Fake Noah's Ark found on Mt. Ararat

i-8727ac5b83dd7001a2f357652f172117-octoark.jpgSo Fox News breathlessly reported that Chinese researchers had found Noah's ark. "Has Noah's Ark been found on Turkish mountaintop?," they asked, dumbly. "No," answered slacktivist.
Gawker replied at greater length:

A group of evangelicals found some 4,800-year-old wood on top of Mount Ararat. They are "99.9 pecent" sure that it's Noah's ark. This is totally real, which is why it's on the front page of Fox News' "SciTech" section.

Slacktivist didn't actually just say "no," he expanded on the point by noting:

The expedition seems to have found a wooden structure. They hear hoofbeats, so they're "99.9 percent" certain it must be a zebra. Or a unicorn with zebra stripes.

Considering the style of argumentation offered by Noah's Ark Ministries, he continues:

If you had these people read Aesop's story of the Ant and the Grasshopper and then asked them what the story means, they would reply that it means they should start raising money for an entomological expedition to Greece, because holy cow -- talking insects!

Atrios was just bemused, wondering:

Weren't there like 15 In Search Of documentaries and even a movie around that time about how they so totally found Noah's Ark? Also, Sasquatch.

Various sciencebloggers responded to the incident with predictable ire, with PZ Myers jumping on the Chinese creationists' claim that the wood had been carbon dated to 4,800 years old:

Oh, yeah. Now the creationists are willing to say carbon-dating is valid.

You wish. Todd C. Wood, a baraminologist (creationist who knows better than to reject evolution outright) at William Jennings Bryan College in Dayton, TN, rejected the finding, observing:

1. They claim that radiocarbon dates the wood to 4800 years before present, but the Ark was constructed of pre-Flood wood, which would mean that the carbon dating should be much, much older.

2. The modern "Mt. Ararat" (Agri Dagh) is a post-Flood volcano. The Ark could not have landed on Agri Dagh because it did not exist at the end of the Flood, and even if it did land on modern Agri Dagh, it would have been destroyed by the many, many eruptions of Ararat since the Flood. You can observe all the fresh lava flows on Agri Dagh at Google Maps.

3. Given that the Flood survivors left the Ark to find a devastated world, the Ark would have been the best source of timber for the first decade or so. I think it highly likely that the Ark was dismantled to supply the growing population with building material for shelter.

Say what you will about creationists, some of them have genuine critical thinking skills. But as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Wood assumes that magic things happened to radioisotopes during the Flood, so wood from before the Flood should, like dinosaur bones and preCambrian fossils, have an apparent age of millions of years old.

And then the whole thing collapsed. Wood later reported on comments by someone who tagged along on some of the Ark expeditions and absolutely debunked the story. He concluded:

So there you have it. You know, creationists give evolutionists a hard time over hoaxes like Piltdown, but frankly, we've got just as many skeletons in our closet. Paluxy, Durupinar, the Burdick print, and so it goes.

In creationist math, three hoaxes are "just as many" as one, I suppose. And Wood gives some tolerably good advice (if you edit it right):

Here's some friendly advice to my readers: Please stop pouring money into fruitless searches for Noah's Ark. Do you know what real good you could accomplish with your money? Instead of gambling it away on the hope that you'll find Noah's Ark on a mountain where it can't possibly be? If you're really into creationism, invest in creationist education or research. There are plenty of creation scientists out there struggling with little or no research funding, and it physically sickens me to see people getting swindled out of thousands of dollars on ridiculous Ark expeditions. Don't like research? Then just donate to the Creation Museum. Or give your money to a legitimate missions organization, like the Bible League. Support your local soup kitchen or shelter for battered women or addiction rehab facility. There's so much good you could do with that kind of financial blessing.

There is no Ark. There never was, and if there had been, it wouldn't still be sitting on Mt Ararat. Do something useful with that energy. And remember a point slacktivist made about this in 2007:

it's still startling how many people have gotten drowned in the details of this story. They travel to Mt. Ararat in search of the ark, or they obsess over details of hydrology and storage space. Just as lost at sea are these poor folks' mirror opposites -- those who obsess over the details to prove that the story is "literally" false. (I'm forced to place the word literally in quotation marks here because it is the word they insist on using, although what they mean by it is far from clear.)

