7 ms·

Searches for Noah's Ark

33 points by marcodiego 3y ago

CobrastanJorji 3y ago
I think the article's mention of the James Bryce quote, "no man is bound to discredit his own relic," is a pretty good summary of the greater whole.
akomtu 3y ago
This must be an ancient landmark of christianity.
- bdcravens 3y ago
  And Judaism and Islam.
lapetitejort 3y ago
I grew up in evangelical circles and heard about the discovery of Noah's Ark maybe every year or so. I also heard about a new rock, footprint, fossil, and species that categorically disproved evolution and old earth theory. I have since moved on from such circles.
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  If all that energy was spent on bettering their communities, or at least not harming them further. Sigh.
- mjklin 3y ago
  If they can’t find it they’ll build it in Kentucky! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Encounter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Encounter
  - zeta0134 3y ago
    I've been! To that and the creation museum, run by the same group. Boy it's an experience, as a former Christian that had to come out of the closet. There's like... a willing suspense of disbelief that one must accept for pretty much any of the pseudo-science on display to seem even remotely plausible. (Among other things they really don't seem to like carbon dating.) But then, there's entire crowds full of people moving through the thing, talking about it among themselves and with their children, presenting it as though it is obviously factual. It's... an interesting place to be sure. I recommend visiting once if you're near the area, just for the sheer absurdity on display. If nothing else, it's good to have your convictions challenged once in a while.
  - oldbbsnickname 3y ago
    That's too easy and not direct enough money-making. Build a cult and get that tax-exempt status.
noaheverett 3y ago
For those who don't believe in the Bible or Christianity: If the Ark was found (and verified somehow), would it change your mind? The Ark itself fascinates me 1) as a Christian and 2) well, look at my name :)
- terhechte 3y ago
  If they found a 50k year old giant wooden ship, what would that prove about god or genesis? Or rather, to better answer your questions: what would be verified by the finding and how?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Potentially, though the flood tale isn't unique to Christianity. Many tales in the Bible can be correlated with history, especially the parts that take place in the Roman Empire (even the existence of Yeshua ben Yosef), but correlation doesn't prove the spiritual elements.
- gs17 3y ago
  How verified are we talking about? Verified that it's a boat with similar measurements from the time period, verified that there was a global flood and the only survivors were on board?
  - noaheverett 3y ago
    This is where the "verified somehow" kicks in, I don't have the answer for our intellectual minds :)
    - dwaltrip 3y ago
      The geographic distribution of animals that we see on Earth today makes it effectively impossible for all surviving land animals to have been on a single boat near Mesopotamia 6k years ago. Not to mention a million other reasons why it can’t have been. The weight of evidence against the idea of a “global multi-month flood several thousand years ago” is so overwhelming that one struggles to imagine a coherent depiction of the world where such a thing could be true.
agloe_dreams 3y ago
It makes sense to me that even if there was an Ark, they almost certainly disassembled it for homes.
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Or fire, as stated in Genesis 8:20
  - Rygian 3y ago
    Which translation? I've checked a few and they only mention an altar, nothing about burning the ark.
    - bdcravens 3y ago
      They had to use some sort of material for the fire, and every tree not on the ark would be soaked
matthoiland 3y ago
> Astronaut James Irwin, the eighth person to walk on the Moon, experienced a religious epiphany during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. The following year, he resigned from NASA and founded an evangelical organization, the High Flight Foundation. During his outreach work, Irwin met Eryl Cummings in 1976 and expressed interest in joining one of his expeditions in search of Noah's Ark. Seeing our vulnerable blue planet floating through space must trigger some primordial fear of annihilation, as this seems to be a common experience among astronauts.
- renegade-otter 3y ago
  I would imagine looking at this fragile marble from space and then coming back to see things like decades-long killings over "disputed territories", or people getting grey hairs over completely insignificant things, all of that would seem incredibly petty and unnecessary.
