Cougar

Christians, what's your take on this?

I'm just watching a nature documentary on TV. They've just said that in the world today, there's two million different identified species, and it's estimated that there's another 10,000,000 kicking about that we've simply not found yet.

As far as I'm aware, the Ark measured 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide, over three stories.

Ignoring undiscovered 'theoretical' animals, that leaves us (by my back-of-an-envelope reckoning) with 0.05 square feet per species. That's a damn small elephant. What gives?

Do you think the documentary is wrong and there's actually far fewer species in the world?

Is the Biblical description of the Ark wrong, and it was actually considerably bigger?

Was there some sort of divine intervention TARDIS-like cleverness going on?

Were there fewer species back then, and we've gained more over time? Presuming an absence of evolution, how? Has god quietly created more when we weren't looking?

Something else I've missed?

(Atheists - please don't state the obvious, I know.)

One for the Christians. Atheist here but not trolling, genuine question that confuses me and I'd like to see if you've an answer for it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the story of Noah and the flood goes something like this: God looked at his creation, saw that it was a mess, and sent a huge 40-day worldwide flood to purge the world of evil. He sent Noah and Mrs Noah to round up several pairs of animals for repopulation purposes. After the flood, the animals were released, the world was reset, and we got a clean start.

There's a lot of fairly obvious problems with this story, but one in particular has bugged me for years. What happened to all the fish? Was evil only inherent in mammals? Or can we blame evil fish for the continuing presence of wickedness in the world? Was there not subsequently a massive overpopulation problem compared to land- and air-based creatures?

(Note to Atheists, please don't respond with "because it's not true, zomg eleventyone" - I know this, that's not really the point, I'm just asking about the story)

Lots of people believe in a god of some form or another. As an atheist I don't share this view, but I can sort of see why someone would think that a higher power might be responsible for the inherent complexities and wonders in the universe.

The question I have is, how do you know that your religion is the right one? What are you going to do as a Christian if when you shuffle off this mortal coil it turns out the Muslims were right? What if the Ancient Egyptians had it nailed, or the Vikings? How do you choose a faith from the smorgasboard of options available?

Not trolling, genuine question. I can sort of understand the 'god' thing, but going from that to 'religion' baffles me.