Both sorts of literalists approach these stories with the same incomprehension as that of people who don't understand jokes. "What kind of bar?" they ask. You try to ignore them, to get on to the punch line, to the point, but they keep interrupting. "A duck? I don't think you'd be allowed in the bar if you were carrying a duck."

Such people are particularly infuriating when you're trying to tell a really good joke. They're even more infuriating when you're trying to tell a really important story.

Enjoy the story. Study the story. If you find meaning in the story, retell the story and help other people understand it. But the truth of the story about Noah's ark has nothing to do with exactly how long a cubit was, what sort of wood is meant by "gopher wood," or what happened to all the poop. Noah's ark is a story about the dangers of selfishness, about the importance of being good to one another, and ultimately of honoring our ancestors. It's also about the patriarchal society of the era in which it was written down, a culture in which the sins of the father pass to the children, and in which Noah's religious devotion could save not only himself, but his family, just as Lot's goodness (including a willingness to offer his virgin daughters to be raped by a mob to save a guest) was sufficient to save his family.

In other words, a good story, but also a problematic one. And sometimes, problematic stories are the best ones, since you need to think about them more, and reward careful consideration. But not an excuse for chasing around Turkey sneaking rotten wood up a mountain to build a fake boat.

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It would be nice if a REAL scientist commented on a story like this.If one actually looked at and for evidence instead of half mockingly threw it away like garbage.
Why is the scientific community so bigoted and closed minded.

There is no ark there never was?

To bad your entire carrer is going to end up being a joke.
You can't see truth becuase your eyes are already filled with myths and assumtions.

"You can't see truth becuase your eyes are already filled with myths and assumtions."

pot, meet kettle

Hi,

I appreciate your effort trying to explain that this is fake! Now could you please spend some effort trying to explain what a huge wooden structure (probably made of ~5000-years-old wood) might be doing ~5 km up a mountain in Turkey?

1. The mountain being made by a recent volcano means there's no place for any old structure to exist 5 km up the mountain. Do you really think it came out from the volcano?!
2. I guess it's unlikely that you'll find a similar structure on every other mountain in the world! So why the mountain mentioned in the Bible?
3. If it's not Noah's Ark, I cannot think of any other reason for anybody who lived 5000 years ago to build such a structure. Do you?

Cheers!

MSNBC reported on this too. So much for our great American news institutions doing any real reporting. I guess it is much easier to rip off someone elses work than do your own investigating.

the Bible is a document of fact, not a history book. It contains the mind of Christ and is 100% accurate, yet often misinterpreted. Of course the arc existed. Yes I think evolution happened, however, this evolution occured prior to the creation period. The Bible does not say God created the heavens and the earth in one day, but rather says the earth did exsist, but moved without form or void. (in the beginning that was not the beginning) Further study of the Bible shows that the earth was destroyed by the devil at a point in the past during the angelic conflict (the reason man was created) and was recreated. (Genesis), so yes, evolution occured in the pre-creation period. I think this an important point which both science and most religious groups seem to miss or not accept. If this does actually turn out to be the arc, what a fantastic point of evangelisim it would be for the world, and yet again, modern science will have proved something in the Bible to be true and correct as it has done many times before.

anyways, just my thoughts, take them or leave them. Each is entitled to their own opinion and needs to work out thier own salvation and not that of others.
cheers

Say what you will about creationists, some of them have genuine critical thinking skills.

Dude, I get that you are now fully invested in how mean and shitty some atheists are and how wonderful and enlightening and allegorical religion can be. But all this "splitting the middle" "both sides do it" false equivalency shit is causing you to lose your fucking mind.

The Bible is not a book of facts, rather its a good book, the stories and events of which have been told in many religious books and ideals. If you are arguing about the creation of the world, there are millions and millions of galaxies containing billions and billions of stars and for some strange reason apparently 'GOD' the creator chose the formless piece of land called earth for all living beings to dwell upon. For once we got to think out of our sane minds and try to see what is around rather than to dig deep into what had happened and why. Its best to see the why in the present rather than the why of the past and try to be an instrument to change the world around. If at all we find the so called 'gopher wood' i hate to say it 'noah's ark' by the way, so what. What are you going to do with it. sit on it and go spread the news that GOD the almighty has sent us a sign. Instead of wasting your life for an invisible hypothetical after life go and take care of the world around you now...

