For those of you who haven't heard the news, I am happy to inform you that Noah's Ark has been found - again. After seeing a short blip of an article yesterday and talking with my father about it at lunch today I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about and if the story was even credible.
Various news websites all have different stories about the article but they all have the same general idea. 13, 000 feet up frozen in a glacier on top of the Turkish Mountain Arafat is what evangelical Turkish and Chinese explorers are calling the real Noah's Ark. I find this discovery both fascinating, a little bit unbelievable, and somewhat disturbing. It is pretty obvious why I feel the first two, I am a little put off by the idea though because supposedly Noah's Ark has already been discovered back in 1987 and even has a national park and ministry named after it. Now though explorers are claiming that the old ark is just a rock formation and that this new discovery is 99.9% sure to be the real thing.
The group responsible for the discovery are saying that carbon dating places the boat at around 4,800 years old, the approximate time the ark would have been set sail. For those of you who don't know the story it goes a little something like this; because of man's sinful nature God decided to flood the Earth and give humanity a chance to start all over again. He commanded Noah to build an ark with very specific measurements. "Make thee an ark of gopher wood... The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it." Then once build two of each animal were to be boarded on the boat and it set sail with Noah and his family while it rained for 50 days and 50 nights. Eventually the flood waters dried up and the Ark landed atop a mountain and everything/ everyone was able to start living all over again.
Currently the Christian explorers have yet to say if the boat they found matches the specification listed in the Bible but they do claim that there is significant evidence to support and hopefully soon confirm the authenticity. Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten spoke at the press conference along with team member Panda Lee who both site the size and construction with its several compartments as it quite possibly being the real deal.
If it turns out that this find is real, what does it all mean? Being a Christian myself I would like to see it as some concrete evidence that the Bible is more than the made up story that society wants us to believe. I am a also though a realist and a Biochemistry major though so I have my doubts about the whole affair. After all, it was only 20 years ago that we found the first Ark so why couldn't it just be a fluke again. And there are certain biological issues that makes me question it - two of each animal makes it impossible to explain the large genetic diversity between and amongst different species. So for now I am pretty much at a loss, I think that I will wait to make any concrete decisions until after they find out whether or not its fact or fiction then I'll go from there, I figure that God will point me in the right direction. :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a neat story, but like you, I see where there could be some doubt. It would be nice though to actually have some proof that the bible stories are real, like you said. This would make a lot more believers out of people who are confused about the bible and so on. I think it would be awesome if it really was the ark, but guess we'll see later down the road.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat article! I don't post religious comments online, but I will say the article is intriguing. Also, I found your blog later into the semester and I really wish I would have been reading earlier on...yours is one of the few I read "religiously."
ReplyDelete