, if something is TOO extraordinary, or sounds too ‘out of this world’ and/or too supernatural, many people just cannot believe it is real and try to come up with some other more practical explanation.

Somehow, I have a feeling if these same people were living at the time Jesus walked the earth and heard rumors of all the miracles he was doing, I dont think any of them would believe it, even if they saw it with their own eyes, they would say its a hoax or fake…people do the exact same thing today when they hear about supposed supernatural incidents…they DO NOT believe.
 
mikekle said:
IMO, this just shows how lost our world is today, if something is TOO extraordinary, or sounds too ‘out of this world’ and/or too supernatural, many people just cannot believe it is real and try to come up with some other more practical explanation.

Somehow, I have a feeling if these same people were living at the time Jesus walked the earth and heard rumors of all the miracles he was doing, I dont think any of them would believe it, even if they saw it with their own eyes, they would say its a hoax or fake…people do the exact same thing today when they hear about supposed supernatural incidents…they DO NOT believe.
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People of 2000 years ago aren’t much different than today, just less technology, that’s about it.
 
I believe it’s literal too, but sometimes I question that the whole world was completely covered by water and that Noah and his family were the only ones in the whole world to not be destroyed.

There are a few cases in the Bible, where when the word “world” is used, it means “the known world” or "the political world of the time. Take for example when Jesus was born, there was a census, and the “whole world” was commanded to go to the place of their birth and be registered. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”

I know there is evidence of a world-wide flood, but the only ones who survived from the WHOLE earth were Noah and his family? Maybe…
 
Simca said:
I believe it’s literal too, but sometimes I question that the whole world was completely covered by water and that Noah and his family were the only ones in the whole world to not be destroyed.

There are a few cases in the Bible, where when the word “world” is used, it means “the known world” or "the political world of the time. Take for example when Jesus was born, there was a census, and the “whole world” was commanded to go to the place of their birth and be registered. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”

I know there is evidence of a world-wide flood, but the only ones who survived from the WHOLE earth were Noah and his family? Maybe…
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There we go again with that “but” word. 😉
 
We can argue about whether the flood was literal or not but communicating historical fact was not the intent of the author. Whether the flood actually happened or not completely misses the point.

The point of the flood is creation, and re-creation. God as creator is the point. The story of the flood is one of many creation narratives in the Bible.

God’s spirit moved across the face of the waters in the first creation story. Noah and the ark and the dove moved across the face of the waters in the story of the flood. In both narratives God told man to “be fruitful and multiply.” It is a creation narrative.

It’s about creation. It isn’t about whether the flood happened or not.
 
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