By gtennyson (not verified) on 28 Apr 2010 #permalink

It's a fraud and it once again proves how unbelievably gullible Christians are. I want to laugh and in a way I almost feel bad for them.

Cornell archaeologist Peter Ian Kuniholm took a closer look at the photos from Mount Ararat and passed along some additional thoughts in an e-mail:

"... Some years back, a Turkish State Waterworks engineer told me they had found tree-stumps buried in the alluvium at the base of Mounts Ararat and Erciyes, among others, and Strabo in the second century says there were whole tribes of carpenters who made their living building furniture from Erciyes (currently deforested). So that means that at some point in history or prehistory these mountains had forestation. What is to prevent a shepherd in the Early Bronze Age from building a corral or some kind of shelter for his sheep and goats?"

Later in the day, he sent along this suggestion:

"After having been so rude to these Chinese chaps, here is a proposition which you can pass along to them from me:

"1. If the structure is indeed carbon-14-dated to around 4,800 years ago, that would put it at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, from which I have a number of tree-ring chronologies already developed.

"2. If they could saw some sections of pieces that have 100 rings or more and send them to us, we could try to combine them into a chronology and date it. (We do this sort of thing free of charge.)

"3. We could also see what species of trees these are and give them an estimate of where the wood is likely to have originated. (My bet is that it is going to be Pinus sylvestris [a type of pine tree] from eastern Turkey, but let's see.)

"4. We could see which of our Early Bronze Age chronologies it matches best with ... thereby giving us some notion of where the wood originated."

That sounds reasonable to me. My efforts to contact Noah's Ark Ministries International in Hong Kong haven't borne fruit yet, but I'll make sure to pass the proposition along if I have the chance.

The Christian Science Monitor quotes another ark-hunter, Randall Price, as saying he feared that "proper analysis may show this to be a hoax and negatively reflect how gullible Christians can be." The Monitor cited a leaked e-mail, attributed to Price, suggesting that Kurdish men could have trucked wood up the mountain to stage an elaborate hoax for the Chinese-Turkish team.

Urrrmmmm... Mitch??? That must be some good sh!! you're smoking... "Evolution happened before creation"????
If nothing was around, how the hell did it evolve????

As an atheist, I think that their is probably some basis of fact in the Ark story, seeing that this is a re-occurring theme from many civilizations...Also, we know that several "Great Floods" have occurred in the past ... HOWEVER, just plain common sense would tell you, that it would be impossible for every species on Earth (2 of each) to be accommodated on a boat... the story of Noah, is a rehash of other older, similar stories...

"Todd C. Wood, a baraminologist (creationist who knows better than to reject evolution outright)" Your 3 points are summed up here.
1.You take exception to the "age" of the wood. The flood lasted 370 Days from walk on to walk off. The ark was built within a hundred years in Noah's life. Is this span of at most 101 years accounting for this tomfoolery? "which would mean that the carbon dating should be much, much older"
Is 101 years "much much older" to evolutionists now?

2."The modern "Mt. Ararat" is a post-Flood volcano."
Really? How long does it take a new island to form in the ocean due to volcanic activity?

3."I think it highly likely that the Ark was dismantled to supply the growing population"
I would not dismantle a shelter to build a shelter....

Perhaps a trip to that mountian area yourselves may clear up any doubts. Interestingly enough Mount St. Helens in the USA changed a lot of minds in the science world when all of the results were in. Scientists like to think that they have absolute facts when in fact science is merely a faith system. There is no real scientific proof that God and the events of the Bible don't exist or did not happen. As a matter of fact if one was able to see the truth, there are more things that point to the truth that God exists and that the bible is true. It's all about faith and beliefs. So I guess scientists are just as religious as the creationists. Christians place their faith and trust in their God and His word while the scientist places his/her faith and trust in there theories, facts and figures. :)

Dr. Price is simply jealous that he and his team were not the first to locate the Ark. Naturally, his great desire to find it has become his great jealousy of othersâ success. He has been making his route from news source to news source, citing totally unidentified sources in an attempt to slander the Turkish-Chinese team, even going so far as to decry it as a probable hoax, imagining an unlikely scenario wherein climbers brought on their backs tons of wooden beams up to the discovery site, high upon a towering mountain peak, wedged them into a make-shift ark, and then falsely reported that they had found the ruins in an attempt to get rich quick.

