Artist’s interpretation

UPDATE:
Wow! Who could have predicted this?

To make a long story short: this is all reported to be a fake. The photos were reputed to have been taken off site near the Black Sea, but the film footage the Chinese now have was shot on location on Mt. Ararat. 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. In the winter of 2008 a Chinese climber taken by Parasut’s men to the site saw the wood, but couldn’t get inside because of the severe weather conditions. During the summer of 2009 more wood was planted inside a cave at the site.

ORIGINAL STORY:

THE remains of Noah’s Ark have been discovered 13,000ft up a Turkish mountain, it has been claimed. A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah’s Ark Ministries International research team, said: “It’s not 100 per cent that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it.”

He said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.

The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000ft in the vicinity, Yeung said. Local Turkish officials will ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected while a major archaeological dig is conducted.

The biblical story says that God decided to flood the Earth after seeing how corrupt it was.

Huh, I thought they found that boat long ago.




  1. GregAllen says:

    >> Radiotube said, on April 29th, 2010 at 6:11 am
    >> GregAllen, I don’t think it’s dishonest to explain how God may have accomplished his will.

    I’m down with that. Evolution is way to explain how God accomplished his will.

    Most “liberal” (aka mainstream) theologians say: “the bible says the ‘whole world” was covered in water’ but probably it really means “their whole world’.”

    Creationists say: “the bible says the ‘the springs opened up and the floodgates released’ but probably what it really means is “the tectonic plates shifted'”.

    This is the same exegetical method!

    It is intellectually dishonest for the creationists to accuse the liberals of mis-reading the bible when the conservative Christians are doing exactly the same thing.

    I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and have studied under some of their most famous scholars and I can honestly say, I’ve never met a true biblical literalist.

    # 97 Radiotube said, on April 29th, 2010 at 6:11 am

    GregAllen, I don’t think it’s dishonest to explain how God may have accomplished his will. For example, He warned that nobody should touch a different kind of ark… the Ark of the Covenant. When someone did, they died. If you explore how the Ark of the Covenant was built, it was literally a huge electrical capacitor, inlaid with gold within and without and insulated with wood. Touching it, caused a discharge of gathered static electricity to ground and the person completing the circuit was electrocuted.

    >> Another example… not eating pork. One of the problems with pork was due to parasites that would be transferred to the person eating the pork if it weren’t cooked thoroughly. To avoid this problem, God may have chosen to include pork in the unclean classification.

    But what about shellfish or rabbits, or cormorants?

    However, this is a much less sticky issue as far as biblical interpretation goes. “Unclean” doesn’t really touch on science… just that it is forbidden. God doesn’t need a reason.

    The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the ancients believed some animals where freaks of nature… perhaps corrupted by sin. God’s holy people where not supposed to ingest corruption and/or sin.

    I’m still that way, actually. I won’t fish in the cooling ponds of nuclear reactors any longer… the three eyed fish give me a creepy stomach ache. 😉

    >> I think of humankind as God’s children and sometimes we as humans need to be treated as though we are children so when He instructs us, we might get a very dumbed down version of what we need to know, not necessarily why.

    We liberal Christians wouldn’t say it that way but we have a very similar view — that all humans have very limited understanding of God and nobody has a full lock on the truth. This should make us humble around those who disagree with us about God.

  2. GregAllen says:

    Oops — sorry for way overpasting the original text.

  3. John says:

    bobbo, science and religion are not inconsistent, no really! said,

    “Highly definitional but I think that is well established. Many of the cell level processes that we humans have are identical to one celled creatures that we came from. Pretty strong inference there wouldn’t you say? You aren’t looking for Obama’s Birth Certificate are you?

    I also thought there was some fanfare last month about finding the missing link? Fossils are rare but it looks more likely all the time that the missing link will appear==still not immune to the argument that there is “another” missing link. Even with a gap at the link though, the chain/tree of evolution for hominids is very well established. No sane person is ignorant about that.”

    Hahaha no man im not a birther 🙂
    Just because we share a eukaryotic cell structure with other animals doesnt prove anything.. We have no evidence of the evolutionary process in many cases.. eg. the fossil evidence to prove we developed from a bird to a monkey (big generalisation but you get my point). And actually if you look at kingdom animalia you will find that relationship to species per kind works out as accurate as relationship through species evolution. Im not a person who believes that god created the world in 7 days, it took millions of years yes.. but was an intellegent creator responsible for the creation of life? I believe so as the more study processes at an anatomical level the more i cant believe otherwise.. they just seem too complex for them to occur by chance!

  4. GregAllen says:

    >> John said, on April 29th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
    >> I believe so as the more study processes at an anatomical level the more i cant believe otherwise.. they just seem too complex for them to occur by chance!