  - jfengel 3y ago
    Yeah, that's nice to imagine. Instead the guy spent the rest of his life promoting bad science (not just Noah's Ark, but creationism in general). There's no way to do that without implicitly or explicitly calling out a conspiracy consisting of effectively every single scientist on the planet. And while I'm sure he imagined he was doing the "nice" version of evangelicalism, at a minimum it consists of pestering the three-fourths of the planet who isn't Christian and doesn't want to be Christian. And often finding ways to make their lives uncomfortable. It sounds like seeing this "fragile marble" may change people, but not always for the better. It seems like in this case it just increased his cultural injunction to dominate the planet.
    - captainvicman 3y ago
      [flagged]
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    Jeff Bezos seemed immune to that, while William Shatner was visibly moved. Maybe you need a minimum of humanity for it to be stirred, ha ha.
anoxor 3y ago
This seems super relevant to tech, and not just something you'd find on reddit /r/atheism
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Anything that satisfies intellectual curiosity belongs on HN.
Boogie_Man 3y ago
>Donald Mackenzie, a self-styled missionary who had searched for Noah's Ark for nearly a decade, traveled to Ararat in 2010 hoping to find Ertuğrul's site on his own. Mackenzie contacted his family from the mountain in September, but was never heard from again. His abandoned campsite was later found, but the circumstances of his disappearance remain unknown.[176][177] Prompt: "In the style of Lovecraft, write a short story about a man named Donald Mackenzie who travels to Mount Ararat searching for Noah's ark, but ultimately disappears after stumbling upon cosmic horrors." Result: "In the shadowy annals of history, the name Donald Mackenzie is scarcely whispered, his existence all but forgotten by those who dare delve into the abyss of the unexplainable. It was in the bleak year of 1925 that this unfortunate soul embarked on a perilous journey, one that would lead him to the towering and ominous presence of Mount Ararat. Donald was a man consumed by a singular obsession, an insatiable thirst for answers that defied the boundaries of human understanding. His quest was to unveil the ancient secret that lay buried within the frozen heart of Mount Ararat—the elusive relic known as Noah's ark. With a tattered map and a lantern flickering in the inky blackness of a Turkish night, Donald ascended the desolate slopes of the accursed mountain. As he ventured deeper into the wilderness, the world seemed to grow more sinister, the very air tainted with a palpable malevolence. The journey was fraught with peril, plagued by relentless storms and icy winds that whispered blasphemous incantations. But Donald pressed on, fueled by a madness that refused to be quenched. With each step, the mountain seemed to grow taller, casting an oppressive shadow over his fragile sanity. Finally, after weeks of arduous climbing, he stumbled upon a yawning cavern, its entrance veiled by a curtain of mist. An unholy compulsion drove him inward, into the abyss. Inside, the air was thick with the stench of ancient decay, and the walls were etched with nightmarish symbols that mocked the frailty of the human mind. It was there, deep within the bowels of the mountain, that Donald encountered them—the cosmic horrors that had remained hidden from mortal eyes since time immemorial. These eldritch beings, writhing masses of tentacles and eyes that radiated malevolence, gazed upon him with a maleficent curiosity. Donald's mind shattered like glass under their gaze, his sanity unraveling like a frayed thread. He attempted to flee, but the very ground beneath him seemed to pulsate with a sinister life of its own, ensnaring him in a nightmarish embrace. In the end, he was consumed, body and soul, by the unfathomable horrors that dwelled within the heart of Mount Ararat. His disappearance became a footnote in the annals of history, a grim reminder of the folly of mortal men who dare to seek the forbidden knowledge of the cosmos. And so, the mountain retained its grim secret, guarding Noah's ark and the cosmic horrors that dwelled beneath its icy shroud, waiting to ensnare any foolhardy soul who dared to tread upon its haunted slopes." Not bad, but I think I could probably do better.
johnea 3y ago
Maybe they'll find the easter bunny too!!!
amanaplanacanal 3y ago
One thing that immediately struck me is all the mentions of petrified wood. Aren’t these folks mostly young earth creationists? How do you get petrified wood in just a few thousand years?
vgeek 3y ago
It is actually right off interstate 75 in rural Kentucky. Next to to the zip lines and cemetery.