Dr. Price is simply jealous that he and his team were not the first to locate the Ark. Naturally, his great desire to find it has become his great jealousy of othersâ success. He has been making his route from news source to news source, citing totally unidentified sources in an attempt to slander the Turkish-Chinese team, even going so far as to decry it as a probable hoax, imagining an unlikely scenario wherein climbers brought on their backs tons of wooden beams up to the discovery site, high upon a towering mountain peak, wedged them into a make-shift ark, and then falsely reported that they had found the ruins in an attempt to get rich quick. I would even go so far as to say that he is displaying a streak in racism, since there were no Caucasians among the explorers, which is a break from tradition with regard to typical creationists.
Parenthetically, that the discovery team consisted of no Caucasian Bible-thumpers from the Southeast USA gives them credibility.

I like the theory that the Noah story was based on a mega-flood involving the Black Sea. Discovering possible real history behind the myths is pretty interesting.

Mount Ararat was most notably Volcanically active around 3000 b.c. and a few times since. You will notice the lava flow covering the wooden beams in some places and actually ending the beams as they burnt through them in linked picture below (left center of picture in link from explorers/discoverers website). Hard to plant something like this. Either this is Noah's Ark or an old man-made structure (ref. 1840 volcanic activity) that has been exposed to volcanic activity.

http://www.noahsarksearch.net/images/20100424/pr_even_20100424_06.jpg

josh, how often do you get a rash of comments from loonies like you have today? i guess it's no wonder how these scam searches get funded - there are always gullible people willing to give money.

"As an atheist, I think that their is probably some basis of fact in the Ark story, seeing that this is a re-occurring theme from many civilizations"

Oh, could it be that people tended to settle near rivers, for obvious reasons, and even more obvious, that rivers flood? no basis for an ark at all: floods are common themes from several civilization because of location and nature.

crap like the ark being found story wouldn't even make an amusing comic book: it's just sad when real people buy into it.

Why do you people just keep arguing about whether the ark is true or not? First, check the Bible. It holds all the answers, and don't you dare start saying that the Bible is a lie. Who in the right mind would be spending their own time to write a book? Give me the proof.

You and your fancy words. "As an atheist", "It's just sad", yadda yadda yadda. Crap. Plain out to you, fresh crap. I ain't no christian, but I'm sure there is a Creator out there who created everything, who created evolution.

Instead of creating a hoax about finding Noah's Ark, what about finding the 60,000 Egyptian chariots at a particular location under the Red Sea? Instead of falsifying a biblical archeological find, do more good for mankind and raise up some of the chariots, proving that God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, in the year 1598 BC.

Herman Cummings
ephraim7@aol.com

Modern Science is consumed by the investigation of created energies (i.e. post "Big Bang" -> E=mc^2 etc), but are oblivious to the action of uncreated energies in the "Big Bang" universe. They do not even know what that means.

Simply put. True Science is not closed minded, it is not biased by subjective perception, and does not reject investigation of that which is inexplicable (The Buddha Boy for example), but seeks to find objective truth. As Science "fine tunes" theories old ones are rejected, and new ones supercede the old. (Relativistic vs Newtonion Physics for example). Soon the inevitable will become apparent, the inexplicable will require the acceptance of uncreated energies (i.e. pre "Big Bang"), at which point Philosphy and Science will meld together, and the Science of Sciences will blossom forth.

By Real Science (not verified) on 29 Apr 2010 #permalink

i have serious doubts on some of the photos. the man standing against the rock is most likely photo shopped into the picture. he casts no shadow on his background and his outline does not match the background. the light grey angular rock jutting out is the same rock on another photo only now an enlarged one which seems to have been reduced in size and the figure added in.the round boulders on the right are defying gravity and just clinging to the sides of the wall, as if the original photo was actually 90 deg. turned. gut feeling is the photo is a complete fake.all imo

Couple points to clarify: For those who have faith in Jesus Christ, we believe the Bible is "the word of God." Most Christians believe it is without error but often misinterpreted.

God is the creator - I think some creationists (which I claim to be) are a bit too close-minded or maybe unaware that there was likely a pre-Adamic period of time when dinosaurs and a race of man-like creatures romed the earth (that explains the so-called "evolution of man").

