The Lord Told Noah To Build Him an Arky, Arky...

My dad showed me something most remarkable yesterday. A group of Christian explorers and scientists claim to have found a wooden structure that they believe to be Noah's Ark buried in a glacier on Mount Ararat. Noah's Ark? The group of Turkish and Chinese Christians (no Americans involved) say that they have found a multi-room wooden structure preserved in the ice. Carbon dating says the wood is 4,800 years old, according to the group, which equates to 2,800 B.C. According to a literal dating of Genesis, the flood would have happened between 3,000 and 2,500 B.C.

Here's an excerpt from a Fox News article posted yesterday:

Representatives of Noah's Ark Ministries said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000 feet in the vicinity, Yeung said.

During the press conference, team member Panda Lee described visiting the site. “In October 2008, I climbed the mountain with the Turkish team. At an elevation of more than 4,000 meters, I saw a structure built with plank-like timber. Each plank was about 8 inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction predating the use of metal nails."

As you might expect, the news has been met with a mix of excitement and skepticism. I have both. It's exciting if the find is real and there is no fraud involved. Whether or not this is Noah's Ark or just an old mountain cabin will probably be debated for eons to come, much like the Shroud of Turin. The bottom line is that faith must be present before proof becomes proof.

The skeptic in me says that this is too good to be true and makes me hold off belief until I see another set of scientific analysis. Does this structure really exist? Don't forget that we live in the age of Photoshop and Twitter, where fakes can be manufactured and distributed quickly. And... I wonder why this would come to light now, at this time? I briefly saw an article in which even an old ark hunter is skeptical about this new find. Then there are those linguists who claim Genesis 8:4 refers to the mountain range of Ararat and not the mountain itself.

Anyway, here was the Fox News article from yesterday. It's fascinating and I hope it's true. But I can't get super-excited yet.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/noahs-ark-found-turkey-ararat/

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