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Man builds life-sized replica of Noah's Ark
- fisadev 14y agoI think "replica" isn't the best word...
- glhaynes 14y agoNext thing you know there'll be an authentic steampunk version.
- illuminate 14y agoIt's got gears! GEARS. What would this be called, anyway? Tunicpunk?
- jlgreco 14y agoEh... I get what you mean, but I think (as an example of many) the whole business of stamping out sword "replicas" of famous swords from fiction establishes a precedent for using the word like that.
- illuminate 14y agoBeaten still by relics during pilgrimage, a gajillion splinters from the "one true cross", thousands of "totally authentic" foreskins and knucklebones of every one of Christ's followers.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- spiffistan 14y agoAt least he's Dutch, so there's a decent probability it will be used, even within his lifetime.
- Udo 14y agoFrom the article: "For Huibers, a builder by trade, it all began with a nightmare he had in 1992, when the low-lying Netherlands was flooded, as it has been many times throughout its history."
- jggonz 14y agoThat was my first thought as well. He's built himself a hotel on water. They're nearly below sea-level over there! =)
- jeremyarussell 14y agoI'd love to read a book detailing how he went about it. (Other then the bible.) It looks beautiful. That he had the forethought to put a restaurant and theater in is topping on the cake.
- misnome 14y agoYeah, I can definitely see value and interest in a book about i's construction, or even a documentary (which would probably have to have been planned in advance, oh well).
- Shorel 14y agoProbably worth investigating the Atra-Hasis flood myth. It is the original version of the retconned Gigamesh myth, which was in turn retconned into the Noah myth.
- illuminate 14y agoIt's always enjoyable how the literalists tend to blank out at any mention of syncretism.
- shepbook 14y agoCool, though I think 20 years of time and however much that cost could have been put toward something that actually helps a fellow human. Maybe build a bunch of smaller houses for poor people instead of a giant houseboat for your stuffed animals. Then again, maybe that's just me...
- grannyg00se 14y agoGreat, now I'm going to feel guilty for every hour I spend reading HN instead of helping a fellow human. Your hobbies are your own and investment into your personal concerns is not a zero sum game. Oh ...wait yes it is... I just wanted to say zero sum. But seriously, if you are able to dedicate time and effort into something even remotely positive you should do it. There's no predicting how, when, or to whom it will be of benefit. This guy could've been spending all that time and money into much less useful things - even self destructive things. At very least this is one hell of a grand art piece. Personally, I find it is an inspiration. Amazing what can be done with sufficient dedication and effort.
- JangoSteve 14y agoFrom the article: > He said his motivation is ultimately religious, though. He wants to > make people think what their purpose is on Earth. "I want to make > people question that so that they go looking for answers," and > ultimately find salvation through God and eternal life, he said. If someone is willing to put that much time and dedication into something they believe in without hurting anyone, then who are you to judge what's worthy of their time and money?
- danneu 14y agoI wonder how many people started writing a reply to you, attempted a few drafts, but ended up just slowly removing their hands from the keyboard, turning off their computer, and sinking their face firmly into their palm, never to return to HN again.
- illuminate 14y agoThe perfect comeback (theirs, of course.)
- donohoe 14y agoYou can't make a replica of something that never existed
- JangoSteve 14y agoEven if you're not religious, you don't know whether or not such an ark ever existed. Even if you don't believe in the Bible as being an accurate recording of events, it's still possible that some of the stories could have been based, even in part, on actual events. Let's take Noah's Ark for example. It has been claimed that there is evidence that such a flood may have actually taken place [1]. It's even been claimed by some explorers that they found remains of a large ark-like vessel (though the fact that these explorers were evangelical Christians makes the credibility dubious, and thus seems unlikely) [2]. I'm not saying whether or not this stuff happened or whether or not I believe it. All I'm saying is, given that stories could be based, even if exaggerated, on actual events, and given that unbelievable feats of engineering and construction exist from long ago, like the pyramids for example; it seems closed-minded to make disingenuous and dismissive statements about something we don't know with certainty. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/evidence-noahs-flood-ark-real-robert-ballard-archeologist-titanic_n_2273143.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/evidence-noahs-floo... [2] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-noahs-ark-found-in-turkey-science-religion-culture/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-noahs...
