[Smokin' Joe]

And Ballard was very diplomatic in his handling of this, but said, he wasn’t confirming or denying, and that there was no way to confirm or deny a Noachian Flood.

Ballard has to be careful how he words things in order to maintain credibility in scientific circles. Without extremely strong evidence, it is tough there to advocate a position which might be viewed as controversial, at least by some scientists.

It should be the same standard for any claimed scientific discovery, and the data should be available for all to examine. (Which is partly why the Global Warming/Climate Change thingy has devolved into a cult instead of science.)

Ballard will do it right, present his findings, and for now at least let the reader draw their own conclusions.

[SunkenCiv]

Ballard's in fact telling it like it is. Short of finding a sign, "this way to Noah's house", down on the shelf in the Black Sea, there is literally nothing to be said about him by a scientist. Ryan and Pitman's book should be required reading in our school systems -- as Red Forman said, you'd think they'd take five minutes out of teaching macramé -- but they selected the title in such a way as to sell books. The NatGeo documentary should also be required AFAIC -- Ballard went to the Black Sea floor to look for evidence of a submerged shoreline, and while he was at it, looked for sunken vessels from antiquity (and found one). And it wasn't the Ark.