Image from Moronail.netI found this story to be kind of deja vu. Hasn't Noah's Ark already been found, maybe a couple of times? Actually, things that people claimed were remnants of the ark have been found. As an agnostic, I am of course open to the possibility, but by my nature am extremely dubious.
Mostly because the story of Noah is right up there in my top five for utterly ridiculous Bible stories. Scientifically speaking, the likelihood of any of the story being literally true are virtually nil. But forget that part. This story claims that the ark dates to 4,800 years ago. Sorry, but there are known civilizations older than that. Shoot, beer has been around longer than that. Fail.
'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. . .
Read more: www.thesun.co.uk
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ReplyDeleteArkeolology is not to be confused with archeology. In other Arkeology news, (Oklahoma) a fellow in our town claims to have cracked to code on the Copper Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He has finacial backers. He's been on digs in Isreal. (See Jim Barfield and his Copper Scroll Project) Folks involved with these types of wacky Indiana Jones adventures see themselves as instruments of the last days Messianic missions. In this case, The Arc of the Covanant, it would seem that once this relic is returned to Israel then all sorts of magical happening are to commence. This gets evangelicals excited. As of yet, The Copper Scroll Project has failed to turn up anything but harsh words from arceologists--words like sensationalism and sentamentality and foolishness.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who takes the Noah's Ark story for non-fiction has got to either be extraordinarily gullible; hasn't thought about it very much; or has "blind faith," and would believe anything sold as "biblically true." The story is fantastic and incredible in the negative senses of those words.
ReplyDeleteIn the Bible, there are countless stories that can only be squared with "god worked a magic trick." With the ark story, god had to keep the animals from eating each other, he had to get the animals from Australia, South America, North America, Antarctica, Europe, Asia, Africa, all somehow to the middle east. He had to have every virus and bacteria, every insect and arachnid. That's a helluva trick. Then, there is the issue of animal waste. and the potential disease and health issues of being squeezed onto this impossibly densely packed ship. Meanwhile, all sea life (animal and plant) would be choked to death by the sediments in the water, and all LAND life would be killed by being submerged for a month and a half. And after it was over, humanity had to repopulate AGAIN from closely related people. All the animals had to go off to their own quarters of the world. Somehow every life form had to repopulate from a pair. You'd assume that some wouldn't succeed, so you then have to assume that there were even MORE pairs of animals on the ark than exist now!
The story was obviously written by someone who didn't think of all of the above. Who couldn't imagine how many animals exist on the earth. Who was unaware of the existence of microscopic organisms, and how sea animals survive. Of the difference between fresh water and salt water. Who was unaware that the sky isn't a "firmament" with windows that let in "the waters of the heavens."
If all of the problems with the story are answered with "god worked a magic trick," then what is the point of the story? Why didn't god just stamp out man and start over? Why insert a ridiculous boat ride?