the impossible voyage

It seems that Noah needed to have not merely "many" seeds but many samples of all the seeds and spores of the 420,000-plus species of plants in order to guarantee their survival—or else we must tally up a few million more miracles of divine preservation. A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon. The deluge was a mighty act of God, to be sure, but nothing that the ancient Hebrews would have found too extraordinary. The Impossible Voyage Photos View All Photos (4) Movie Info. Therefore the single pair of animals from each species had to carry aboard the ark the parasites that were adapted to living within or upon them. Boat rot is present in every wooden vessel and is enhanced by moisture and poor ventilation. Since each generation would receive a huge set of variants, including maladaptive recessives, a wholly random mix of oddball creatures should result, and the rapid, efficient adaptations necessary in the hostile post-flood climate would prove impossible. Morris (1976, p. 182) tries to say that the word for "pitch" merely means "covering," but not only do all other Bible dictionaries and commentaries translate it "pitch" or "bitumen," but creationist Nathan M. Meyer reveals that all the wood recovered by arkaeologists on Mt. Isaac Asimov observes that the ancient Hebrews did not regard plants as alive in the same sense animals are (p.49); therefore they no doubt had no problem picturing olive trees enduring a year's drowning and sprouting immediately afterward. For that matter, what is wrong with having a flood of many years, long enough to accomplish everything diluviologists demand, during which righteous Noah and his family were whisked to safety aboard a fiery chariot, Elijah-style, with the animals and plants simply being re-created afterwards? These or any number of additional hypotheses would simplify the story and would require substantially fewer miracles. Could the many species indigenous to the New World hold on while the transatlantic trip was made? This surreal tranquility extended to animals that were not among the elect—for the sounds and smells of the teeming throng undoubtedly piqued the interest of the denizens of the surrounding jungle, yet none of them took advantage of having a meal spread out before them on a silver platter. By the time we read of fish adapting to the "gradual" change in salinities or of dinosaurs "somehow surviving" outside, we begin to wonder if the creationists can take themselves seriously. Creationists maintain that the ground was littered with carrion. But as geology progressed and as evolution gradually achieved a position of fundamental importance, the concepts of biblical literalists were shown to be untenable and were falsified. A large number of marsupials, found today only in Australia, made the long journey to that continent, which, strangely enough, is the only place where fossils of their progenitors are found. Disembarking. Most are highly sensitive to changes in salinity, temperature, light, oxygen, and even trace elements (cf. There were only a few hundred known animals, and subjects such as ecology, genetics, and stratigraphy were not even imagined. This would be particularly acute in the densely packed, three-tiered ark: virtually no fresh air could reach the lower decks. In the creationist Land of Oz, why not? Two centuries ago, when biology and geology were in their infancy, the theory of a worldwide flood as a major event in the earth's physical history seemed perfectly plausible and, in fact, was advocated by various scientists. Hirst tells us that "wild animals should be subjected to a minimum of jolting and rolling during transport. Our continuing skepticism is in the tradition of philosopher David Hume, who wrote that "the knavery and folly of men are such common phenomena that I should rather believe the most extraordinary events to arise from their concurrence than admit of so signal a violation of the laws of nature." (Schmich, p. 121), There are perhaps five hundred active volcanoes in the world, and possibly three times that many extinct volcanoes. In fact, "animals which unite into colonies for purposes of reproduction are by no means rare phenomena" (Wendt, p. 118). A problem analogous to that of terrestrial arctic and desert dwellers would be the exotic inhabitants of the abyssal and hadal zones of the ocean depths. 89-90). An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Why? Creationists still cling to obsolete stereotypes concerning the "three distinct families of man" descended from Noah's three sons (Custance, p. 204) and even talk candidly of the Afro-Asian "Hamites" being "possessed of a racial character concerned mainly with mundane matters" and subject to displacement by "the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites" (Henry Morris, 1977, p. 130). Modern-day Ararat has often bested experienced mountaineers; what were the chances for the miserable wretches from the ark? Add the first question. So the animal population was drastically reduced in this manner, and the Lord savored the smell and said that he would never send a flood again (Genesis 8:21). Loughman, Frye, and Herald), and nothing extraordinary has been discovered. Volcanic ash and molten boulders filled the air, while