![\"BeefJerky\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/09\/BeefJerky.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDried fish or meat, such as beef jerky (pictured above), have been eaten since very ancient times.<\/span> [Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>]<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n How does one even come up with<\/em> such a topic for a post? I\u2019d never thought about this in my life, and I\u2019ve been a seriously committed Christian for 35 years. Well, as usual, our atheist friends will make sure that every conceivable alleged<\/strong><\/em> disproof of biblical inspiration of Christianity will be trotted out for one and all to see. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s how they (former Christians) so often justify their departure from the Christian faith. <\/span> They seem to really enjoy it. I don\u2019t begrudge them their fun. We all have our pastimes. Admittedly, I have just as much<\/em> fun shooting down<\/em> the invariably paltry, fallacious, illogical \u201carguments\u201d they come up with.<\/span><\/p>\n Linda LaScola<\/a>, a prominent blogger in the Patheos<\/em> Atheist Channel, presented an article featuring \u201cPreston\u201d: a \u201cformer fundamentalist (Southern Baptist).\u201d He\u00a0said that this \u201cissue\u201d was sufficient in \u201ca few seconds\u201d to cause him to reject the story of Noah\u2019s Ark. That\u2019s funny. It took me<\/em> a \u201cfew seconds\u201d as well to come up with what I think is a decisive refutation<\/em> of his\u00a0[original] dilemma \/ [in retrospect] disproof with regard to biblical Christianity. <\/span><\/p>\n In Linda\u2019s post,<\/span>\u00a0Leaving\u00a0Religion:\u00a0Like\u00a0Crumbling\u00a0Jenga\u00a0Blocks <\/a>(9-10-15), Preston\u00a0stated (complete with the obligatory cute and adorable picture of Noah\u2019s Ark):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n First block pulled from the stack: Biblical mythology<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I remember the moment in 1995 that I realized that the story of\u00a0Noah\u2019s Ark<\/strong>\u00a0was just an ancient hand-me-down ridiculous mythological tale.<\/span><\/p>\n I was a youth minister in a small Southern Baptist Church when a student asked:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat did all the carnivores eat on Noah\u2019s Ark for the entire year?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I stumbled for a few seconds trying to give the best answer I could, but I knew that there could never be a sufficient answer to such a simple question. Any answer paled in comparison to the obvious: IT NEVER HAPPENED.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, folks; there you have it. This was the first of a series of \u201cjenga blocks\u201d crumbling in Preston\u2019s life, with the end result being, of course (big surprise!), atheism. He also\u00a0wrote in the combox underneath the post, milking it for all it was worth:<\/span><\/p>\n Any attempt to answer those difficult questions require \u201cmagic\u201d. You can solve any problem or argue your way out of an apologetic\u2019s<\/span> [sic]<\/span> corner if you simply insert magic into the equation. Thats how I always rationalized mythical stories like Noah\u2019s Ark. \u201cGod supplied the necessary food somehow. We dont<\/span> [sic]<\/span> know and we dont<\/span> [sic]<\/span> have to know\u201d.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m sure all you Christians out there are trembling in abject terror, in existential anticipation of the same dreadful fate that Preston underwent, awaiting you<\/em>!\u00a0No need. This is not the longed-for \u201cultimate defeater\u201d that atheists live and die for: one of those moments where they get in the beloved \u201czinger\u201d that can destroy in one fell swoop (like Preston\u2019s \u201cjenga moments\u201d) the infantile faith of yet more gullible Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n There is<\/em>, I submit, a simple solution\u00a0to this. But\u00a0I think this<\/em> one (along with several others mentioned below) is fairly decisive and satisfactory. <\/span> Think of it for a moment. How have sailors \u00a0\u2014 for millennia \u2013, survived out at sea for months? The Wikipedia article, \u201cSalt-cured meat\u201d<\/a> notes:<\/span><\/p>\n Salted meat was a staple of the mariner\u2019s diet in the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Age of Sail<\/a>. [16th-19th centuries] It was stored in barrels, and often had to last for months spent out of sight of land. The basic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Royal Navy<\/span>\u00a0diet consisted of salted beef<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>salted pork<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>ship\u2019s biscuit, and\u00a0oatmeal, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, the Wikipedia article, \u201cDried and salted cod\u201d<\/a> states that:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>drying of food<\/a>\u00a0is the world\u2019s oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Traditionally, salt cod was dried only by the wind and the sun, hanging on wooden scaffolding or lying on clean cliffs or rocks near the seaside.