Noah's Ark: The True Story

The Discovery Channel Takes a Look

The story of Noah and his ark is a famous one. Children of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish families have read the storybooks, but is there truth beyond the myth? What are the real events that built the myth? The Discovery Channel takes an engaging and interesting look in it's documentary called Noah's Ark: The true story.

The first problem comes with the purported size of the ark. According to biblical descriptions of the size of the ark, it was nearly 450 feet long. Bigger than many ships, almost as large as the Titanic. If it were even possible to build a boat that large with wood in the time of Noah, it wouldn't have floated for long. The stresses put upon the hull of the boat would cause it to lose its shape and distort. Seams would open up, and it would sink just a few minutes after going into the water. And if the boat did manage to get out to sea on a worldwide body of water, the waves would be so huge as to crush the ark like a can.

And how could two of every different kind of animal fit into the ark? The documentary reports that as of the latest estimates, there are about 30 million species on earth. To load the ark in the one week that the bible gives Noah, 50,000 species would have to board each second. Or if he took a more manageable loading time, he would need 30 years. By then, the first ones on might be getting a little restless.

But perhaps the legend is based on animals known to exist in that area at that time, even leaving out some of the less desirable. If the instructions given in the bible are counted, it comes to about 260 animals. More doable, with a small ark. But what about the flood? How is that explained?