33 points by marcodiego 3y ago

I think the article's mention of the James Bryce quote, "no man is bound to discredit his own relic," is a pretty good summary of the greater whole.

akomtu 3y ago

This must be an ancient landmark of christianity.

bdcravens 3y ago
And Judaism and Islam.

lapetitejort 3y ago

I grew up in evangelical circles and heard about the discovery of Noah's Ark maybe every year or so. I also heard about a new rock, footprint, fossil, and species that categorically disproved evolution and old earth theory. I have since moved on from such circles.

ASalazarMX 3y ago
If all that energy was spent on bettering their communities, or at least not harming them further. Sigh.
mjklin 3y ago
If they can’t find it they’ll build it in Kentucky! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Encounter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Encounter
- zeta0134 3y ago
  I've been! To that and the creation museum, run by the same group. Boy it's an experience, as a former Christian that had to come out of the closet. There's like... a willing suspense of disbelief that one must accept for pretty much any of the pseudo-science on display to seem even remotely plausible. (Among other things they really don't seem to like carbon dating.) But then, there's entire crowds full of people moving through the thing, talking about it among themselves and with their children, presenting it as though it is obviously factual. It's... an interesting place to be sure. I recommend visiting once if you're near the area, just for the sheer absurdity on display. If nothing else, it's good to have your convictions challenged once in a while.
- oldbbsnickname 3y ago
  That's too easy and not direct enough money-making. Build a cult and get that tax-exempt status.

noaheverett 3y ago

For those who don't believe in the Bible or Christianity: If the Ark was found (and verified somehow), would it change your mind? The Ark itself fascinates me 1) as a Christian and 2) well, look at my name :)

terhechte 3y ago
If they found a 50k year old giant wooden ship, what would that prove about god or genesis? Or rather, to better answer your questions: what would be verified by the finding and how?
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
bdcravens 3y ago
Potentially, though the flood tale isn't unique to Christianity. Many tales in the Bible can be correlated with history, especially the parts that take place in the Roman Empire (even the existence of Yeshua ben Yosef), but correlation doesn't prove the spiritual elements.
gs17 3y ago
How verified are we talking about? Verified that it's a boat with similar measurements from the time period, verified that there was a global flood and the only survivors were on board?
- noaheverett 3y ago
  This is where the "verified somehow" kicks in, I don't have the answer for our intellectual minds :)
  - dwaltrip 3y ago
    The geographic distribution of animals that we see on Earth today makes it effectively impossible for all surviving land animals to have been on a single boat near Mesopotamia 6k years ago. Not to mention a million other reasons why it can’t have been. The weight of evidence against the idea of a “global multi-month flood several thousand years ago” is so overwhelming that one struggles to imagine a coherent depiction of the world where such a thing could be true.

agloe_dreams 3y ago

It makes sense to me that even if there was an Ark, they almost certainly disassembled it for homes.

bdcravens 3y ago
Or fire, as stated in Genesis 8:20
- Rygian 3y ago
  Which translation? I've checked a few and they only mention an altar, nothing about burning the ark.
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    They had to use some sort of material for the fire, and every tree not on the ark would be soaked

matthoiland 3y ago

> Astronaut James Irwin, the eighth person to walk on the Moon, experienced a religious epiphany during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. The following year, he resigned from NASA and founded an evangelical organization, the High Flight Foundation. During his outreach work, Irwin met Eryl Cummings in 1976 and expressed interest in joining one of his expeditions in search of Noah's Ark. Seeing our vulnerable blue planet floating through space must trigger some primordial fear of annihilation, as this seems to be a common experience among astronauts.