Evolution happens, I just don't think the universe was created by some cosmic event. I believe it was intelligently designed and orchestrated by God. Something as complex is our very bodies (even if you just consider the human eye) cannot just happen on accident over a million years. If you took every piece of a lamborghini and put it into a huge wire mesh bag and shook the bag, you would NEVER have a running lamborghini no matter how much you shook the bag). It requires intelligent design. It takes more faith to believe in MAN's theories than it takes to believe that there is a God who created all that is around us.

For those who don't believe and choose to think that MAN has figured it all out and their theories are correct because they are supported by "scientific evidence"...what if you're wrong?

#19: Google "Ron Wyatt". He already found the chariots somewhere in the Red Sea, he says. He posted pics of the wheels that looked more like natural sea-bottom formations. He then forgot where he left the wheels. He also found and lost several other biblical artifacts.

Let me ask Noah when I finally see him in Paradise :-P or let me recommend you to study the Bible and get accurate knowledge from it.

It's stunning that you have so many people here actually trying to defend Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark! I mean really!
If I were you, I'd look at the possibility that your commitment to accomodationism is fueling this. Refusing to call a clearly insane idea for the insanity it is, in an attempt to not hurt anyones feelings, does tend to allow insanity to propagate.

I see archeological finds like this to be interesting but irrelevant. As a Christian, I don't see that it can or ever wood prove or disprove nothing except that people will see evidence through their own eyes. We see this immediately when Josh's 4th word is "breathlessly". You know exactly what his opinion is and that most of what's written afterwards will be based on that.

Let's face it. Committed atheists could find a notarized stone tablet signed by Noah along with his picture ID, attesting to the Flood and the building permit, construction tools, and digital photo evidence of people drowning outside (yes of course I'm being facetious for those of you who will tell me this isn't possible), and they still wouldn't believe. And if they did, they'd find and "believe" any another explanation whether there was any evidence for it or not. For most atheists, there's more at stake for not believing than just the science.

Ask committed atheists what evidence they would accept as proof, and the answer is usually "nothing". There is no evidence no matter how compelling or absolute because its not about the evidence. If most atheists spent half the time reading the Book they criticize instead of blogs or articles that pick at pieces, and did so with a thoughtful mind, they'd find a different meaning than they imagine. To them, it's a book to be disproven, not a book to be analyzed and decided on.

Most Christians on the other hand, won't go so far as to read their own Bible or look at scientific reason. It's just "Yea!! - win one for us", each time someone finds something real or not, that could but doesn't necessarily correlate to their beliefs. I find that few Christians actually discern through their Bible and consequently end up just buying up the prevailing theories and misinformation from some passed around email or what their preacher heard one time from some guy that read some commentary on someone's opinion. Very few preachers have any science knowledge that extends past the basic biology course that they had to take in college, and even most of that is gone now.

Stick to your Bible, read it, and question anyone who tells you differently. Look at the world around you and see that it confirms your Bible, but not necessarily in the way you always thought it did. Genesis 1 is a historical document, but in a contextual - not a scientific sense. Take it for what it is and what it is meant to be, not for what others want you to defend it as.

Seriously - just as this proves nothing if it is real, it proves nothing if it isn't. Let it go.

I've got no more information on this "ark" story, but there are many questions that aren't being answered. How many labs were involved? Let's see the results? How about a plethora of pictures... I mean seriously, this was supposesdly October in 2008. You'd think that given this was an archeological expedition, they might have brought alone some equipment that does better than a cell phone camera. I appreciate not making fast false assumptions here, but to release a couple photos and a statement and that's it? That's a little irresponsible I think. They are making scientific claims, so they should be happy to provide the scientific proof that their evidence is factual.

Conversely, I can poke serious holes in the debunks of all the naysayers too. First of all, they know nothing, so their rebuttals are trash and premature. And the arguments??? Really? How foolish. Each of the debunks can be debunked in about 30 seconds.

What we have here is an interesting find. Nothing more. If it's real, it doesn't and never will be proved to be "THE ark". And if it was, it doesn't prove the story or that God did it. And if it did, it wouldn't prove Christianity over any other religion under which cultures recognize a Great Flood story. Enjoy this story as it unfolds, but remember that it really is irrelevant.

