[How many "kinds" or "species" were created to give the variety we now have?]
Answer: The answer to both questions is the same, presuming no extinctions during the first 1,500 years of world history. We don't even know how many "kinds" or "species" are alive today!
Please bear in mind that "kinds" and "species" are not necessarily the same. "Kind" is a biblical term while "species" is a human designation. Each word has its own, different, and imprecise meanings. In general, "kind" is often a bit broader than "species."
This leaves us with little more than speculation to answer your frequently-asked question. However, the numbers of animals the Ark could have held can be roughly estimated since its size is given in Scripture. Morris and Whitcomb, in their book The Genesis Flood, estimate that there was enough room on the Ark for 35,000 sheep-size animals.
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Is that including food? Space to keep the massive amount of waste that would be produced in the 40 days/nights of torrential rain?
What happened to the sea dwelling creatures when their ocean got diluted? How do we have coral reefs now considering the conditions described for the flood would cause the corals to bleach and die, assuming they weren't just flat out covered in sediment?
What happened to the freshwater dwelling creatures when their freshwater became concentrated? Did God anticipate the necessity of the flood and give them the kind of salt pumps that saltwater animals have? Before you say yes, did he even say he did, because I already know he could have if he's as you describe?
How did plants grow again after being buried in salt water and mud? Most plants don't take kindly to that, nor do their seeds. How did they grow so quickly?
Maybe I just need to borrow a copy of that from somewhere, I could keep going and now I'm curious to see if they even thought of these things, and how they explained it if they did.
edit: turns out my local library has that AND "The biblical basis for modern science". . . that should be interesting. . . .
Please bear in mind that "kinds" and "species" are not necessarily the same. "Kind" is a biblical term while "species" is a human designation. Each word has its own, different, and imprecise meanings. In general, "kind" is often a bit broader than "species."
Ah, weasel words. "Species" is in no way an inaccurate term; it has one specific meaning. "Kind" is completely ambiguous, and creationists exploit this ambiguity because, were they to more precisely define their argument, it would just be easier to debunk. As it is, it can still easily be debunked, but you have to wade through swamps of deliberately evasive ambiguity to do it.
Yes, it would be a bit difficult to argue kind=species when we have all this direct evidence of speciation wouldn't it?
Fortunately, you can continue to redefine "kind" to mean "level above which scientists do not have direct evidence for evolution" right up to Domain , can't you?
"Yes" you'll say, "Obviously plants and animals are offshoots of the same ancestor, that's just reproduction within kind. But you've no proof prokaryota can become eukaryota, so evolution is still just a theory!"
So you just keep fitting your god into those gaps Ian, and as the gaps get smaller, so will he.
"Each word has its own, different, and imprecise meanings."
Errrr...no, douchebag. Species is a specific, clearly defined term. Unlike "kind" where no fundie seems able to explain what it means, and if they try it's never the same definition another fundie gave.
"Kind" in this context is a vague and nebulous term that Creationists constantly redefine depending on what their argument at the time is.
"Doggy Kind"
and of course the extra special "Humankind" that one even becomes one word it is so special
Ah yes Kinds...
Like the bacteria kind (A DOMAIN)
THESE ARE ALL KINDS... Yet are vastly monsterously different biologically.
Look, either there were so many different 'kinds' on the ark that it would be impossible for that many animals to fit, or there were few and they've all evolved madly in 6,000 years into the many different species we have now. Which is it?
Here's a challenge to literal interpreters of Genesis...you guys have thrown shitloads of money into creation museums around the country. Here is an "experiment" that will at least demonstrate that claims like M&Ws are not impossible.
Should be easy, right?
I did the math, and there was about 2 acres of floor space in the ark. About the size of a warehouse store. However you would of had to store food for a month, keep the carnivores away from the herbivores. And with only 1 18"X18" window in the whole thing, can you imagine the smell? You'd die from the ammonia gas alone!
Anyway, since when are elephants "sheep-sized". And there are approximately 1.5 million classified species alive today.
Edit:
They would have to build that boat out of gopher wood with bronze age tools and only 4 workers. Remember everyone else was laughing at Noah.
@Antichrist...perfect, because I just milled a whole shitload of gopherwood.
@Rusty Professor: Wow. The claim on the site is that the boat is huge, but its not nearly as big as the Love Boat. There is NO WAY you could ever put 35,000 sheep-sized animals (ass to jowl or whatever configuration) on that vessel, ammonia-smell and fire code be damned, much less sail it around for a year without access to food.
Johan Huibers is insane in the membrane.
I'm calling BS on the 35,000. Once, as a teenager, I went with some friends and a youth pastor out to a field and we measured out how long the ark would have been. Even as a kid, I realized it wasn't nearly big enough for any such thing.
"We don't even know how many "kinds" or "species" are alive today!"
You don't. Some people can give you a good estimate though, too many to fit in that impossible boat for sure
"In general, "kind" is often a bit broader than "species.""
Vaguer and never precise. Broader in that way, Like Einsteins Theory of Relativaty plus bullshit is broader,
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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