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The cross-referenced article on<\/span> \u201cDrying\u201d<\/a> adds:<\/p>\n Drying\u00a0is a method of\u00a0<\/span>food preservation<\/a>\u00a0in which\u00a0<\/span><\/span>food<\/span>\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>dried<\/a>\u00a0(dehydrated or\u00a0<\/span><\/span>desiccated<\/a>). Drying inhibits the growth of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>bacteria,\u00a0yeasts, and\u00a0mold\u00a0through the removal of\u00a0water. Dehydration has been used widely for this purpose since ancient times; the earliest known practice is 12,000 B.C. by inhabitants of the modern Middle East and Asia regions.\u00a0Water\u00a0is traditionally removed through\u00a0evaporation\u00a0(air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying), . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That gives us at least two methods of preserving meat or fish, known to the ancients, \u00a0that would easily sustain carnivores, just as dog and cat food (dried meat) do the trick today. Cats in particular must<\/em> have meat, and they do quite well with\u00a0dry cat food. The Wikipedia article \u201cCuring (food preservation)\u201d <\/a>informs us of the history of such preservation methods (including a third method: smoking), stretching back to antiquity:<\/span><\/p>\n Meat preservation\u00a0(including\u00a0livestock,\u00a0game\u00a0poultry), includes a set treatment processes for preserving\u00a0nutritious\u00a0properties, taste, texture and color of raw, partially cooked or cooked\u00a0meats\u00a0while keeping them edible and safe to consume.<\/span><\/p>\n The invention of such processes can be traced back to\u00a0antiquity, . . .<\/span><\/p>\n Food curing dates back to ancient times, both in the form of\u00a0<\/span>smoked meat<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0salt-cured meat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several sources describe the salting of meat in the ancient Mediterranean world.<\/span>\u00a0Diodore of Sicily<\/a>\u00a0in his<\/span>\u00a0Bibliotheca historica<\/a><\/i>\u00a0wrote that the\u00a0Coss\u00e9ens<\/i>\u00a0in the mountain<\/span>s of\u00a0Persia\u00a0salted the flesh of carnivorous animals.\u00a0Strabo<\/a>\u00a0indicates that people at\u00a0Borsippa<\/a>\u00a0were catching\u00a0bats\u00a0and salting them to eat.\u00a0The ancient Greeks prepared\u00a0tarichos<\/i>\u00a0(\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2<\/span>), which was meat and fish conserved by salt or other means.\u00a0The Romans called this dish\u00a0salsamentum<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u2013 which term later included salted fat, the sauces and spices used for its preparation.\u00a0There is also evidence of ancient sausage production. The Roman gourmet\u00a0<\/span>Apicius<\/a>\u00a0speaks of a sausage making technique involving\u00a0\u0153nogaros<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(a mixture of the fermented fish sauce<\/span>\u00a0garum<\/a><\/span>\u00a0with oil or wine).\u00a0Preserved meats were furthermore a part of religious traditions: the extra meat used for offerings to the gods was salted before being given to priests, after which it could be picked up again by the offerer, or even sold i<\/span>n the\u00a0butcher\u2019s.<\/p>\n There is evidence of a trade in salt meat across ancient Europe. In<\/span>\u00a0Polybius<\/a>\u2018s time,\u00a0the Gauls exported salt pork each year to Rome in large quantities, where it was sold in different cuts: rear cuts, middle cuts, hams and sausages. This meat, after having been salted with the greatest care, was sometime smoked. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n The smoking of meat was a traditional practice in North America, where<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Plains Indians<\/a>\u00a0hung their meat at the top of their tipis to increase the amount of smoke coming into contact with the food.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If all that is not more than enough evidence, that this \u201cdisproof\u201d falls flat, Richard Gabriel\u2019s book<\/span>, Soldiers\u2019 Lives Through History: The Ancient World<\/em> <\/a>(Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007) provides<\/span> two pages<\/a> (pp. 32-33) on \u201cFood Preservation.\u201d On p. 32, he observed (mentioning a fourth option):<\/span><\/p>\n Salted meat and fish kept for months, as did smoked beef, ham, or fowl. A favorite ration of the Egyptian army was smoked gooseflesh. Pork and beef jerky kept for years. . . . Salting meat preserved it for as long as two years . . .