renegade-otter 3y ago
I would imagine looking at this fragile marble from space and then coming back to see things like decades-long killings over "disputed territories", or people getting grey hairs over completely insignificant things, all of that would seem incredibly petty and unnecessary.
- jfengel 3y ago
  Yeah, that's nice to imagine. Instead the guy spent the rest of his life promoting bad science (not just Noah's Ark, but creationism in general). There's no way to do that without implicitly or explicitly calling out a conspiracy consisting of effectively every single scientist on the planet. And while I'm sure he imagined he was doing the "nice" version of evangelicalism, at a minimum it consists of pestering the three-fourths of the planet who isn't Christian and doesn't want to be Christian. And often finding ways to make their lives uncomfortable. It sounds like seeing this "fragile marble" may change people, but not always for the better. It seems like in this case it just increased his cultural injunction to dominate the planet.
  - captainvicman 3y ago
    [flagged]
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  Jeff Bezos seemed immune to that, while William Shatner was visibly moved. Maybe you need a minimum of humanity for it to be stirred, ha ha.

anoxor 3y ago

This seems super relevant to tech, and not just something you'd find on reddit /r/atheism

bdcravens 3y ago
Anything that satisfies intellectual curiosity belongs on HN.

Boogie_Man 3y ago

>Donald Mackenzie, a self-styled missionary who had searched for Noah's Ark for nearly a decade, traveled to Ararat in 2010 hoping to find Ertuğrul's site on his own. Mackenzie contacted his family from the mountain in September, but was never heard from again. His abandoned campsite was later found, but the circumstances of his disappearance remain unknown.[176][177] Prompt: "In the style of Lovecraft, write a short story about a man named Donald Mackenzie who travels to Mount Ararat searching for Noah's ark, but ultimately disappears after stumbling upon cosmic horrors." Result: "In the shadowy annals of history, the name Donald Mackenzie is scarcely whispered, his existence all but forgotten by those who dare delve into the abyss of the unexplainable. It was in the bleak year of 1925 that this unfortunate soul embarked on a perilous journey, one that would lead him to the towering and ominous presence of Mount Ararat. Donald was a man consumed by a singular obsession, an insatiable thirst for answers that defied the boundaries of human understanding. His quest was to unveil the ancient secret that lay buried within the frozen heart of Mount Ararat—the elusive relic known as Noah's ark. With a tattered map and a lantern flickering in the inky blackness of a Turkish night, Donald ascended the desolate slopes of the accursed mountain. As he ventured deeper into the wilderness, the world seemed to grow more sinister, the very air tainted with a palpable malevolence. The journey was fraught with peril, plagued by relentless storms and icy winds that whispered blasphemous incantations. But Donald pressed on, fueled by a madness that refused to be quenched. With each step, the mountain seemed to grow taller, casting an oppressive shadow over his fragile sanity. Finally, after weeks of arduous climbing, he stumbled upon a yawning cavern, its entrance veiled by a curtain of mist. An unholy compulsion drove him inward, into the abyss. Inside, the air was thick with the stench of ancient decay, and the walls were etched with nightmarish symbols that mocked the frailty of the human mind. It was there, deep within the bowels of the mountain, that Donald encountered them—the cosmic horrors that had remained hidden from mortal eyes since time immemorial. These eldritch beings, writhing masses of tentacles and eyes that radiated malevolence, gazed upon him with a maleficent curiosity. Donald's mind shattered like glass under their gaze, his sanity unraveling like a frayed thread. He attempted to flee, but the very ground beneath him seemed to pulsate with a sinister life of its own, ensnaring him in a nightmarish embrace. In the end, he was consumed, body and soul, by the unfathomable horrors that dwelled within the heart of Mount Ararat. His disappearance became a footnote in the annals of history, a grim reminder of the folly of mortal men who dare to seek the forbidden knowledge of the cosmos. And so, the mountain retained its grim secret, guarding Noah's ark and the cosmic horrors that dwelled beneath its icy shroud, waiting to ensnare any foolhardy soul who dared to tread upon its haunted slopes." Not bad, but I think I could probably do better.

johnea 3y ago

Maybe they'll find the easter bunny too!!!

amanaplanacanal 3y ago

One thing that immediately struck me is all the mentions of petrified wood. Aren’t these folks mostly young earth creationists? How do you get petrified wood in just a few thousand years?

vgeek 3y ago

It is actually right off interstate 75 in rural Kentucky. Next to to the zip lines and cemetery.