Above, another known Noah’s Ark site. (Click the link to read a testimonial from visitors.)
You have to ask yourself: If a group really believed they had discovered something as mind-boggling as Noah’s ark, would they open a crummy Visitor’s Center next to it?
But wait! There’s now some new competition!!
Texas Archaeologists Claim Discovery of Noah’s Ark in Iran’s Elburz Mountain Range
“I can’t imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark.”–Arch Bonnema
A team of Texas archaeologists believe they may have located the remains of Noah’s Ark in Iran’s Elburz mountain range.
“I can’t imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark,” said Arch Bonnema of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (B.A.S.E) Institute, a Christian archeology organization dedicated to looking for biblical artifacts.
Bonnema and the other B.A.S.E. Institute members hiked for seven hours in the mountains northwest of Tehran, climbing 13,000 feet before making the apparent discovery.
“There’s this idea, if we can prove that the ark existed then we can prove that the story existed, and more importantly, we can prove that God existed,” said Bruce Feiler, author of “Where God Was Born.
What is your favorite Noah’s Ark site? Or should we just embrace them all?
…and more importantly, we can prove that God existed…
I’m not even a Christian, and a big red flag goes up on that one…
Why would one of the faithful want [need?] to “prove” God existed?
“I can’t imagine what it could be if it is not…”
“I can’t imagine…” is not one of Arch’s problems. [grin]
Well, as there are two Noah Ark stories in the Hebrew Bible, intertwined with each other, let’s say the one goes with one story and the other with the other one. Or maybe niether, as the Noah stories were shared by word of mouth for a very long time before being written down and then combined. And while seen as “history” not seen as what we in modern/post-modern times mean by “history”
Who said he built only one boat??
Noah had several arks, and was an avid yachting enthusiast. For awhile, he won nearly every race he entered. He was best known for taking quite a few of his pets with him on his boats, and he really got a reputation for it. Well, the stories got exaggerated a bit, and pretty soon people were saying he took two of every animal on earth with him. People just can’t repeat a story without adding a little to it. I guess the moral is that once people decide you’re crazy, you never live it down.
The Noah story is a rehash of similar stories from neighboring cultures. For example, there is a very similar Assyrian/Babylonian myth that predates the Ark story. Needless to say, looking for a boat built by a Jew of the appropriate time period will be a fool’s errand.
LOL John.
Yea, the story of Utnapishtim predates the Torah and Old testament by about 5,000 years they think. That and a host of other Socially Transmitted Digressions found in Iraq through the years tells me that the mystique surrounding these stories needs more anthropology and archeology illucidation in the context of world history which would wrestle it from the Religious Nut Jobs that want to lay claim to them as though the time line went God to their grandparent to them, making them holy by association and genetics. The concept is archaic.
But this article feeds my conspiracy theory that the real reason we are over in Iraq is to obscure true world history by destruction as well as collect the few artifacts that convolute the concept of spiritual power for further use in the skull and bones society. Dark Magic.
Mike (1) he doesn’t want to prove God exists to himself, he wants to prove it to you … he should realize its a hopeless errand.
“NOAH!
Somebody talkin to me??
NOAH! I want you to build me an ark!
Riiight! What’s an ark?
BUILD IT 200 cubits by 100 cubits by 40 cubits
Riiight! What’s a cubit?”
Thank you Bill Cosby.
…he should realize its a hopeless errand.
Yes, he should.
I have accepted that this is God’s plan for me, why can’t Arch?
John…you mean like maybe a *ARKS ARE US* kinda thing?
Bonnema and the other B.A.S.E. Institute members hiked for seven hours in the mountains northwest of Tehran, climbing 13,000 feet before making the apparent discovery.
Yeah, after hiking for 7 hours at altitudes of 13K it’s a wonder they didn’t see flying saucers, bigfoot, Pam Anderson and Dick Cheney up there too.
I love the line: “There’s this idea, if we can prove that the ark existed then we can prove that the story existed, and more importantly, we can prove that God existed,”
It’s hillarious. We know there was a flood, we know that many cultures and stories have some guy building a huge boat to save people and livestock, but finding a huge boat wouldn’t prove god existed, any more so than the bible itself does.
Built, or written, by men does not equal proof of god.
It took 7 hours to find the ark?
Were they trying to hide it?
“…and more importantly, we can prove that God existed…”
existED?! Why the past tense? Where did God go?
Why not a visitor’s center? The place where Lee Harvy Oswald stood to shoot President Kenedy is now a money maker. You pay to go in and stand where he did and look thru a scope at where the president was shot.
