There are more than one million described species of insects, 25,000 described species of flat worms and 15,000 described species of nematodes (which Noah couldn't even see, atmospheric twinkling aside, "Dr." Hovind), 12,000 described species of birds, 6,200 described amphibian species, 7,900 species of lizards and snakes, and 5,400 described mammal species. This group only includes animals that are by and large terrestrial, and that have been described by modern taxonomy. (Which group of fishes was able to survive given the new osmotic balance of the global ocean, freshwater or saltwater?). The story doesn't explain how Noah saved all of the plants species (~310,00) or fungi (~70,000 species some of which may not have two but up to 27,000 sexual classes), non-aquatic protists and protozoa, or even how Noah knew so much about modern taxonomy to be able to identify and match the species by sex(because all those species were already in existence, right)?
The ark (according to the fundy site http://www.users.bigpond.com/rdoolan/arksize.html)was "taller than a 3-story building and had a deck area the size of 36 lawn tennis courts. Its length was 300 cubits (450 feet, or 135 meters); its width was 50 cubits (75 feet, or 22.5 meters); it had three stories and its height was 30 cubits (45 feet, or 13.5 meters)."
This allows only 1,518,750 cubic feet (450 x 45 x 75) of storage space if the ark contained NOTHING but enclosures for pairs of animals, not to say anything about the food required to feed so many animals for 40 days. Even if the average animal could be contained in a space that was 12"x 12", and these could be stacked on top of each other with no space in between them, the ark would not have been large enough to hold the insects alone.
Lets assume that Noah only saved insects. This would require 2 million animals if a pair of each was saved. Lets say Noah (and his crack team of zoologists of which there were 8) fed each pair of animals only once during that forty days. This would require that an animal was fed every 1.728 seconds. This means that without rest for 40 days and nights each crew member fed an animal on average once every 13 seconds.
A shrew eats its own body weight each day (usually insects) and that there are 300 species of shrew, meaning 600 shrews would have to be included on the ark. Even if each shrew weighed only 2 grams, Noah would have needed to provide them with a total of 1.2 kg of food each day, 48kg or 105 lbs of insects over the course of 40 days. This is in addition to the insects that are being protected, and food required for other animals.
Why not just invoke a goddamn miracle like every other religious nut does when faced with logic, Ryan? Its easy to do, and you can always defend it by simply saying that the Lord Jebus personally whispered this truth into your ear?
