Animals Quote by Ken Ham
““Researcher John Woodmorappe decided to go a different route in 1996. He wanted to calculate maximum figures for animals and also included food and even water on board Noah’s ark.5 To do this, Woodmorappe decided to use the smaller-sized ark (based on the shorter cubit of 18 inches). This would be an ark about 450 feet long. Then, instead of a family level for the kind (although he recognized the kind was closer to the family level), he used a genus level for all the kinds! So instead of one dog kind, there would be more than ten dog kinds represented in his numbers since there are more than 10 levels of genus within the dogs! For the sake of maximum figures, John Woodmorappe still did 14 of each genus of the clean animals, which again was still not that many! What he found was under 8,000 kinds and about 16,000 (15,745) individuals maximum, based on this genus level and calculations. With a smaller ark and this maximum number of animals and their required floor space/cages/rooms, this came out to be about 46.8% of the ark used to hold the animals!””
About This Quote
Source Book: The New Answers Book, 2015
Woodmorappe’s ark calculations use a smaller vessel and genus‑level classification, yielding a lower animal count and showing that even generous estimates occupy less than half the ark’s capacity.
In simple terms: Using a smaller ark and broader categories reduces the number of animals needed.
Even generous assumptions leave much space unused.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- educational talks
- debates
- museum exhibits
- media interviews
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How reliable are such calculations?
- What alternative methods could be used?
Assumptions may still be challenged by scientific evidence.