And you can even buy a picture of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald!!!
There is no end to what people will try to make money from.
“Shhhhh. Hey, Hey, pass the word. If any body finds the reference to Gopher wood they burry it for a few more years. Got it? Good.”
For the record I know they were talking about finding this in Iran and my earlier comment refrences Iraq because the story of Utnapishtim or Noa was found in Iraq at a place known as Ur.
I think these Christians are barking up the wrong tree, the one that got them kicked out of their paradise in the first place, but it is no wonder.
Why not more than one ark? Every culture has a flood lore, and arks appear in some. If there was truly a civilization wiped out by climate change at the end of the pleistocene, it is possible that many arks of all sizes existed.
Indeed. Who cares about finding them when we should be building them?
It figures: Utnapishtim hung out with Gilgamesh, humanity’s first ever evil rock star. There was also the first groupie, some guy named Shin something or other who wrote the twelve tablets and then there was a super wild man who could do awesome things until he banged a harlot by a pond and lost his superhuman strength, but gained insight and understanding. I didn’t read far enough to know if they all had happy endings.
@ 19… And the whole Universe is a Giant Guitar
Of course there could be multiple arks. I don’t think anyone is arguing against the existence of boats. But that is not what this post is about. It is about people who, by their own admission, carry “a bible in one hand and a spade in the other,” and who believe that by such a discovery they would prove the biblical account and the existence of God.
The part I thought was funniest was that the “ark” timbers were petrified. As in, they are ROCKS. I’m no geologist, but doesn’t that mean that the last time these artifacts were wood was about 60 milion years ago?
Are these people Ark-eologists? 😉
11 Yeah, after hiking for 7 hours at altitudes of 13K it’s a wonder they didn’t see flying saucers, bigfoot, Pam Anderson and Dick Cheney up there too.
So the scenery should be pretty wild on that new train in china…
“On July 1, China will celebrate the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest rail line in the world. Its 1,200 miles of tracks traverse 342 miles of permafrost, much of it at altitudes exceeding 13,000 feet.”
Would you know we’re riding
on the Marrakesh Express…
I have to say, it looks like kind of a cool tour. Of course I don’t believe it is the ark but it does look like a boat way out in the middle of nowhere. Reminds me of a Clive Cussler book.
But I’d want to go with some real scientists. I think this crowd would drive me crazy. (I grew up with these types.)
The Ark shape is unmistakable, spanning a distance of 515 ft in a north-south direction. This is exactly 300 cubits as the Bible says, if we assume the cubit is the royal Egyptian cubit of 20.6 inches
First he uses the word “exactly” then he says, “if we assume.” This is typically how these guy’s minds work. They read some bible story (or Revelation) making TONS of assumptions, then they speak with total certainty!
As for me, I love the story of Noah and the Ark. It works well on several levels. For the kids, it is fun with the animals and the danger.
But it is really a horror story on a massive scale! Most people stop reading with the peace dove, which is wonderful. But that isn’t the real ending, which has a creepy incestuous twist. I think it would take
BTW, I googled Noah’s Ark and got a water park! Isn’t that just BEGGING for a massive drowning? http://www.noahsarkwaterpark.com/
#4, Gary, and it still burns me that he didn’t slap those two mosquitoes when he had the chance.
#17, Alix, very true, every culture has a flood story. In fact, when I was much younger (three years ago or so) we had a flood. It was so bad we had to take pa’s old fishing boat to school everyday. Uphill both ways too.
Re #5 — If they identify a boat built by a Jew it definitely won’t be the Ark.
Noah, of course, was not Jewish according to the biblical account, as he lived well before the establishment of the Covenant of Abraham. In fact, in Jewish tradition, Noah is taken as the very model and prototype of “the righteous of all nations”. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noahide
Does it make a difference whether or not we know the location of the ark? I think not. Must a Christian prove that God exists and sent his Only Begotten Son into the world? I think not. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The seeing only should be by studying the riches of salvation in the Covenantal Gospel.
While we may appreciate the Biblical archeological discoveries, the World of God as it has been given to the Churches is sufficient unto salvation in Jesus Christ. Shalom.
Albert van der Heide
me,as a real Christian I believed what is writen in the Bible,And I believed that it is
the words of GOD.Why? because there is some one who can interpret and explain it,And he can answer your any question base on the Bible.
I believed Brother Eli Sorsiano is the choosen by GOD.Any question from anyone he can find in
the Bible.So either we can find the location of noah’s arch or not the words of GOD are true.Ask brother Soriano “Church of GOD International”Just try once or twice.