The Guardian pulled out an old story from 1974 and popped it up for us all to laugh at today …
Incredulity reigned among British archaeologists yesterday after Senator Frank Moss, chairman of the US Senate Space Committee, told a gathering of American mapmakers that a speck on a photograph of Mount Ararat taken from 450 miles up by a satellite might be the remains of Noah’s Ark. “If it’s not the Loch Ness Monster, it’s the Ark,” said one expert, and a (non-archaeological) colleague asked: “Are there two sets of animal tracks leading from it?”
No one could answer that yesterday, because not even the US Embassy’s space man had yet seen the photograph. Senator Moss seems to have based his speculation on a “confidential memorandum” from Dr John Montgomery, of Trinity Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, which will only sharpen the edge of the archaeologists’ scepticism, because Christian fundamentalists have always been eager to discover the Ark.
A Frenchman, Fernand, claimed to have found the Ark in this area in 1955 and a stream of American-financed expeditions assaulted the 16,000ft mountain in an attempt to check on Genesis. But chunks of timber brought back from the site were later dated by radio-carbon techniques at about AD 560, several thousand years after Noah must have folded his umbrella and pulled up the gangplank.
Yep, somebody was indeed very seriously claiming that “Noah’s Ark” had been actually discovered back then. Ah but that was 38 years ago, we are simply not that daft anymore … right? Back in 1974 this came from a batty US Politian, and as we all know, the calibre of US politicians today has greatly evolved beyond such nonsense … er … well perhaps not the ones that don’t actually believe in evolution.
Does anybody actually still believe today that a 600 year old chap built a boat and gathered up every species, all one billion, on the entire planet? Do they actually dismiss all the archeological, geological and historical evidence that refutes it all? Sadly yes they do …
Click here to gasp in awe and the tiny little fuzzy blob that is claimed to be the ark. And if you then follow the “Home” button there on that site you can gaze in wonder at all the latest ark discovery news (the ‘wonder’ bit is of course where you wonder how people can be so stupid).
We are faced today with the strong suggestion that religious values should be central to our society here in the UK. The folks making such claims need to realise that this is not a rejection of the obvious universal values (no killing, no stealing), that causes us to choke upon such suggestions, but is instead the daft kooky stuff that comes with it all. (As a quick aside, you don’t need religious beliefs to work out what it takes to be a decent human being, nor do you need religious threats to be motivated to be a decent human being).
So back to the ark … if you are curious and wondering where this Ark story actually comes from? Well, the version in Genesis is not the original, it actually comes from an earlier Babylonian variation, so quite clearly the Genesis author simply nicked the tale from another culture.
Regardless of where the story comes from, there was no global flood in the last 5000 years, a boatload of animals did not ground on so-called Mount Ararat or on any mountain, and the world’s animals are not descended from two or seven pairs of each species that lived during the third millennium BC, and yet even when faced with a flood of proof that it is all silly, the belief does still truly persist – understanding why that is, now that is indeed an interesting question to ponder over.
Links for More Information
- Creationists Fight Over “Real” Noah’s Ark “…two groups of creationists … each think they’ve found the real Noah’s Ark in the Ararat mountains — and they’re each accusing the other of producing fake evidence.”
- Problems with a Global Flood
- Why Isn’t “Flood Geology” Accepted Today? by Edward T. Babinski
- Creationist “Flood Geology” Vs Common Sense -Or Reasons why “Flood Geology” was abandoned in the mid-1800s by Christian men of science by Edward T. Babinski
- Order of the Geologic Column and Flood Geology by Edward T. Babinski
- WAS MT. ARARAT UNDERWATER? Compiled and written by Edward T. Babinski
- Sun Goes Down in Flames: The Jammal Ark Hoax by Jim Lippard
- Has Anyone Discovered Noah’s Ark?
- RON WYATT: ARE HIS CLAIMS BONAFIDE? by Bill Crouse
- The Search for Noah’s Ark
- Fact Or Fiction: Could Noah’s Ark Really Have Happened? – Tiny Frog
- ‘Noah’s Ark’ found in Turkey A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.