Will there be talking donkeys on the Ark?

I’m sorry to get your hopes up, but the answer to this is most likely “no”.

Why won’t Ark Encounter have talking donkeys on its giant Flintstone Truther boat?

Well first of all, we must share Ken Ham’s belief (knowledge of fact, more accurately) that there was in fact a donkey that literally spoke.

Animals are not made in the image of God. And yet, you see in our Bible verse that God opened the mouth of a donkey and it talked. Whenever it will serve God’s perfect plan, He can use anything to convey His message, even a donkey.

And:

Often, people say that they can’t believe the serpent in Genesis 3 spoke because they claim animals don’t speak! Well, I wish I could tell that to my sister-in-law’s Blue-Fronted Amazon Parrot that doesn’t stop talking! Many types of parrots talk by mimicking, so it would be illogical to think that God didn’t give this ability to other animals—especially in a perfect world. Speaking human-sounding words and speaking intelligently, however, is not the same. Balaam’s donkey, as the only other example given of animals speaking in Scripture, was specially enabled by the power of God to speak intelligently to Balaam.

And:

Then point out that if they have trouble with talking animals then they mustn’t believe parrots exist either! In this case, explain that, like the talking donkey that Balaam rode, the talking serpent was a vessel enabled for another being to use or speak through—Satan, in the case of the serpent.

When it comes to talking donkeys, this is the basic message of Ham:

1. Because parrots “talk”, the idea of talking snakes and donkeys is not absurd.
2. God most definitely spoke through Balaam’s donkey, as it is in the Bible and every line in the Bible is literal fact.
3. Donkeys do not talk, unless God decides to speak through a donkey.

So back to the original question (Will there be talking donkeys on the Ark?). Since this Biblical account of the donkey was supposedly around 1400 BC, this means that it occurred hundreds of years after the flood. Assuming that the donkey did not live to be 900 years old like Noah, this would mean that the talking donkey was born well after the flood. And there is no particular species (“kind”) of talking donkey, as God only tried talking through a donkey one time (that we know of, I suppose).

While this means that Ken Ham is missing out on some great Shrek marketing for his new Dineysore Boat, this line does peak my interest:

Of course today, serpents don’t speak, but the Curse in Genesis 3:14 probably had something to do with this. Recall the physical changes in Genesis 3. Perhaps this is the reason the particular kind of serpent that deceived the Woman did not pass along the ability to speak or may have even become extinct since the Fall.

So talking serpents “may have even become extinct since the Fall”? How long after the Fall? Long enough to make it to the flood?

These sound like good questions for Answers in Genesis.

What might have been…

 (see also: Dragons and Unicorns on the Ark)