Piltdown Superman

People have concepts about Noah's Ark, but most of them probably come from cutesie books for children. Mayhaps they imagine those floating bathtub things with giraffes sticking their heads out. Atheists (and many Christians) laugh at Noah's Ark because of what the Bible does not  teach. It may come as a shock that paintings and such showing animals going on the Ark were modern animals, and are probably wrong. The artists worked from what they knew. What Noah carried were the biblical kinds from very long ago. Ark Encounter, Pixabay /  Michael Wysmiersk Several articles have been featured on this site from Answers in Genesis regarding several aspects of the Ark, how it was seaworthy, the way it may have been built, how many animals, and more. But the critters themselves? They researched that aspect as well, presupposing the truth of the Bible but also incorporating paleontology and other sciences. Several things to think about are presented. Formerly a zookeeper at Answers in ...

Stevia Dolce, the baker at the Darwin Ranch, made one of her stealth visits to my place. (This is because she does not dare show doubts about evolution for fear of her job.) As I chewed on a croissant she brought, Stevia said that her questions may have been tolerated by foreman Rusty Swingset, but she was not sure. The first question is quite reasonable for believers and unbelievers alike: In the Genesis Flood scenario creationists describe, how could the Ark avoid capsizing? Second, why were the animals punished and called "corrupted?" Ark Encounter, Pixabay /  Michael Wysmiersk Those are  good questions. After complimenting Stevia about her thinking (and baking), I admitted that I had a bit of work to do because I had not considered either question very much. Now, I don't think the Ark was the very first ship built, ever; Noah and his sons would have had shipbuilding skills . Also, while the Flood and many aspects of it were miraculous, not everything involved was . Co...

As stated before, when comparing worldviews it is necessary to see if they are consistent within their own frameworks. Christians claim to believe that the Bible is the written Word of God. Biblical creationists go further by declaring that Genesis is a record of recent creation, so written details are accurate. Many people know that the people at Answers in Genesis have the Ark Encounter , which is a theme park featuring a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark built according to biblical specifications. This raises questions about the Bible and the Ark itself. AI-generated Noah's Ark image, Pixabay / dlsdkcgl For the Ark Encounter, Answers in Genesis has conducted a great deal of research. In this first of two articles, the feasibility of the number of animals on the Ark is considered. They did not use the easiest or safest numbers. Mockers will say something like, "The Ark couldn't have held all those animals. Because atheism," or words to that effect. They don't...

A spell back, we examined characteristics of Noah's Ark and saw that the entire process was not just an series of miracles (see " Noah's Ark and the Miraculous " for those article links). Answers in Genesis has spent considerable time on the logistics of the Ark. Here are two more articles of interest. It has been a dogma of Darwinism that early humans swung down from the trees but had not yet evolved intelligence. Numerous examples of their genius ruins evolutionary presuppositions. That is because humans were created with intelligence from the beginning. Grinding peanuts with ox power, Wikimedia Commons / Michael Gunther ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Indeed, the Bible mentions skills of people before the Genesis Flood which included metalworking and the like. (Some people speculate that Noah and family could have hired people to help build the Ark, even though they would have thought it was foolishness.) They lived a mighty long time, and after the Flood, Noah reached a total o...

Last week, I was riding back from a men's conference on creation with some fellows. As I was making the coffee one morning on the campfire (boil the water in the pot, take it off the heat, scoop in ground up coffee, simmer a spell, add clean, crushed eggshells and all that good stuff), one of the boys asked about Noah's Ark. After I had the coffee done right, I joined the conversation. One fellow said there must have been a passel of miracles to get everyone through. Was the whole Flood a series of miracles? Noah's Ark, Pixabay / Jeff Jacobs (modified at PhotoFunia ) Because of uniformitarian science and evolutionism, people have wondered if the Genesis Flood and Noah's Ark are just myths or parables meant to convey spiritual truths. As discussed before, compare biblical accounts with mythology and huge differences are obvious (for example, the  Māori myths vs. the creation narrative ). Indeed, the Bible is a historical record giving names, times, and other details mi...

First, a look behind the scenes. I did not title this using the singular possessive because of the way titles and certain other things are rendered. In this case, Noah's Ark. When challenging a position someone holds, rational people try to understand the opponent's point of view. The material should be examined to see if it is internally consistent and not chock full o' arbitrary assertions. Scoffers presuppose atheism, naturalism, deep time, evolution, and so on. To them, Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood are just stories and not historical narratives.  Noah's Ark at Answers in Genesis, Unsplash / Elias Null Misotheists do not honestly examine what biblical creationists say for consistency and plausibility, instead writing it off because they filter what they say through their own worldview. Essentially, a straw man argument. They like to put Christians on the defensive and expect us to defend views we don't hold. We don't have to. You savvy that, Pilgr...