- bunderbunder 14y agoPerhaps there's a kernel of truth in there, in the form of a boat. But kernels of truth can get pretty amazingly distorted over the course of centuries or millennia of developing mythology. There's a kernel of truth to the Greek myth of the Cyclops, but it has nothing to do with giant one-eyed men. It's fossil elephant skeletons, with their nasal cavity looking a lot like a huge eye socket. Even given, for the sake of argument, that at some point there was an actual boat at the root of this myth, the likelihood that this Ark is a replica of that boat is only not a whole lot greater than the likelihood that the world did actually experience a rainfall rate of 12 inches per minute over the course of forty days. The vessel described in Genesis is simply not plausible, neither from an engineering nor a historical perspective.
- Irregardless 14y ago> “I will kill everything, except the floating ones and the swimming ones, who will get out due to a loophole.” -- Eddie Izzard, speaking as god I've never understood why bible fanatics are so fixated on that story, it's one of the bible's most conspicuous flaws. Edit: When I say "bible fanatics" I'm referring specifically to bible fanatics: people who are obsessed with the bible and view it as the literal word of god. I'm not trying to classify all bible followers as "fanatics", nor do I mean to impart any negative connotation to that word. If you read it the latter way, it's most likely a projection of your own bias -- either towards excessive political correctness or anti-theism.
- sp332 14y ago"Bible fanatics" is a little insulting to several religions. Anyway a lot of things that look like they took a lot of time (I think the Grand Canyon is the canonical example) are alternatively explained as being results of the Flood.
- Luc 14y agoOr rather, 'explained'.
- simon 14y agoTechnically, "bible fanatics" is only insulting to one religion, Christianity. The Jews observe the Torah, which while being 99'ish percent the same as the OT is technically different because of ordering of the books and the combining of some.
- sp332 14y agoWell the Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons use different "bibles" even though they are largely the same content. So I was including the Jews as well.
- simon 14y agoYeah, although it pretty much depends on how you define bible. The Catholics use the KJV with the Apocrypha inserted between the OT and NT. Most of the denominational churches (loosely what you referred to as Protestants) use similar bibles unless you want to be picky over their use of different translations or get into which original manuscript they were translated from. And that's just getting warmed up. I'm into this stuff.
- barkingcat 14y agoaccording to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9oFHRJ6kE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9oFHRJ6kE It is 1:14th size
- sunwooz 14y agoOk, now lets try to fit every female and male of every species into that boat!
- ohwp 14y agoI wouldn't be surprised when it will actually fit. There aren't that much different large animals. Edit: I agree this was a very unclear post. What I meant: The available space is about 20,000 m2. Lets say the African bush elephant fits in 25 m2. This means you can take 400 different kinds of the largest terrestrial animals on board. But I don't think there are that much different kind of large animals.
- dEnigma 14y agoYou are kidding, right? Unless you have some really weird definition of "large animal" in mind.
- illuminate 14y agoWhy are you restricting it to "large animals"? "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth." —Genesis 7:2-3
- arjn 14y agoImpressive dedication and effort. Reminds me of that man who built an entire stone castle all by himself. I forget his name.
- bmuon 14y agoQuick Google search: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle
- programminggeek 14y agoI think I'm more shocked to see foxnews.com linked from HN. Also, if you're planning on doing this yourself, start with the Minimum Viable Ark and see if other people and animals are willing to join you before going all in on the full ark yourself.
- jggonz 14y agoYes, it may be the end of the world after all.
- jasonmoo 14y agoI made a bowl of spaghetti last night. Where was fox news on that one?
- passionfruit 14y agoThe article references the phrase "the cities of the coast shall tremble" as being in the New Testament [1] but the closest verse I could find is Ezekiel 26:18 [2] which is in the Old Testament. [1] http://www.foxnews.com/science/slideshow/2012/12/12/man-builds-life-sized-replica-noah-ark/#slide=9 http://www.foxnews.com/science/slideshow/2012/12/12/man-buil... [2] http://studybible.info/LITV/Ezekiel%2026:18 http://studybible.info/LITV/Ezekiel%2026:18
- lutze 14y agoThis thing looks about as seaworthy as a tin bath with a missing plug... Oh look, glad to see my instincts aren't wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan%27s_Ark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan%27s_Ark So it doesn't actually even float on its own, it's built on top of a steel barge. Fox News: "functioning" ark, "functioning" journalism.
- codex 14y agoI'd like to see him try to fill that ark with two of every kind of animal on the planet.