    I also believe in a creator God but I don’t for a second think that science proves God’s existence.

    Do you also believe in miracles? It’s something like that.

    Miracles should be iron-clad proof of the Divine but it never works that way.

    One person experience a miracle bit a skeptic, seeing the exact same event, dismisses it as coincidence.

    You look in a microsope and see the work of God. Another person looks in there and sees nothing more than a mechanism or process.

    That’s why I think it comes down to how our brains are wired.

    Some of us have the brain capacity to perceive the divine and other don’t.

    But, of course, those people think we are deluded.

    It’s a perceptional stalemate.

  5. John says:

    Greg Allen

    “I also believe in a creator God but I don’t for a second think that science proves God’s existence.

    Do you also believe in miracles? It’s something like that.

    Miracles should be iron-clad proof of the Divine but it never works that way.

    One person experience a miracle bit a skeptic, seeing the exact same event, dismisses it as coincidence.

    You look in a microscope and see the work of God. Another person looks in there and sees nothing more than a mechanism or process.

    That’s why I think it comes down to how our brains are wired.

    Some of us have the brain capacity to perceive the divine and other don’t.

    But, of course, those people think we are deluded.

    It’s a perceptional stalemate.”

    Of course science doesnt prove gods existence, yet it neither proves the theory of evolution. Until then i am going to follow the more logical solution that one accident happen and created god who therefore created everything else compared to the idea that trillions of these happy accidents occured to evolve to where we are by chance.
    I also personally do not believe in miracles in this present day but i understand your point!

    Your right there is no point arguing it because no one is ever going to win!

  6. Dirk Thundernuts says:

    Hey, my imaginary friends build boats too!

  7. clancys_daddy says:

    “UPDATED — Evangelicals Find Noah’s Ark!!!!! — IT’S A HOAX!” doh!

    http://tinyurl.com/yhcnpvv

  8. Personality says:

    @ 56. He is Robert form Lost.

  9. Benjamin says:

    I figured they didn’t find the actual ark. They carbon dated it at 4800 years. Seems much too late to be the ark to me.

  10. Airsick says:

    A hoax? …just like every other time they found it? 🙂

  11. Killer Duck says:

    #108, yes Ben the REAL ark is still out there somewhere.
    There is probably a leprechaun with a unicorn and a mermaid in it.

  12. Dallas says:

    #108 Good point, Benji. It’s still out there, somewhere.

    The moon was determined not to be made out of cheese because extensive sample tests ruled that out.

  13. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    #102–john==the birther comment goes to looking for and not finding something in plain sight. Like you looking for the “missing link” or for evolutionary proof from humans to single cell life.

    “THERE IT IS” and you dismiss it.

    And so it goes with all other “proof” your religion is made up. If you recognize the proof at all, then you change the original question. This has led the thoughtful of your ilk to recognize that religion had better stick with things that can’t be disproven. You would be burned at the stake years ago, and disrespected widely today, for thinking the earth is millions of years old. Religion evolves.

    I’ll tell you again what you’ve been told many times before==evolution does NOT PROCEED BY CHANCE. Evolution did not proceed from bird to monkey nor from monkey to us. When you so clearly demonstrate your complete incompetency in a subject area, appreciation of any subtlety is illusory–so goes your eukaryotic cell structure.

    Beyond that, even if “everything” you illogically and ignorantly think was true==why submit to the authority of anyone but yourself? I am anti-theist. I’m sure god appreciates his creation utilizing his freewill as he intended.

  14. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    “You know” as much as I dislike religion, the quick timing of these two stories smells like a set up. Its still “a story” I guess, just over its arc a bit manipulated?

    But then, what about religion isn’t?

  15. Benjamin says:

    #110 Killer Duck, “yes Ben the REAL ark is still out there somewhere. There is probably a leprechaun with a unicorn and a mermaid in it.”

    I think Noah only took actual animals, not pretend ones. The ark probably rotted away sitting abandoned on a mountain all these years. No one knows if it is still out there. If it is out there, it is on Mt Ararat.

    #111 Dallas, “The moon was determined not to be made out of cheese because extensive sample tests ruled that out.”

    I thought the moon was made out of moon rocks. However further studies gave me this result:

    ” * 42% oxygen
    * 21% silicon
    * 13% iron
    * 8% calcium
    * 7% aluminium
    * 6% magnesium
    * 3% other elements ”

    Even so, I am convinced that those are just the percentages of elements that make up moon rocks. Cheese has less than 8% calcium. The 13% iron would make it taste rather bad, so I do not believe that moon rocks are made of cheese.

  16. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    Benji==what you “know”==based on your beliefs or based on science?

