Besides the money woes—which seem pretty serious—it seems that the people who are building a Noah’s Ark theme park also can’t figure out how Noah built the ark. When you take the Bible literally, that turns into a pretty big problem.
The Bible calls for gopher wood, for instance, although it is unclear if this is a now-extinct type of wood or if the term refers to the way the wood was cut, said Marsh, who has done work for Universal Studios. Ark Encounter will go with a mix of woods.
Another big question is how Noah got mating pairs of all the animals of the earth, including dinosaurs, onto a boat half the length of a cruise ship.
Scientists have cataloged 1.3 million species of animals, but Ark Encounter protagonists figure Noah could have brought on just 1,000 to 2,000 pairs to represent every animal “kind,” as the Bible puts it.
“If you start with a wolf, you can basically generate all of these dog-like kinds,” said Marsh. As for large animals like dinosaurs, Marsh said Noah could have brought them on as eggs or juveniles, to save room.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! “Generate all of these dog-like kinds?” That sounds suspiciously like evolution to me, buddy. If everything in the Bible happened literally, then Noah was just a normal guy who got a calling from God, right? So why can’t you manage to replicate his very literal ark in the real world? It’s almost as though Noah’s Ark never existed, or something.
UPDATE 4:28 PM: Slog tipper Timothy writes:
Another problem you may or may not be aware of with building Noah’s Ark is the limitations of wood construction. You can’t build a ship that big out of wood. It would just fall apart, would not hold together, much less float. So, the theme park will not be able to build a replica of a Biblical wooden ark. I would think that is the first thing to point out. They can’t build it.
Thanks for the information, Timothy. I had no idea.