(Daily Mail, July 2012) — A Dutch creationist is putting the finishing touches on a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark, which he has built according to a blueprint set out in the Bible.
Johan Huibers spent three years and more than £1.03 million constructing the gigantic wooden boat – and now has his sights set on sailing it up the Thames for the Olympics.
This feat of true biblical proportions was inspired by a dream Mr Huibers had 20 years ago, in which he saw part of his native Netherlands submerged in a flood like the one featured in the Book of Genesis.
And though it may not be able to shelter two of every animal, as the original story dictates, it can hold 1,500 people – not to mention a menagerie of life-size plastic creatures including giraffes, elephants and donkeys, as well as a few live chickens.
As it weighs in at almost 3,000 tons and is made from Swedish pine reinforced with steel, it may be hard to believe that the ark is, in fact, seaworthy.
It is docked in the western city of Dordrecht, where Mr Huibers, the owner of a construction company, pieced it together with the help of some friends and two of his children.
(Photo copyright EPA)
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The Qur’an shares many stories with the Judeo-Christian Bible, the story of Nuh or Noah being one of them, although the story of Noah in the Qur’an — Surah Nuh (Chapter 71:1-28) — is not as detailed as the story of Joseph (Surah Yusuf, Chapter 12:1-111). And these various stories form the link or bond between the Semite religions, or what I normally call the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
You can read the more detailed Biblical story of Noah below, which I quote from Genesis. Basically, however, this is how the story goes.
God decided He had made a mistake by creating humankind and He was greatly troubled by this so He decided to repent and wipe out humankind except for one family, Noah’s family.
Noah, who died at age 950 (Genesis 9:29), was over 500 years old when God ordered him to build an ark. The length of the ark was 300 cubits, the width was 50 cubits, and the height was 30 cubits. It was to be of three levels with a door at the side and with one window (Genesis 6:14-17).
So the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high (like the picture above).
Then Noah was ordered to load the ark with his entire family plus seven of each clean animal and two of each unclean animal. The estimated number of each species of living things on earth are 6.5 million living on land and 2.2 million living in the water. Hence this would come to an estimated total of about 20 million living things altogether.
Noah was then ordered to load fresh food and fresh water to keep these 20 million or so living things alive over the one year that they will all be living in the ark. The Bible tells us that it rained for 40 days, the water remained for another 150 days, and it took another 150 days for the water to recede, a total of 340 days or almost a year.
All these 20 million humans and other living things remained trapped in this fully enclosed ark, except for just one window, for an entire year with only one window for ventilation.
The Qur’an does not offer us the details like the Bible does but the Qur’an more or less, in not so many words, confirms that the incident did happen.
And that is my Sunday sermon for today because I do not wish to talk about the missing flight MH370 that every man and his dog are talking about — which is just creating the utmost confusion as to what really happened to the plane — or about what is going to happen on Sunday next week in the Kajang by-election.
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Genesis 6
6. And the Lord repented that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart.
7. And the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for I repent that I have made them.”
Genesis 7
1. And the Lord said unto Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.
2. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
3. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
4. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”
5. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
6. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9. There went in two by two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female as God had commanded Noah.
10. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, that same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark—
14. They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life.
16. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
17. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18. And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered.
20. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered.
21. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was on the dry land, died.
23. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