There are several aspects of speciation that are shocking — shocking , I tell you — to both secularists and biblical creationists alike. Although Russell Watchtower and the Ministry of Truth at the Darwin Ranch crank out propaganda that Darwinian scientists are unified (and people believe it), the truth is quite different. It is to be expected that there are disagreements among evolutionists about whether or not some critters should be classified as a different species, but there are numerous species concepts. Also, speciation and variation are well in keeping with biblical creation science! 22 species of birds, art ca. 1870s via Boston Public Library The waters continue to get a mite murky. There are four main ways that scientists explain speciation, but some of those are controversial. Other times, they may overlap. Creationists have been accused of believing in the fixity of species , where God created everything "as is". Informed creationists do not hold to that view, whi...

Recently, there was an infestation of fundamentalist evolutionists at The Question Evolution Project on Facebook who were outraged — outraged , I tell you — about " Evolutionists Deny Evidence to make Darwin Smile ." Deal with the post? Nope. Their reactions indicated that it was threatening to their worldview. They used ad hominem s , red herrings, tu quoque , equivocation on both evolution with science  and modification with evolution . There are also arbitrary assertions and ignorance of evolutionary mythology. Darwin's internet disciples, just like the brass in the secular science industry, have an a priori  commitment to materialism. Straw man Noah and the Ark* Of course, they utilized one of the most common attacks of their kind, the straw man fallacy. Misotheists and other anti-creationists demonstrate that they are unwilling to learn what we actually believe and teach. Secularists criticize creation science from their  sources, their  perspectives and opin...

Back on 1 April, Ken Ham posted that Answers in Genesis would be changing its name to Answers in Exodus . In some ways, Creation Ministries International could be Answers in Ancient Egypt. This child picked up some of their posts such as Adam referenced in Egypt , Noah's son Ham deified in Egypt , their chemists and perfumers , but I skipped the one about the Shoshenq redemption — I mean, the Shoshenq synchrony . Didn't understand it. Folks who read that material should see how some things work together showing how Noah was also known to the ancient Egyptians. Nun, god of the waters of chaos, lifts the barque of the sun god Ra ( public domain ) Today, we have a two-part article discussing the author's working hypothesis about references to Noah in Egypt, and he makes a strong case. The articles are heavily researched and not exactly light reading, and Gavin Cox tells us that he will be writing on related topics in the future. (He has also written many other articles for CMI...

In the first part , we examined evidence that Ham, a son of Noah, was elevated to deity status by the ancient Egyptians. Numerous comparisons between Genesis and linguistics, plus recorded history, make this concept highly probable. The author draws from additional material in the second article to support his claim. Some are admittedly speculative, and it becomes difficult because of the tremendous amount of time that has elapsed. Egyptian symbolism became modified and additional symbolism had been added for special purposes. Statue of Horus, Temple of Horus at Edfu, Flickr / Warren LeMay  (given to public domain ) Noah might have been flattered, being the father of a god. Well, there are linguistic connections between Noah and two of Egypt's gods! We know that eight people were on the Ark. Like other cultures around the world , Egypt has a global flood legend with notable similarities to the biblical account — Horus/Ham features in it. Enmity between Horus/Ham and his brothers ha...

Some comparatively recent history, say, within two hundred years such as  Butch, Sundance, and Ethel is disputed . For that matter, there is dispute about the tall tales of Paul Bunyan. Some say there is no historical basis, others say Paul was a combination of two actual lumberjacks . It is a fact that the Bible provides accurate history, and no claim has ever been overturned by historical records or archaeology. Biblical people were real, not myths, allegories, fairy tales, or anything like that. Threads of history and culture relate to Noah's son Ham and his relationship with Egypt. Horus, WikiComm / Eternal Space ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), modified with PhotoFunia and others Repeated verification of biblical records over such great amounts of time add support for the divine authorship of the Bible. You've heard of the Egyptian god named Horus, right? Mayhaps seen the Eye of Horus symbol, too. Sometimes he's a falcon, other times a dude with a falcon's head, or other manif...

When someone says dinosaur , what is the first image that pops into your mind? Most likely, the toothsome  Tyrannosaurus rex , a lumbering sauropod like a Diplodocus , the Velociraptor  as portrayed in the Jurassic Park  movies. The big guys get the best press. Dinosaurs came in a range of sizes. In fact, the Velociraptor  was about the size of a turkey. Some of the reconstructions are from woefully incomplete skeletons. Some of those views were later revised, and should make paleontologists repent of their hasty assertions. Spinophorosaurus,  Wikimedia Commons /  Nobumichi Tamura  ( CC BY 3.0 ) Using good remains, there are a few candidates for the longest and for the most massive. With the bigly-huge connotations, people tend to disbelieve that dinosaurs could have fit onto Noah's Ark. Yes, they were the largest created land creatures, but there were those small ones as well. Noah would have brought juveniles. If scoffers would allow biblical creatio...