#19 Most atheist have know the bible more than most christians, just we read it witht our eyes closed to any evidence that contradicts their believes...

Any atheist would accept evidence... the problem is that no one have come with a way to demostrate or put to test the notion of the existance of gods..

But that is no an atheist problem... but a theist problem... who have no way of demostrate their beliefs..!!

This sign is better evidence for people who do not belive in God because most of religious(christians,jews,muslims and hindus may be more) mentioned about this flood

This is the best evidence who do not belive God. God gave these people one more chance to belive God. Most of religious(christians,jews,muslims and hindus may be more) mentioned their holly book about this flood.

Simple rule:

When you make extraordinary claims, you must show extraordinary evidence.

Someone found some old timber on a mountain. This means there is old timber on a mountain. They have not demonstrated any other fact.

Indeed, by searching with an agenda in mind (finding Noah's ark) they

1) are clearly out to confirm a religious faith

2) are not archaeologists; not, that is, scientists, who search to discover new information based on evidence that additional evidence is likely to be found

2) encourage hoaxes.

It smells and looks like a fake, a very old fake, but just another "shroud of Turin" nevertheless, like the evangelical "astronomers" who claim to have seen Satan on Mars, or of 'white noise' recordings of human shreiks on volcanic lava flows in Hawaii!! (my favorite!)We are very good at not only making god(s) in our image, but we go so far as to make our own "bigfoot footprints" to back it up!! Nobody can say that we lack in imagination!

Why is it that the so-called intelligent thinkers presume that the Ark, if there were an ark, would have been the only source of wood or timber after the flood. Do they presume that the flood, if it occurred, caused all timber to vanish. Isn't it likely, in light of the forest land that must have existed, that there must have been a lot of dead or uprooted tree's laying around. I have never known water to cause timber to vanish. It usually floats around for a while. Generally for many years.

Why is it that some want "real scientist" to examine the site. Have the unbelievers gone so far as to believe that scientist must be atheist to be "real scientist". There are many scientist who are believers just as there have been many intelligent men throughout the ages who have believed. (Our founding fathers and the authors of those great documents that have served as a basis for freedom as an example.) Some people entertain the foolish notion that where their is a lack of intelligence their can be no organization. I am one of those. Where there is organization there must be intelligence. We may dispute the term "intelligence", but for me, the earth, in it's perpetual cycles, the human body with eyes that have literally millions of receptors, ears and all of the amazing systems that are contained in our organic world stand as proof that there is intelligence behind it.
I don't know what was found on Mt. Ararat. Maybe it is nothing. On the other hand, if it is a large ship, how it got to thirteen thousand feet is going to be tough for even the most intelligent to explain away. I am also certain that there are many, who if God himself were to say it was Noah's Ark, would find a different explaination to entertain themselves with.

@Jim; It is illogical to assume that the Ark wouldn't have been salvaged. God promised Noah there would never be another great flood again. The ark served it's purpose, and to leave such a wealth of good wood behind, especially since Noah and his family had to repopulate the earth, is ludicrous. Plus, most of those timbers would have been under miles of sediment.

@Robert: Todd C.Wood is not a creationist. He acknowledges the evidence for evolution, but believes it fits better under the creationist model. As for your points:
1) What do 101 years have to do with anything? The wood was all pre-flood. By Creationist estimates it should come back to, at the very least, 10,000-100,000 years. The Ark wasn't built after the flood.
2)Are you saying that Mount Ararat simply popped into existence during the flood? No? Then it could only have appeared some time after.
3)See my response to Jim above.

Ok i kinda do believe in Noahs ark...but what i cant understand is how that olive tree could survive a year being TOTALLY SUBMERGED IN WATER without dying or how it still had fresh leaves on it...because after all the dove brings Noah a FRESH olive leaf... i dont get it...and if the tree sprouted after the flood it wouldnt have had enouth time to grow before Noah realised the flood had gone...get wat i mean???! I IS CONFUSED! (deliberate missuse of grammar...)and how did Noah get ALLLLL the species of animals on the world into one ark without them fighting or eating each other. And how could he collect them in SEVEN days!? they would come from aallll over the world!? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?!!!!

Wow, a really good turnout of god botherers here. Ok, moving to a saner place.

