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Creationist Challenge - Build the Ark

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
A little brouwn bat can eat anywhere from 4000-8000 mosquitos per night. 370 nights x 6000 (average) mosquitoes x 2 bats = 4 440 000 mosquitos to keep the bats alive (oh, plus the extra two mosquitos he'd need to have left over at the end would make 4 440 002). Man, collecting four and a half million mosquitos just to keep the bats alive must have made it damn difficult to collect the tonnes of grass needed for the grazers. Sheesh.
You wouldn't need that many mosquitos. One female mosquito will live for up to a few weeks as an adult and lay a raft of 200-300 eggs every 3 days or so. Depending on the mosquito species and how hungry your bats are, you'd probably only need 80 to 240 female mosquitos as a "breeding colony" to provide the 8000 - 16000 mosquitos per day that the pair of bats would need. If you collected, say, 300 females and enough males to fertilize them (say 100, just to pull a number out of the air), then that would be enough once your colony got going.
 

MSizer

MSizer
You wouldn't need that many mosquitos. One female mosquito will live for up to a few weeks as an adult and lay a raft of 200-300 eggs every 3 days or so. Depending on the mosquito species and how hungry your bats are, you'd probably only need 80 to 240 female mosquitos as a "breeding colony" to provide the 8000 - 16000 mosquitos per day that the pair of bats would need. If you collected, say, 300 females and enough males to fertilize them (say 100, just to pull a number out of the air), then that would be enough once your colony got going.

I should have known better than to try to make any calculations about the ark. The last time I tried I exposed my inability to do so (I expect you yourself remember that 9/10-Peng). This time I'll accept that I'm wrong and cut my losses now!

8D
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I should have known better than to try to make any calculations about the ark. The last time I tried I exposed my inability to do so (I expect you yourself remember that 9/10-Peng). This time I'll accept that I'm wrong and cut my losses now!

:D

I'm sorry - I'm a math geek. Posts like that are like dangling raw meat in front of a hungry dog. ;)
 

painted wolf

Grey Muzzle
Which one of you are going to make it rain and open the fountains of the deep?
Any old ocean would do... no need of big storms either.
Heck, I'll let them to a trial run on solid land to save themselves the sea-sickness.

wa:do
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Any old ocean would do... no need of big storms either.
Heck, I'll let them to a trial run on solid land to save themselves the sea-sickness.
That sounds like a plan. If they can't make it through a year of living in a big barn that size, then they're not going to make it through a year of living in a big, floating barn.
 

The_Evelyonian

Old-School Member
Any old ocean would do... no need of big storms either.
Heck, I'll let them to a trial run on solid land to save themselves the sea-sickness.

wa:do


Hong Kong has a full-size, land-bound, replica of the Ark. Now all the creationists have to do is ask to borrow it.
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
I would be up to getting all of the animals onto such a vessel. However, I would use the second set of commanded animals to be brought onto the boat. The one that states 7 of the clean and 2 of the unclean. Which wouldn't be as difficult as clean and unclean animals are listed later on in the Bible, so the number is much more do able.

However, everything else would probably fail. A boat that size and made of the materials specified would never be able to float. Maybe with today's materials, it may be a little more possible, but I would not hold my breath. And surviving for the amount of time necessary, I can not even begin to think of a logical solution. But that's for a good reason, the story is not meant to be taken literal.

I would be able to do it in the way that history dictates that it would happen. That would be no problem. But then again, there is no giant ark, a tiny fraction of the animals, and a relatively short time.
 

painted wolf

Grey Muzzle
Now the question is... seven of every clean animal or seven of every "kind" of clean animal?
The wording is terribly vague.

wa:do
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Now the question is... seven of every clean animal or seven of every "kind" of clean animal?
The wording is terribly vague.

wa:do
It is vague in this particular case, but is defined later on. The Bible lists both the clean and unclean animals, which is what that certain passage is referring to.
 

painted wolf

Grey Muzzle
What about eh expanded list that modern Rabbi's have? After all, the bible doesn't mention things like kangaroos... so are they clean or unclean or would they not count as they are not mentioned by name?

wa:do
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
What about eh expanded list that modern Rabbi's have? After all, the bible doesn't mention things like kangaroos... so are they clean or unclean or would they not count as they are not mentioned by name?
Leviticus mentions some specific animals, but also the general rule that for an animal to be clean, it must have a divided (cloven?) hoof and chew its cud. I don't think a kangaroo qualifies.

Leviticus 11:3-11:8 - Passage Lookup - New American Standard Bible - BibleGateway.com
 

johnhanks

Well-Known Member
Since one of the specifications of the Ark is that it be made out of the otherwise-unknown "gopher wood", I'm not sure if it would even be possible to do this.
Detailed theological research has revealed that God specified this solely so that Noah would look at him askance and say "Why gopher wood?". This allowed God to come back with "Cos no-one else is gonna fetch it for you!!!!" and roll around on the floor for twenty minutes.

The discovery that God has the sense of humour of a 13-year-old is believed to explain most other things about the world as well.
 
If you can build an ark to the specifications in the Bible and fill it with two of every "kind" of animal by your own hands

In some cases it was not just two of every "kind", he was asked to take several of certain animals. Not sure which ones they were again i'll have to check the passage.

So they will have their work even more cut out for them. They also would have to go around on their own collecting all the rest of millions of species, insects included, and sure i would convert.

Edit:
"Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female."

Sorry i see someone beat me to it woops....
 
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S-word

Well-Known Member
God said to me; "S-word, I want you to build me a twenty story ark, and this time fill it with fish." And I said, "What in heavens name would you want a twenty story ark full of fish for? And he answered, "Cos I want to be the first god with a multi-story Carp ark."
 
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