Interesting how scoffers reject archaeology when it supports the Bible, but when tendentious evidence is twisted against  the Bible, then yee haw boy howdy, the Bible is wrong. There are claims that the Bible copies other religions, such as the ludicrous "Jesus Myth", and stories that Christianity was a reworking of pagan mystery religions . Charges of copying are made against the Creation and the Genesis Flood, and some even think the Ark of the Covenant is a copy of something Egyptian. It is not difficult to refute these. Library of Ashurbanipal /  The Flood Tablet  / The Gilgamesh Tablet / Wikimedia Commons /Fæ ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Creationists say that there was a global Flood, and after the dispersion at Babel , people took the account with them around the world. Naturally, there are corruptions over the years, but many (including the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere ) have core elements in agreement with the Genesis narrative. One of the most popular "co...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Misotheists have a nasty habit of lying and misrepresenting God, the Bible, creation science, Christians, the Genesis Flood, and Noah's Ark — just to name a few. For the Ark, they may be thinking of the cringeworthy " Bathtub" versions  from children's storybooks. Misotheists also like "memes". In internet usage, they are basically captioned pictures. But atheists are not very good at them because they are irrational and easily dismantled by thinking people. I happened across one that was ridiculing Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark at Answers in Genesis, Unsplash / Elias Null Atheopaths don't want us to argue or debate what we  actually  believe and teach. Rather, they try to have us defend straw men. Indeed, when debating, taking cheap shots or using logical fallacies makes the accuser lose credibility. An informed, skilled debater goes after the strong points of his opponent's view and allows a reasoned response. This is rare...

Unbelievers spread boilerplate criticisms of the Bible among each other, acting as if they had smoking gun refutations available. It is common to have misotheists refer to the Bible as "fairy tales" and "myths written by bronze age goat herders", but those claims are nonsense. Honest, intelligent people may wonder if mockers have actually read fairy tales, myths, and the biblical account. It is not necessary to consult a literary scholar to see the differences. We have a couple of articles on the Genesis Flood to consider. Storyteller  by Anker Grossvater, 1884 / Source:  Wikimedia Commons A spell back, we looked at three articles regarding some marked similarities in Flood legends of the Americas . What was interesting is that while there were absurdities and changes added over time, many had basic points in common with the Bible. This indicates that the true story became legends told by descendants of Noah and the families of his sons. There are claims that the Ge...

We have been pondering legends of the Great Flood in the New World, beginning in the area of the continental formerly United States in Part 1 , then we headed way up north in Part 2 . This time, we will turn around and go down Mexico way, and even further south. Nick Liguori is the author of the book  Echoes of Ararat , and also of this three-part series.  As stated previously, there are many cultures from antiquity that have Flood legends with many things in common despite the degradation of the stories over the centuries. Machu Picchu, Peru image credit: Pixabay /  Poswiecie I am once again asking you to consider the fact that the legends had notable similarities, especially that there was a deluge. Not death by army ants, tremendous winds, giants, fire from the sky, or other things. Water. Most of these were punishment for the wickedness of humanity, though some were because one of the "gods" was offended. Still, such diverse cultures that were widely separated had sim...

In the first part of this series , we considered Flood legends from indigenous peoples of the continental United States area. Nick Liguori is the author of this three-part series, and also the book Echoes of Ararat . He has accumulated a body of evidence about disparate peoples having fragments of Genesis Flood memories handed down by their ancestors. There are many tribes of which most people have never heard, some were isolated from each other, but they had verbal traditions. (Something I should have mentioned before is the Walam Olum, the "Red Record" , a written document of the Delaware Indians that has many surprising parallels to the biblical accounts.) Now we can venture north, out of the continental U.S. Hamasaka, a Kwakiutl chief in Tluwulahu costume with speaker's staff—Qagyuhl (principal chief) Modified from Library of Congress / Edward S. Curtis , ca. November 1914 Crossing the border into Canada, these groups are even more widely separated and had even less c...

Many disparate cultures around the world have legends about a world-destroying flood, usually brought about because deities were punishing human wickedness. There were only a few survivors. That in itself seems remarkable, but sometimes the details and their correlations with Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood are rather startling at times. There are people who falsely claim that the flood story in the  Epic of Gilgamesh  was stolen by the Hebrews who lived not all that far away, but that can be dismissed through the cold light of reason. What about all those other stories? The Great Flood  / Artist unknown / 15th century The Native American tribes didn't have contact with the Hebrews. In fact, some tribes lived in close proximity to each other but still had different languages and cultures. How did the similarities happen despite cultures, languages and distances? Like unbelievers presuppose atheism and naturalism, Bible believers presuppose the truth of the Bible. Histor...

While some dinosaurs were rather small, the ones that get our attention are the towering heavies. It is easy to assume that big creatures came from big eggs. Cartoons and dinosaur movies sometimes show extremely large eggs, but that is not the case. They hatched small and grew like other critters. What are the implications for Noah's Ark? Credit: Wikimedia Commons /  Palauenc05  ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) An egg could not be the size of a typical human because the shell would necessarily be thick. In fact, it would be too think for the unhatched dinosaur to breath or even escape if it could breathe in the first place. Paleontologists have learned from fossils that, like humans and critters, dinosaurs had growth spurts in their younger years. Biblical creationists know that God brought animals to Noah. If you think about it, there would have been no reason to have the largest dinosaurs taking up a great deal of space on the Ark. They would have been juveniles, and after they dis...