Al, that "lava flow" is actually ice, the wood was taken from a location by the black sea and trucked to the mountain, there is now a great deal of proof to that, and the so called ark would be buried at least 25 feet in lava from the lava flows of the last 4500 years, and one more thing, how would you fit two of every animal on one boat, and expect it to float even if you could manage to round them all up, and get them on the "ark"

Its easy to claim there was no ark or flood yet there is no evidence to say there was not. We are talking about thousands of years that have passed and none of us were there at the proposed time to witness the event. We depend on geological evidence which at times might seem conflicting,supporting a flood and according to some scientists not,verbal and ancient written histories that might seem far fetched in our age of science. Scientific analyses do not always give clear evidence so we also have theories that might confuse.

Even if the site is not Noahs Ark it could still be a interesting site to investigate if it is true?

By Llewellyn Andrew (not verified) on 27 Dec 2010 #permalink

I actually find it funny that most people refer to creationists and people who believe in the bible as "looneys" or "crazy". These are people who fully believe that this world came from absolutely NOTHING. They believe in the theory of evolution as fact, although it is NOT repeatable, and the chances of us being where we are right now are about .0(about a trillion zeroes) possible. If you ask me, this is lunacy. Believing in something that there is absolutely no evidence of.

Sure, it's okay to be skeptical and ask questions. It's another thing to reject God and intelligent design and believe in something you can't see yourself, when your biggest objection to God is that you cannot see Him. Well where the hell is your proof of "seeing evolution"? Where is the crossbreed? Use common sense. Almost everything the bible says, written thousands of years ago, makes sense.

So go ahead, reproduce this earth this everything using absolutely nothing. I heard scientists were trying to recreate a big bang? I guess that would prove that this world could be produced from nothing, right? Or wait...that would make them invisible men in the sky....right? Oh so I guess that would just prove that....

some people say that it is impossible for noah to be able to have two of every animal on one boat, or ark as i should say. it actually may be possible because common sense tells you that everything is a species. for example, the finches of Golapogos islands to the east of africa started as just a couple of species, now they range to maybe hundred of species. i've been looking at a lot of this stuff, and i can come back with usual answers for almost all of them! next time, do research before blogging everything that you believe is true. use facts in your writing and don't write down what you think is true. and yes, i 100 percent believe Noah's ark is out there, and if it's not on Mt. Ararat, then what other convient location would have an ark-shaped place with 4,800 year-old wood. if scientists are 99.9 percent thats the ark, then don't say it's not unless you have a real logical reason to why it couldn't... Cheers!

also, people keep saying that how did noah get every animal in 7 days while building an ark? well, in the bible all the animals came to noah by the work of god right before the flood came. and i believe the reason the ark didn't tip or anything like that, is because of god. something he told noah must've prepared him for this. if god planned to wipe out the earth, the least he can do is have a fullproof plan on how to give it life again.

also, people keep saying that how did noah get every animal in 7 days while building an ark? well, in the bible all the animals came to noah by the work of god right before the flood came. and i believe the reason the ark didn't tip or anything like that, is because of god. something he told noah must've prepared him for this. if god planned to wipe out the earth, the least he can do is have a fullproof plan on how to give it life again.

"It's stunning that you have so many people here actually trying to defend Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark! I mean really!
If I were you, I'd look at the possibility that your commitment to accomodationism is fueling this. Refusing to call a clearly insane idea for the insanity it is, in an attempt to not hurt anyones feelings, does tend to allow insanity to propagate."

And how is intolerance working out for you? How does calling 'clearly insane' ideas insane refute, silence or dismay those promoting them?
When was the last time a Conservative said to you "Liberals are insane" or "X and Y liberal beliefs are moonbat nutty" and you decided you should shut up, change your mind, or learned anything? It's never happened to me.

dear brother en,.
this Noah's arc was created because of the human nature and their rebellious disobedience towards God ,.
you know one thing,when the sins of his created people on the earth was overburdened then he started instructed Noah to build the arc to save his creation in the arc but his rebellious people did not accepted what Noah said to his people and rejected his sayings this is the truth if not you create an arc in the same measurements we will see how many years that you will take to build the arc simply don't argue with God;s creation you will see his punishment,.there are many evidences are available in our day today life accordingly to the bible if you read it carefully u will come to know the secret of life y god has created us to be on the earth ,.and y these wars famine tsunami's earthquakes are encountered,. because of the sins which are rapidly growing in everywhere to punish them god did all those incidents to recognize him.
but they are not happening by any scientists are by any fore- tellers because he is living God one should know it,.
and you tell me how did that arc came on the mt Ararat is it a magic or the archaeologists created to prove that we are foolish ? never please try to seek the truth from the bible it is the book of life and his evidence of the creation to whom with God was speaking and y ? just try to find out or i will help you how to find out ? praisethelord