    Yes, based on science. If you can’t measure it, it either doesn’t exist or your don’t understand it enough to talk about it. ((a few interesting exceptions science is still working on.))

    How long you can keep your two worlds apart should be interesting, but I admit you have separated them well. Interesting cognitive dissonance. Everything that is disprovable about my religion has been disproven. The only things I can believe in are things that can’t be disproven.

    Silly hooman.

  17. GregAllen says:

    >> # 104 John said, on April 30th, 2010 at 2:07 am
    >> Of course science doesnt prove gods existence, yet it neither proves the theory of evolution.

    You seem to know your biology but you show the classic layman’s misunderstanding about scientific theory.

    Except in mathematics and some extremely narrow lab experiments, scientific theories are not proven.

    The best you can do is overwhelming evidence.

    >> Until then i am going to follow the more logical solution that one accident happen and created god who therefore created everything else

    See, this is where you fall apart — you confuse logic and faith.

    Don’t get me wrong — Religious people can be perfectly logical and intellegent. (despite what atheist supremacists often claim)

    But the core of our faith is, well, faith. You can build a logical construct based on that (aka theology) but it’s ultimately based in something besides logic.

    >> I also personally do not believe in miracles in this present day but i understand your point!

    If a miracle is a marvelous act of God, then I absolutely do believe in miracles.

    You could parade a million eye witnesses to miracles before judge and still not hear all the stories.

    I, personally, would testify about the profound acts of forgiveness and restored hearts I’ve seen happen because of an encounter with God.

    But would this be science? Of course not.

  18. GregAllen says:

    >> bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist said, on April 30th, 2010 at 6:14 am
    >> How long you can keep your two worlds apart should be interesting, but I admit you have separated them well

    Even though I keep my science and theology apart, I actually thing they are ultimately the same discipline.

    Science, mathematics, philosophy/theology, art, poetry, etc are all trying to understand and marvel at “what the heck we humans are apart of”.

    But these disciplines are looking at very different levels of complexity and use very different strategies.

    But it’s all the same thing.

  19. sargasso says:

    Somewhere on the Black Sea coast, a farmer’s barn door has disappeared.

  20. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    Ha, ha. Greg. Hard to go after you when I sense all your good will.

    So–do you believe in coincidences? If so, how do you tell them apart from miracles?

    I do agree about one million witnesses though. Don’t Shiva and Buddha have 10 million such witnesses?

    Silly (well meaning) hooman.

  21. bobbo, we think with words says:

    #117–Greg==no, those are not all the same thing which is why they have separate words associated with them. but you have demonstrated once again the “mush” that is religion. Equate everything with everything else, and get all mystical feeling, and voila==there’s god.

    It is amusing to me/should be troubling to you==that in reality this mush shows science to be the guiding principle for all of us. Why else would religion seek the affirmation of science whereas science ((formalistically as in “proof”)) has nothing to say about god?

    Science==the real world.
    Religion==the made up world.

    While they both may be contemplated by man, they are not the same thing.

    Yes, the miracle of god’s forgiveness has never regrown a severed arm. Why is that?

  22. qb says:

    #78 bobbo said

    “but you are STINGY with your expertise.

    Must not be a preening know it all erudite pedantic rhetorical sophist?”

    Or maybe I have a job? Love to talk, but gotta catch a plane.

  23. bobbo, whats really to learn here says:

    Ouch! Well, keep your scarf out of the propeller and happy landings.

  24. ECA says:

    well,
    now they have SAID they found it twice.

  25. Glass Half Full says:

    Shocking! Stories about fictional invisible magical people who live in the sky and can’t be seen or heard or measured or video taped are fake? You mean Thor isn’t real either? Or Shiva? Or Isis? Or Vishnu? Or Quin Yin? NOOOOOOO! You can’t be implying that magical invisible beings are just made up! Can’t be…SHOCKING!

  26. Skeptic of the AOBCCS says:

    Of course it was a hoax! Only those suffering from CRD believed it. (Christian Religion Disease)

    Now, if they had found a mummified pedophile priest and 100 of his child victims on Mt. Ararat… I could believe that.

  27. McCullough says:

    Everyone here should rent a copy of “What the bleep do we know”? on Quantum Physics. It will clear up all your questions..

    Or confuse you even further.

  28. Your Mother says:

    It turns out it’s not Noah’s Ark, it’s actually one of Santa Claus’s old sleighs.

  29. Robert Hagedorn says:

    The original sin was anal intercourse. For the exegesis, google the first scandal Adam and Eve.

  30. bobbo, telling cement from mud says:

    #128–Robert==Where is Benjamin when we need him? I thought the original sin was violating gods direct command because of our “desire for knowledge.”

    Course, “I wonder what will happen if I put my dick in there?” sounds like a noble quest.


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