NOAH’S ARK

Noah’s Ark currently fascinates Christian fundamentalists worldwide. It was a wooden boat that at least one expert opines was too big to survive an ocean voyage even in calm seas. However, that hasn’t stopped a Dutch carpenter from constructing one, a Christian Science museum in Kentucky from asking visitors to help build one, a Hong Kong consortium from building one as a theme park attraction, or an expedition to Mt. Ararat to discover pieces of the original.

Check out these links. Contributing Bloggers Steve Parker, Joe Erwin, and I will comment on this phenomenon. We invite you to do the same.

The Ark Was Seaworthy

Adam Thornton in Science Splat tells the reader that the Ark “could survive the treacherous condition of a global flood…it could even handle waves that were 98 feet high!”
http://www.sciencesplat.com/NoahsArk.html

Why the Ark Couldn’t Float by Jeremy E. writing for Think Quest argues the negative.
http://library.thinkquest.org/29178/noark.htm

Dutch Replica

Johan's Ark towers across the flat Dutch landscape and is easily visible from a nearby highway where it lies moored in the city of Dordrecht, just south of Rotterdam.
http://www.theprovince.com/travel/Scale+replica+Noah+built/7680258/story.html

Help Build The Ark In Kentucky

“What if we built the Ark (out of wood) today? Imagine the impact it could have on the world. What a powerful outreach to teach the world about God’s Word and the message of salvation!”
http://arkencounter.com/

Hong Kong Replica

The creationist-inspired vessel forms part of a theme park near Hong Kong which was inspired by a young girl's scrawled drawing of the mammoth boat.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147159/At-theyll-flooded-Billionaire-brothers-build-450ft-long-life-size-replica-Noahs-Ark.html

Wood From Noah’s Ark Found

"It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it,"
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2010/04/27/4349742-noahs-ark-found-not-so-fast?lite

The Ararat “Find” Was A Hoax.
“In the late summer of 2008 ten Kurdish workers hired by Parasut, the guide used by the Chinese, are said to have planted large wood beams taken from an old structure in the Black Sea area (where the photos were originally taken) at the Mt. Ararat site.”
http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/2010/04/noahs-ark-paleobabble-update/


COMMENTS
Steve Parker
I find the whole search for Noah's ark to be misguided. In my view, the story of Noah in the Old Testament, if historical, is probably a local "myth" perhaps based on an actual local flood that seems to have also been referred to in other surrounding cultures' stories of the time. There are too many problems when the Hebrew Bible accounts are read literally. In addition, there appears to be two different flood stories intertwined in the account. The Hebrew account should be studied for its meaning for its readers/hearers rather than exorbitant amounts of time and money being spent trying to find something that probably doesn't exist.

What do you think?

Andy Hanson
What interests me with regard to the Ark phenomenon is “why now?”

Could it be that the new, authoritative translation of the Hebrew word, teba reveals that the biblical Ark was built using reeds? *

Could it be that science and common sense have relegated the Ark story to mythology?

Could it be that fundamentalist faith is anchored in the Old Testament, rather than the New, where Jesus words and life are a testament to a God who loves sinners, and forgives even those who crucified him.

Could it be that fundamentalist Christians are more comfortable with a God who exacts revenge than one who advocates turning the other cheek?

Could it be that fundamentalist Christians believe that God’s hatred of human sinfulness is so great that only the sacrifice of a deity could prevent Him from destroying the living inhabitants of the earth once again?

Could it be that the profession of faith in the biblical account of a universal flood protects fundamentalists from intellectual uncertainty and emotional anxiety?

Could it be that a Noah’s Ark facsimile and/or the discovery of wood on a mountain in Turkey lends credence to the creation myths recorded in Genesis?

Could it be that questioning the historical reality of the stories in the first eleven chapters of the Torah leads inevitably to a belief in evolution and eternal damnation?

What do you think?

*Genesis 14, The New Jerusalem Bible: Make it of reeds and caulk it with pitch inside and out.
**Scientific American Frontiers
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1207/features/noah.htm

Joe Erwin
This is an interesting presentation of information and evidence regarding the Noah's ark matter.

There are many myths and stories that provide bases for the development of theme park attractions. My sense is that this is as good as any other. To the extent that it is used beyond mere entertainment to accurately inform or teach about reality, fine. When used to misinform and propagandize in misleading ways--as is clearly the intent in some cases--, I am less supportive.

It would be very interesting, I think, to examine genomic evidence in search of a concordant constriction (i.e., "bottleneck" phenomenon) among humans and other animals. There is very compelling evidence for a genetic bottleneck in Homo sapiens, although it appears to have occurred several tens of thousands of years earlier that the date assigned to Noah's ark. It seems NOT to have occurred in other African apes, however, so what is that about? Should not there be evidence of a genomic constriction about 4000 years ago for all animal populations that exist on earth?

Is the only explanation of a lack of tangible evidence of this great flood event that Satan has been allowed to manipulate and distort reality profoundly to test our faith? Can I interest you in buying some swampland in Florida?