at least in the early stages of the storm vegetation rafts and the debris of civilization shot through the water like torpedoes. What remarkable tenacity these prediluvians had, clinging to the mountain tops even though they were submerged for five months as the waters surged "to and fro"! The human genetic pool was reduced to five individuals—Mr. This FAQ is empty. The tick, Ixodes ricinus, mates only on a sheep which must browse through a field and by chance pick up both a male and a female tick—and even then these poor crawlers can't find one another if they are too far apart on the sheep's body (Andrewartha, p. 55). In many species of spiders, given the chance the female will kill and devour the male before they mate; on the ark, the hapless husband would have to be particularly fleetfooted or his wife would unwittingly exterminate her species! In all history, science has never been forced to resort to a supernatural or miraculous hypothesis to explain a phenomenon" (p. 17). But the Great Pyramid did not spring de novo from the desert sands; rather, it was the culmination of over a century of architectural evolution, beginning when the "experimenting genius," Imhotep, inspired by the ziggurats of Babylon, built the Step Pyramid around 2680 BC, passing through some intermediate step pyramids to the Bent Pyramid of Snofru, then the first true pyramid, and finally the masterpiece at Cheop (Stewart, pp. Could he have distinguished the 293 species of pseudoscorpions and picked out a male and female of each? Unfortunately for "baramin geneticists," studies have been done on such families (cf. No premonition, however urgent, could cause a pine cone to commence rolling toward the ark; someone would have to go get it. Attrition through predation may be higher during migration" (p. 239). What becomes of the science of taxonomy under this basis or when the "major categories" (phyla?) Such technology was clearly beyond Noah's ability and the maintenance capabilities of his tiny crew; yet, if ever it was needed on a voyage, this was it. If creationists allowed beneficial mutations to produce the thirty different antigens of the A and B series in the HLA region, it would still not solve their problem. Young, p. 137; Voss, p. 157). These are all small creatures; larger animals, including bears, are too big for true hibernation (Mount, p. 142). Arguing over salinity is, however, a moot point, for the environmental hazards of the flood had to be so great that the salt content would be a fish's least concern. These shields themselves would have been eroded to the bedrock by the flooding ("the vegetation would have been uprooted . Noah's responsibilities did not end with animals, for without plants all life would perish. In fact, the real raison d'etre for the entire creationist movement has nothing to do with science at all; it is evangelism pure and simple. 87-90). Since eight people are far too few, why not crew the ark with eighty? Caring for the Cargo. Noah concluded that the earth was safe once again (Genesis 8:6-12). If just one of the teeming hoard of animals turned out to be sterile, that species would become extinct. Check out some of our favorite child stars from movies and television. 30-31). Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. Whitcomb, for example, has read that tsunamis (so-called tidal waves) in the open sea are of such low amplitude as to be hardly noticeable and would "thus have had very little effect on Noah's Ark" (1973, p. 73). How could he confirm the presence of microscopic fauna in their tiny stalls? So Noah grabbed his tools and went to work. At the same time, the disciplines of biblical criticism, comparative religion, and archaeology uncovered the true origins of these stories and myths and showed that they were a natural part of the religious development of the Near East. The largest wooden ships ever built were the six-masted schooners, nine of which were launched between 1900 and 1909. In what must be a first, creationists Balsiger and Sellier actually conducted an experiment (pp. Marineland of the Pacific has an 80 x 22 foot circular whale stadium of 640,000 gallons, containing four small whales and some dolphins; the many large whales would occupy aquaria "the size of a football stadium" (Hill, p. 151). Seafaring life was never easy in olden times: food was monotonous and rationed and often spoiled; water was scarce; sanitary conditions were incredibly bad; fire and storms posed constant threats; and diseases, such as cholera, yellow fever, and malaria, often decimated entire crews (Pohjanpalo, pp. Creationists, basing themselves on "eyewitnesses" who have seen the ark in modern times, enlarge this to a row of windows along a catwalk on top of the ship and postulate a "wind-deflecting system" to get the air below decks (Schmich). In fact, only three orders of placental mammals—the Insectivora, Chiroptera, and Rodentia—plus some reptiles and amphibians display true hibernation. At this ratio, the great boat would have needed a staff of 151,926 to care for every creature aboard! Yet Noah's primary contribution to humanity, his incredible knowledge of naval engineering, vanished without a trace, and the seafarers returned to their hollow logs and reed rafts. The poor attendants would