Scripture tells us that in the last days scoffers will come and they will reject three things.
One of those things is the flood of Noah's day. We see that this is true today.
So this is another fulfilled prophecy. Another amazing fulfilled prophecy is that Peter was given revelation even to know what the people of today were going to be saying regarding it.
We read in 2 Peter chapter 3 that Peter said that people in the last day will say all things will continue as they were from the beginning.
That sounds a lot like what people say today, isn't it? The present is the key to the past. The phrase coined by Charles Lyell who was the first to say and popularize the idea that Noah's flood was not true.
This is the very man who invented the geologic column and removed the idea that Noah's flood was true, fulfilling biblical prophecy.
But going into Noah's flood there are typical questions that the critics often repeat and we will cover all of those in this series.
I've noticed that many of the same questions keep coming up over and over and over such as how many animals were on the ark, how could eight people tend to so many and clean up all of the animal waste, and how did they not die from the methane, what did they eat, what did they drink, what happened to the water, where did it come from, where did it go, how could Noah's flood ever cover Mount Everest.
What about inbreeding? How did this not kill them? And all of these are valid questions and I will briefly cover these in our series.
Regarding the animals on the ark, this comes down to asking what is a kind.
Well scripture tells us this in Noah's story that God sent Noah every kind of animal and that these animals are what can reproduce with one another or the biblical term bring forth.
So for example, Noah had a single species of horse, a single species of goat, a single species of chimpanzee and gorilla. You get the picture.
So obviously since not every species of dog and cat alive today was alive in the past, then we need to ask ourselves where did all the dogs and cats come from today?
We realize really fast that they all had a common ancestor of the same kind and those parent common ancestors were on the ark and the numbers at the high end were around 2,000.
But how did only eight people tend to so many animals feeding them and cleaning up the waste? What did they drink? This question is answered in two parts.
One is just by looking into the northern regions of the world like Sweden where we find that for seven months out of the year it's so cold that animals move in under people's homes just to stay warm.
And yes, the carnivores and herbivores live together during this time and it's not a problem.
So homeowners decided to solve this issue themselves instead of trying to just keep them out.
The people started spreading out a thin layer of wood shavings, peat moss and straw which they call deep litter.
And this was a simple solution as it works by absorbing not only the waste but the smell for up to two years, hence no cleanup required and no methane buildup either.
However, this is not the only option. The obvious conclusion is that they just fell into torpor the entire time.
Now that might seem strange if you've never heard the word, but it's just a type of hibernation, a complete stasis.
And this really makes the most sense if you think about it. No waste, no methane, no feeding, nothing.
Just a bunch of creatures all hibernating the entire time.
Let me show you this one clip so you have a better understanding of this whole thing.
Researchers interested in this question turned to the animal kingdom where hibernation is commonplace, occurring in over 200 species that we know of.
For many years, experts believed hibernation happened only in arctic and temperate environments.
But more recently, they've discovered animals hibernating even in arid deserts and tropical rainforests.
As hibernation kicks in, animals' heartbeats usually slow to about one to three percent of their original speed.
And black bears, like most hibernators, don't urinate or defecate the entire hibernation season.
Hibernating animals appear to stay alive by having just enough blood and oxygen moving around their bodies.
And scans of hibernating animals reveal that their brain activity has just about flatlined.
But hibernation isn't a long winter's nap.
As far as researchers know, in lemurs and ground squirrels anyways, the animals aren't even sleeping for most of it.
Hibernation is actually made up of regular bouts of reduced metabolic rate and body temperature, known as torpor.
Animals can be in torpor for a few days to five weeks,
after which they resume normal metabolic rate and body temperature for about 24 hours before going back into torpor again.
The phenomenon is known as an interbout arousal, and why it occurs is still a mystery.
To find out how hibernators are able to do this,
researchers turned their attention to those animals' genomes.
So far, they've discovered that hibernation is controlled by genes that turn off and on in unique patterns throughout the year,
fine-tuning the hibernators' physiology and behavior.
For example, ground squirrel, bear, and dwarf lemur studies
have revealed that these animals are able to turn on the genes that control fat metabolism
precisely when they need to use their fat stores as fuel to survive long periods of fasting,
and the genes in question are present in all mammals.
Now, six things we learned from that video.
One, we found out that temperature has little to do with hibernation.
Two, we found that no methane, no waste products form, so no cleanup would have been necessary.
Number three, animals have hibernation genes built into them that they control.
Number four, although we think of hibernation as a type of sleep, it's not even that.
It's not even a nap.
It's a metabolic rate and body temperature regulation change that they control known as torpor,
and animals control it themselves, which makes sense if you think about it,
because how does a bear have a built-in calendar where they can just walk over and say,
Well, on this day, I need to fall into hibernation or else I'll just have to be awake all winter.
Rather, they just think about it and epigenetically regulate their own internal clock.
Five, animals turn on genes and allow them to metabolize fat rather than food.
Their body can supply the own energy that they need to sleep the entire time.
Number six, when they looked, they found all of these hibernation genes in all mammals.
Think about that. There are 153 animal families, so this makes up a large portion of animals on the ark,
and another huge portion is that of reptiles, and well, guess what?
Reptiles hibernate as well, but it goes by a different name, brumation.
So now we have the vast majority of animal kinds on the ark, and they're all in complete stasis.
Noah had little, if anything, to do with the animals on the ark.
He could have just taken care of himself and his family.