Noah's flood

[dawkins]

Why, after Noah's flood, did the people who dispersed to Australia take all the kangaroos, Koala and redback spiders with them but did not take any horses?

[Llamatron]

Probably didn't have enough room on their magic carpet.

[rojash]

I asked a very similar question of a JW once, and their reply must rank as one of the biggest cop-outs of all time:

"We must assume that if God could get all the animals into the ark in an orderly fashion, then he could do the same when releasing them"

[dawkins]

A JW ? what's a JW, Rojash?

[jake-the-peg]

I think that would be a Jehova's Witness.

Surely it's because they were all lead by divine providence to where they were meant to be and didn't linger around asking impertinent questions!

[mibn2cweus]

D'oh!

[Thicko2006]

Of course they took horses - have you never heard of Phar Lap?

[wizard69]

A noticeble lack of christian responses on this thread...

[Fingerprint]

I think that you are making the mistake of taking the story to literally. The Bible is not a historically acurate document and although stories such as the Noah one may have some historical traces they should really be read from the point of view of gaining a greater understanding of how God related to his people rather than as something that actually happened as described.

[wizard69]

Fingerprint..in that case maybe we shouldnt take the stories of jesus too literally either. You cannot say that one part is believable and other parts arn't. Who's to say what is literal and what isnt?

[Fingerprint]

I think what you take literally and what you don't depends on your theological standpoint, but scripture should be taken in the context of the book as a whole rather than taking specific parts to make fundamental points. I think it also depends a lot on how scripture speaks to you personally, but in answer to this question you probably shouldn't try to get into specifics because the story was not intended to be taken literallly but more as a message of how God related to his people.

[wizard69]

how do you know the story wasnt intended to be taken literally? there's plenty of bible thumpers who do take it literally.(including jesus himself)

[Fingerprint]

I think most mainstream Churches consider the Noah story to be a message about how God related to his people rather than something that literally happened as described. Some Christians do beleive that this actually happened as they probably either have not gone deep enough into the theology of it to consider it on that level or have quite fundamental views. But the real importance is the message that comes from the story.

In terms of what you do and don't take literally I think it depends upon the line of theology you choose to follow. The Bible is an extremely complexed document, many people have dedicated their whole lives to studying the scriptures and still feel they could learn more. So I think the best way is to build your views through a combination of what the scriptures say to you personally and through learning from the experts.

[wizard69]

And who are the experts? The fundementalists or the liberals?

[Ethmer]

�
A simplistic answer is that there were only two (male and female) of each species on the Ark so while they got some species somebody else got the horses.

In reality, there wasn't a world wide flood and no Ark. The story tellers used that account as one of the methods of controlling their people and establishing comprehension to that that was not comprehendible in their time.
�

[daniel777]

Why do you choose to drive a certain type of car, wear certain types of clothes, instead of wearing all types of clothes at once and owning every model type of car??

I would say that in time various creatures creeped, hopped, galloped to various parts of the earth that suited them the most and mated there etc.