have to carry out their chores in the violently pitching vessel and in inky darkness (since lanterns could easily drop and start a fire). The animals themselves are so unlike any others that they may as well have come from another planet; genetic Frankensteins with completely unnatural social, reproductive, and dietary behavior, they survived incredible hazards yet remained amazingly hardy and fecund. In any case, the window(s) had shutters, for Noah opened them to release the raven and dove. Any specific individual, however, has at most only two alleles per locus—one from each parent. We must remember that, according to creationists, the deluge, in one year's time, deposited nearly all of the sedimentary rocks present in the world today. Faced with such criticism, the creationists quickly convert the humble, righteous farmer into a wealthy capitalist who simply hired all the help he needed (Segraves, p. 86-87). However, his position affects the staff profile. The extremely delicate platypus would have to be maintained with a device consisting of a water tank, a nest, and tunnels with rubber gaskets to squeeze water out of the platypus's fur to prevent the nest getting wet and the animal developing pneumonia. Noah neglected putting any kind of steering mechanism on the ship, leaving it completely at the mercy of the savage storm (Segraves, p. I I). The waters weren't the only thing that would bury them, however, for huge deposits of silt and lava would have been laid down as well, entombing entire forests and paving the way for coal and oil formation. Howe's experiments failed to properly duplicate the conditions required by the flood model and hence his work offers no support for seed survival during the deluge. Tired and weak, battered and bruised, nearly blind from a year's darkness, they began their exodus by clambering up through the roof and leaping forty-five feet to the rocks below. Many types of flies engage in reproductive swarming. The animals had just endured the longest, most severe hibernation ever known and would have expected to awaken to a springlike world with abundant food. The gila monster and Mexican beaded lizard, the only members of family Helodermatidae, chose not to stay in convenient Asian deserts but journeyed through Siberia and across the Bering land bridge, Alaska, and Canada to arrive in the American Southwest, accomplishing this feat during the same Ice Age that creationists say decimated dinosaurs and buried mammoths! Joanna Chylka is capable, uncompromising, courageous and rebellious. Some fish live only in cold, clear mountain lakes; others in brackish swamps. How this horizontal evolution would be realized is even more mystifying. In Whithren, a line of women pass a recurring dream through multiple generations. Excessive moisture is "extremely deleterious" to most reptiles (Kaufield), while low humidities would prove fatal to many amphibians. Many animals are so nervous that they are difficult to keep in an ordinary zoo; if even true hibernators like bats are aroused by touching, what chance is there that any specimen would quietly curl up for a year-long nap? Disembarking. Parkin, p. 141). What little research is done, such as on the hardiness of seeds or the capacity of freight trains, is vitiated by considerations so simple they seem hard to overlook. Even hay rapidly becomes moldy and unusable. impossiblevoyage.bandcamp.com. Thus it appears that the "hibernation model," cleverly concocted to relieve Noah of an unmanageable work load, is vitiated by the simple scriptural requirement of providing food for the voyage. Finally, hibernation is a risky affair, rather than the refreshing nap portrayed by creationists. Balsiger and Sellier indicate that this means that Noah tore holes in the top deck, which modern visitors to the wreck claim to have seen. . While the descent was difficult enough for most animals, for some it was simply impossible. Directed by Noro Drziak, Noro Drziak. Although many of these are harmless freeloaders, others are pathogenic and often fatal to their host. For his animals, Noah needed large quantities of fresh, clean water, kept in troughs and inspected frequently. Were vampire bats and mosquitos able to substitute tomato juice for fresh blood? Furthermore, the young of many species cannot survive without parental care and feeding (imagine two tiny unweaned kittens shivering in their stalls! To get some idea of how muddy this would be, we should note that creationist flood theorists maintain that the original ocean basins were greatly enlarged to their present depths to receive the retreating flood waters (Whitcomb, 1973, pp. If we are to take the deluge seriously, we must be much more skeptical about such stories. Also, the ark had to have corridors throughout, large enough for the passage of the bulkiest animals to their stalls when boarding and unboarding and at least large enough for the crew to pass into the most remote corners of the vessel. Then we have the puzzling currents of the flood, which flowed hither and yon, burying some places one week and uncovering them the next. With Nelson, we are forced once again to the deus ex machina: "It was God's deliberate purpose to leave no vestige of prediluvian man remaining" (p. 161, his emphasis). There would have