Comparing the Bible and Science - Noah's Ark

The story of Noah's Ark is one of the best known of the bible. In order to cleanse the world God planed to send down a flood to destroy all the wickedness. He decided to spare Noah and his family and to allow the animals of the world to survive as well. To do this God instructed Noah to build the ark and to put two of every animal on board. There are so many aspects of this account it is impossible to cover them all in a single discussion. Instead we will only be examining the space limitations of the ark and the possibility of there being room for two of every animal.

In order to answer this question, we will need to answer several others. Just how many animals would Noah have been required to take on the ark? What is the average size of the animals he would have to take? How much space did he actually have on the ark? Once we have these numbers, the rest is fairly simple math.

How many animals would Noah have needed to take on the ark? According to famous taxonomist Ernest Mayr, there are just over one million species of animals on planet Earth. However, many of these species would not need to be on the ark. For example there are 21,000 species of fish, 107,000 species of Mollusks, and over 800,000 species of Arthropods, none of which would have been included on the ark. Author John Woodmorappe's study showed as few as 2,000 species could have been required on the ark. For the sake of argument, let us say Woodmorappe was wrong and there are actually 20,000 species of animals that would have needed to be included on the ark. At two of each this gives us a total count of 40,000 animals on the ark. That is ten times the number Woodmorappe estimated.

What is the average size of the animals being taken? While there are certainly some very large animals going along for the trip, elephants, rhinos, bears and cattle, there are also a lot of very tiny animals. These would include mice, rats, rabbits, mole's and the like. For the sake of measurement, let us say the average animal is the size of an adult sheep. While the sheep is certainly not as large as an elephant, it is certainly much larger than a mouse.

How much room was there on the ark? The bible gives us the exact measurements for the ark and it is therefor possible to determine the number of cubic feet in the ark. As the number of cubic feet is just a number, we shall state it in more useful terms. The ark had enough cubic foot space to accommodate 569 modern rail cars, the type used to transport livestock, such as sheep.

How many animals could have fit into the space on the ark? Using the same comparison as above, the modern rail car can typically carry 240 sheep, which we are using as our average size animal. With 40,000 animals on board, this would mean we would need 167 rail cars in order to hold them all. As calculated above, the ark has enough space for 569 rail cars, so our 40,000 animals is taking up only 29.3% of the space inside the ark. The remaining space could have been used to store feed and other supplies needed for their journey.

While there are many aspects of the story of Noah's ark to be examined, it seems very clear there was adequate room on board the ark for the required number of animals as well as feed and supplies.