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FW Fish vs SW FishParts Per Thousand Salts

Noah’s Ark: Part 4

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 11, In the year of our Lord, 2018

  • I was asked whether John Woodmorappe anticipates these questions or is he answering a critic?
    • Much of it he is answering a critic
  • With each example, Mr. Woodmorappe cites multiple cases
  1. How could the narrow temperature tolerances of many bats and reptiles have been met on the Ark?
    1. Most animals can tolerate a wide range of temperatures
    2. Reptiles need light and warmth, but only over long periods of time do they suffer from a lack
    3. Evidence shows reptiles become acclimated
    4. Mirrors or some reflective surface could have directed light from the window to parts of the Ark
    5. Their preferences might be a post-flood occurrence
  2. Can animals go into hibernation only under highly exacting conditions?
    1. Animals hibernate or go into torpor (cf. zoos) under various conditions
    2. If conditions not optimal, some will go into short hibernation
    3. Post-flood requirements may have changed
  3. Would the constant motion of the Ark have prevented the Ark animals from hibernating?
    1. Some are not disturbed by any stimuli
    2. Animals hibernate now in transoceanic journeys
  4. If awakened during hibernation, would the Ark animals die, especially if awakened repeatedly?
    1. No, because even now they may awaken during hibernation several times
    2. Woodmorappe’s assessment on animal dormancy on the Ark:

      “Despite the difficulty of quantifying the effects of dormancy on the Ark, the energy-saving implications of possible suspended animation of animals on the Ark can be assessed in general. There is an asymptotic decline in numbers of animals cared for per additional day that they are dormant. Let us consider, as discussed previously, the fact that each person on the Ark cared for 2,000 animals daily. This is under the assumption of no dormancy. If now, on average, animals were dormant every other day, the number of animals to care for was halved—1,000 animals per person per day…It is clear that long-term sleep of all or even most animals on the Ark was not required in order to have effect a drastic reduction in the number of animals needed to be cared for each day” (p. 135, Emphasis his).
  5. Would the oceans have gotten intolerably hot for marine life as a result of volcanic action during the Flood?
    1. Volcanic activity during and because of the Flood
    2. Underwater volcanoes now do not heat the ocean
    3. Volume of water would prevent
    4. Any increase was tolerable
  6. Were the waters on earth much too muddy during the Flood for anything to have survived in them?
    1. Parts of the ocean would have had sediment
    2. Other parts would not have
    3. We have observed mud moving in the ocean but above the turbidity the water was clear
    4. All the sediment would not have been in suspension simultaneously during the whole Flood
  7. VII.Since most freshwater fish do not tolerate saltwater, and most marine fish do not tolerate freshwater, how could both kinds of fish have survived the Flood?
    1. Fish can become accustomed to different levels of salinity
    2. “Gold fish will die within two to three hours if placed suddenly in half-strength SW, but will survive indefinitely in that medium if gradually acclimated to it” (p. 143)
    3. SW & FW mollusks acclimate the same way
    4. [Figure 7]
    5. Post-Flood microevolution may have happened and so aquatic creatures can now live in different conditions
    6. [Figure showing stratified salinity]
  8. VIII.Since amphibians are very fragile creatures, how could they have survived the Flood?
    1. Sensitivity may have arisen after the Flood through microevolution
    2. Some amphibians are found surviving in diluted SW
    3. They would have been in the parts of the water that had the least amount of salt
  9. Would any salt left behind on land (after the floodwaters had drained off) have posed a problem for plant growth?
    1. Even assuming today’s salinity, it is leached by rainfall and irrigation
    2. However, ocean salinity is increasing from runoff
    3. Mixed with massive amounts of FW would have diluted it
  10. Since most seeds do not float, how could plants have survived the Flood?
    1. Many kinds do float for months, even years
    2. Plants could have survived in other ways
    3. Seeds still attached to floating plants
    4. Loose seeds would have been in floating mats of debris
    5. Ones that sank would germinate once Flood retreated as in local floods now
    6. Plants reproduce in other ways
  11. If the seeds became soaked during the Flood, would not the plants all have germinated prematurely, and suffocated?
    1. No, those tangled in floating debris were protected
    2. Noah had seeds on board as grain for food
    3. Areas would have been cold initially, preventing germination
  12. XII.How could plants that have specialized pollinators reproduce after the Flood?
    1. Most can be pollinate more than one way
    2. Those dependent on only one are not genetically-determined, but ecological association
    3. Microevolution may account for current trends
  13. XIII.Once the roof covering of the Ark had been removed by Noah, were the animals exposed to the hostile elements?
    1. Gen 8.13

      13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry (Genesis 8.13).
    2. He did not need to remove the entire roof
    3. He only needed to peer out and see the land
  14. XIV.What is one obvious reason for God having re-instilled the fear of man in animals (Genesis 9.2–3)?

    2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs (Genesis 9.2–3).

    1. Freed animals often stay attached to human captors
    2. The new fear would keep them away from man
  15. What are some advantages of the Ark having landed in a mountainous region instead of on a plain?
    1. Mountainous regions usually have more microclimates
    2. Shade would have been more abundant
  16. XVI.What was there for animals to eat (besides each other) once they got off the Ark?
    1. The Ark was not the only source of food
    2. Gen 8.11 shows that immediately after the Flood, plants started growing

      11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth (Genesis 8.11).
    3. In the 7th month the Ark rested on Ararat
    4. More than 5 months before they would exit the Ark
    5. Plants would have been growing rapidly
    6. Seaweed would have been left behind
    7. Fungi
    8. Carcasses that sunk would not have decomposed as fast
    9. Buried animals would have been exhumed by receding waters
    10. Residual pools of water would have aquatic life
  17. XVII.How long did it take for the first food chains to re-establish themselves after the Flood?
    1. Without competition explosive population growth would have occurred
    2. How fast do insects grow?
    3. Worms reproduce quickly
    4. Rodents super quick
    5. Slow-growers would not have been eaten since other sources readily available
  18. XVIII.How could animals that breed only when in flocks have reproduced themselves from single-pair founders released from the Ark?
    1. They will breed under less than ideal conditions
    2. Post-Flood changes through microevolution
  19. XIX.Can single-pair founders give rise to lasting populations?
    1. Gen 6.19–21

      19 “And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them” (Genesis 6.19–21).
    2. For other reasons, various kinds of animals have gone extinct
    3. Many examples of single-pair starting whole colonies