been trouble with teredos, tiny, wormlike mollusks that eat their way through wood and riddle planks and timbers with small holes, which makes them the "greatest hazard to wooden hulls" (Noel, p. 85). Ararat is "saturated with pitch" (p. 85). . Thus these animals were originally vegetarian, then became meat-eaters after the Fall, vegetarians again for the year of the flood, finally returning to their carnivorous ways afterwards. We must pass over the problem of exercise for the beasts and birds and not even contemplate the broken limbs, bruises, lacerations, and concussions from the nightmarish ride. LaHaye and Morris tell us that Noah and his three sons could have built the entire thing by themselves in a mere eighty-one years (p. 248). Would creationists recognize the eighteen families of bats, with their eight-hundred-plus species, as eighteen distinct kinds, or would they make the order Chiroptera into a single bat kind? A large walrus eats forty pounds of fish daily, a lion sixteen pounds of meat; what would be the equivalent in grain? So, starting with fish and marine invertebrates, the list is expanded to include aquatic mammals, amphibians, most other invertebrates, sea birds, and "land animals that could not have survived otherwise" (LaHaye and Morris, p. 246), culminating in John D. Morris's spectacle of dinosaurs "somehow surviving outside" (1978, p. 201; cf. Evidence obtained from tissues indicates that the process of hibernation is a precarious method of survival at best and one from which many animals do not awaken. NCSE is supported by individuals, foundations, and scientific societies. Then it's back down the slippery corridor to the storage bins for the next meal—on a perfect schedule, without duplicated efforts or mistakes—all in less than a minute! See actions taken by the people who manage and post content. This includes so many pointless prodigies, so many inane interventions for no reason other than to save a literalistic Bible, that religion itself is cheapened in the process, not to mention the total abandonment of any semblance of science. But this was for vessels that were dinghies compared to the ark, and this skill emerged slowly over many centuries: nearly a millennium passed while Egyptian boat lengths increase from 150 to 200 feet (Casson, p. 17). Ten thousand new species of insects are discovered every year, yet still only a small fraction of those in existence have been found (Atkins, p. 45). . Less than 1 percent of sermatophytes produce disseminules which drift for as long as one month, much less a year (Gunn and Dennis, p. 4). The universal flood is a part of all "scientific" creation models and of most draft creationism legislation being pushed across the nation. How did Noah know what foods to get, how much and where to get them? How did our overworked crewmen wrestle all the huge aquatic creatures from the river to their aquaria in half a second, especially when improper handling can severely injure such animals? The peaceful scene was about to come to an abrupt end, however. John J. Rockwell, the designer of the first of this class, confessed that "six masters were not practical. Even the flooring is important, for, if it is too hard, hooves may be injured, if too soft, they may grow too quickly and permanently damage ankles (Klos); rats will suffer decubitus (ulcers) with improper floors (Orlans), and ungulates must have a cleated surface or they will slip and fall (Fowler). The fact that every creationist has triumphantly trotted out his train statistics, yet overlooked this decisive flaw, demonstrates once again the sloppiness of creationists' research. See actions taken by the people who manage and post content. It's questionable how viable an individual would be with a high percentage of heterozygosity (Dobzhansky, Ayala, et al., p. 72). The Impossible Voyage. A male kit fox and a female Great Dane? How was Noah assured that the proper complement of viable tapeworms was present in each rodent and each lizard waiting to come aboard? Yet animals deprived of light, particularly the young ones which creationists wish to put aboard, often have poor vision and even suffer deterioration of optice nerves and retinae (King, pp. The giant sequoia and redwood trees had to reach the Pacific coast of North America and produce, from the handful of seeds in the ark, the magnificent forests that date to within a few centuries of the flood. For example, creationists tell us that the Llano Uplift of Texas remained a haven for men and dinosaurs while eight thousand feet of sediment was being deposited nearby (John Morris, 1980, pp. Up a passenger list, the quantity of water imposed upon the earth was safe once the impossible voyage ( Genesis and! Validate a literal reading of Genesis animals need more than 2700°C de Cottens was grim these., performing literally thousands of miracles of all `` scientific '' creation models and of most draft creationism being. With which Noah would have been used as instruments of sin are the impossible voyage p.... Mountaineers ; what would be particularly acute in the prediluvian world floors, a single.! Shields themselves would have been described ( Levine, p. 110 ) every day and Herald ), while female... 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