<\/span><\/p>\n Pickling was another way of preserving meat, and we find references to it in Sumer, where ox joints were pickled for transport and sale.<\/span><\/p>\n Noah\u2019s ark was afloat for about a year, according to the biblical accounts, so no problem<\/em>: the carnivores could have had a steady supply of salted, dried, smoked, or pickled meat, which easily lasted that long. This should be more than sufficient to explode this myth that carnivores couldn\u2019t possibly<\/em> have survived on Noah\u2019s Ark. <\/span><\/p>\n We know that Jesus mentioned \u201cthe salt of the earth\u201d (Matthew 5:13). That was a reference to salt used in preserving foods. Metaphorically, the Christian prevented corruption.\u00a0<\/span> Magdala<\/a>, on the Sea of Galilee, where Mary Magdalene came from (I actually ate fish from the Sea of Galilee not far from there, last year), had a prosperous fishing industry, including dried fish. Archaeologists even believe that they have found a tower there, the\u00a0purpose of which was to dry out fish. <\/span> But atheists usually don\u2019t go down without a fight. <\/span><\/p>\n I suppose they could quibble about whether animals would eat all this weird dried, salted food. Here\u2019s an article about<\/span> how cats love beef jerky<\/a>. They just need some extra water to go along with it. <\/span> For those who say in reply (as indeed atheists already have) that dried \/ smoked \/ pickled \/ salted food would not be sufficient for some, many, or all carnivores, there are several other options that would provide fresh meat.\u00a0More animals could have been brought on the ark for the sole purpose of being slaughtered and fed to the carnivores. \u00a0The biblical text doesn\u2019t preclude that possibility.\u00a0Fish could be caught and fed to the animals.\u00a0Offspring could be slaughtered for food, or parents slaughtered after giving birth. Animals that breed at a very high rate could have been kept. For example,\u00a0Noah could also have bred many thousands of rabbits or mice in a year\u2019s time. <\/span><\/p>\n None of these things are at all inconceivable. They are clear, unarguable available options. <\/span> Moreover, there are animals that can go for a year or longer without food and\/or water. These would be ideal for providing fresh meat and not depleting valuable resources. A<\/span> National Geographic<\/em> article<\/a> noted that \u201cl<\/span>ike snakes, turtles are able to go for long periods without eating.\u201d<\/span> A website<\/a> on Darwin\u2019s famous\u00a0Gal\u00e1pagos Islands stated:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Gal\u00e1pagos tortoises can live up to a year without food or water. This made them a great food source for many of the ships that visited the islands in the 1800s. The sailors would collect the tortoises and keep them alive on board to serve as a source of fresh meat while at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n Another site<\/a>\u00a0noted similarly: \u201cAdult desert tortoises can survive a year or more without access to water!\u201d\u00a0A web page about<\/span> animals that can go a long time without food<\/a>, informed readers that frogs can go without food for 16 months; spiders can last 18 months without food or water; snakes can last a year without food, and that crocodiles can last three years<\/em> without food. See<\/span> another article about snakes<\/a> in this regard. A<\/span> book about rattlesnakes<\/a> affirmed that they \u201ccan live a year without food or water.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Preston\u00a0can\u2019t go back in time and unlearn the excessive (in this case, quite unfounded and irrational) skepticism that fallaciously\u00a0began his\u00a0odyssey out of Christianity, but I hope this episode serves as a lesson for those who are disposed to rather quickly dismiss various stories in the Bible as fairy tales, on wholly inadequate grounds. This one had several rather simple possible and plausible explanations. And I can attest that it is often<\/em> that way, in debunking atheist supposed \u201cdisproofs\u201d of the Bible. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s one of my sub-specialties as an apologist. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dried fish or meat, such as beef jerky (pictured above), have been eaten since very ancient times. [Wikimedia Commons \/CC BY-SA 3.0] * * * * * How does one even come up with such a topic for a post? I\u2019d never thought about this in my life, and I\u2019ve been a seriously committed Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":2958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[522,525,524,523,165],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-and-tradition","tag-atheist-biblical-exegesis","tag-bible-contradictions","tag-bible-difficulties","tag-biblical-skepticism","tag-noahs-ark"],"yoast_head":"\n