In Noah's day the scoffers who laughed at Noah and refuse to get in the Ark drowned, which is a relatively quick death. The Ark that is offered to all today is security in Jesus. To scoff at Him and not get into His Ark of safety is to elect to burn forever in Hell. Get in the ARK.

By Gene Dodge (not verified) on 27 Aug 2011 #permalink

Garbage in/garbage out works on both sides of the debate. How many front page "missing link discovered!" articles get retracted on page 50? Let me tell you...a hell of a lot. Yeesh, every time a new "fossil" gets discovered in China and splashed in the news I just facepalm.

Noah's Ark IMO is indeed a true event, but I highly doubt it is on Turkey's Mt. Ararat ( Much like present day Mt. Sinai was picked out of a hat and is almost certainly NOT the historical Mt. Sinai ) or hasn't just decomposed to toothpicks.

as a creationist, if i'm wrong, i live a thankful life then i die. period. end of sentence. however, if YOU are wrong,and Noah was real and the ark and...(gasp) God is real....where does that leave you? eternity is a LOOOONG time to be wrong. are you a gambler? just something to think about.

It is not possible for an ark to be big enough to house two of every type of animal, even with a very generic definition of type.

Melanie, if God is real, I get an eternal reward for using my brain for the critical thinking skills He endowed it with. What do you get?

The author fails miserably when he claims: "Noah's ark is a story about the dangers of selfishness, about the importance of being good to one another, and ultimately of honoring our ancestors." Actually it's a story of how only ONE MAN (and his family) was counted righteous enough before God to be saved from a world in which all flesh had become so corrupt that it had to be wiped from the face of the earth. It's not about being good -there is none good but God. It has nothing to do with honouring our ancestors, we don't accord honour to the dead, we accord honour to God.

RUKEAL, I suggest you talk with some rabbis for a bit and learn more about the nature of right and wrong before you rant here.

By Gray Falcon (not verified) on 04 Oct 2011 #permalink

Correction: Perhaps some of these commenters should learn about the Jewish origins of Christianity. How much embellishment is in the Bible, I may never know. But the story of Moses seems to start off as a labor dispute: Moses' initial request is simply to have a day off for a chance to worship. Compare that to the origins of modern labor unions...

By Gray Falcon (not verified) on 05 Oct 2011 #permalink

YOU SUCK. This article is fake.
JESUS IS REAL, AND YOUR SATAN'S FOLLOWERS SO YOU CAN JUST GO PRAY FOR FORGIVENESS. YEAH. DATS RIGHT. PRAY.

This guy is obviously a fake. Why on earth did i even come here to read about his crap. Get a life please! you only have the right to say this is fake if you are a REAL SCIENTIST involved in the expedition or else just shut up and get a life. Seriously.

I was raised a catholic, but when it became time for me to make my own decisions about religeon, I chose to abstain. Those of you who say that the Bible is a factual representation of history, fine. There are plenty of historical references in the Bible that can be scientifically proven to be true however, those of you saying it was written by God....Really??!!! Man created God, not the other way around. It is so sad how religeons brainwash their followers(this term is so appropriate). Followers, think about it. They do not question, they just blindly believe what those who came before them believed...to have faith...BS!! Question everything, come to your own conclusions and above all else, THINK FOR YOURSELF! I respect everyones right to believe in whatever religeon they choose, so please respect my decision to NOT believe.

Lot’s goodness (including a willingness to offer his virgin daughters to be raped by a mob to save a guest)

I think this story tells us more about that era's moral code than it does about any modern sense of "goodness". Offering *anyone* up to be raped is, I hope, not something a modern person would ever consider "goodness".

i don't understand why the person who wrote this is so convicted about the subject. If were created by evolution then there is no point to life, you will die and nothing will happen, and in a couple generations nobody will remember you and you have no purpose. Why argue and waste your energy as you say others are?