Expedition Will Seek to Find Noah's Ark

AP ^ | 4/27/2004 | HOPE YEN

[a_Turk]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An expedition is being planned for this summer to the upper reaches of Turkey's Mount Ararat where organizers hope to prove an object nestled amid the snow and ice is Noah's Ark.

A joint U.S.-Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to make the arduous trek up Turkey's tallest mountain, at 17,820 feet, from July 15 to August 15, subject to the approval of the Turkish government, said Daniel P. McGivern, president of Shamrock-The Trinity Corporation of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The goal: to enter what they believe to be a mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide and up to 450 feet long that was exposed in part by last summer's heat wave in Europe.

"We are not excavating it. We are not taking any artifacts. We're going to photograph it and, God willing, you're all going to see it," McGivern said.

Explorers have long searched for an ark on the high slopes of Mount Ararat, where the biblical account of the Great Flood places it.

In 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted a boat-shaped formation in Agri province. The government did not pursue the sighting, however. The entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers were U.S. spies.

That ban was lifted in 1982, and since then teams of explorers have visited the area but have been unable to substantiate any claim of an ark.

McGivern and Ahmet Ali Arslan, a Turkish mountain climber who grew up in a town near Mount Ararat, say satellite photos have helped them pinpoint a more exact location. Arslan will be leading the expedition.

The biblical account in the Book of Genesis says that after the great deluge, the ark came to rest on the mountain with Noah's family and a cargo of male and female pairs of every kind of animal.

Geologists say even though there is evidence of a flood in Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, it is not possible for a ship to make landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat.

[Blzbba]

"The bible, if I am not mistaken says that water came up from the earth so it would not have all been in the atmosphere and so the atmospheric pressure issue is a non-issue."

Thanks for your response. I don't take the Bible literally at all, so therefore our opinions on this subject will always, respectfully, differ.

Besides, neither of us was around when the event occurred so it's purely speculation on both our parts. You believe the account taken from a book written long ago and unverifiable and I believe in the tested theories of hydrogeology, which are also unverifiable when applied to events in the past.

[Stultis]

Moreover, if the animals were infants-animals (cubs, calfs etc) then the ark would not have had to be so big as you seem to think. A baby elephant is alot smaller than an adult elephant.

That may help a little on space, but it hurts elsewhere. Infants/young generally require more (and more specialized) care and attention, and more frequent feedings. This is not good when you have a crew of only 8 people.

Let's say, on average, that each species only requires 3 man-minutes of tending per day. With all 8 people working continuously (without stopping to eat, rest or sleep for a year) only 3,840 species could be cared for. Even if the average daily care was only 30 seconds per species, that's still only about 23,000 species at most. Cut that in half if you assume Noah and his family only worked 12 hour days.

Space is the least of your problems. If fact there's way too much space. It's just not possible to build a ship that size out of wood that won't wallow, leak or break apart. Wood isn't strong enough. And remember this ship had to sail on unbelievably violent seas.

[Ebony and Ivory]

We don't know what the care was of the animals. We know that after the flood, that God permitted Noah to eat meat (presumably because the plants have been killed off). So if man's dietary habits were different before and after the flood, then perhaps the same is true for animals. But making sure the animals eat enough seems to be a small problem compared with making the world flood. But even if what you say is correct, I will remind you that God could have given Noah an ark, but instead he made him work for it for 120 years. Obviously, God values hard work. So 12 hour days aren't out of the realm of possibility.

Moreover, in Genesis 4:22, it mentions that man already had knowledge of making tools out of iron. It says that the ark was built out of cypress wood, but the bible doesn't give the actual blueprints. So, since man had the knowledge of iron toolmaking, perhaps in addition to cypress wood, they also used iron to connect it.

I am reminded of a story of American architect, frank Lloyd wright, who built a home in my hometown of grand rapids. Franklin Lloyd Wright is well known for cantilevers. He built one on a house in grand rapids that was huge and it had no support. The foreman of the constructuion crew didn't think it could be done so he made the cantilever out of stronger steel so it would stay up. It turns out that the stronger steel made the cantilever fail (and it is now supported as a result) and that if the foreman used the material FL Wright wanted, we now know that the cantilever would have worked out as planned. If FL Wright can design buildings that other "experts" think won't work, just think what God can design that human "experts" think won't work.

regards,

Ivory

[JBS]

Other than being a 2-hour snuff film? Maybe the fact that the lady playing Mary never changes her expression once throughout the movie? That the movie just drags on and on and on? The guy playing Jesus might have done a good job, I don't know. He was slathered in fake blood and has two inches of makeup on his face the whole time.

[Mamzelle]

re: bilk some gullible Bible-thumpers out of some money.)))

Likely--but...seems to me that there are a lot of stupid reasons to climb mountains. Looking for relics sounds as good as "because it's there."

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

I hope you find what you are looking for. The magnificent love of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to break down any wall.

[MEGoody]

That's nice, but you didn't answer my questions. Can you? If not, that's okay.

[Blzbba]

"On average, at any given time, how many millions of gallons of water are in clouds floating over the earth?"



1. About 3,100 cubic miles of water, mostly in the form of water vapor, is in the atmosphere at any one time. If it all fell as precipitation at once, the Earth would be covered with only about 1 inch of water. A cubic mile of water equals more than one trillion gallons.



How many millions of gallons of water make up the ice at each of the poles?

2. Approximately 7,000,000 cubic miles of water.


How many millions of gallons of water are sitting elsewhere across the world in snowcapped peaks, etc.?


3. That number is included in #2.


How many millions of gallons of water are in underground bodies of water?


4. More than 2,000,000 cubic miles of fresh water is stored in the Earth, most within one-half mile of the surface.


BTW, the total water supply of the world is roughly 326 million cubic miles. According to the Flood story of Genesis, it rained for 40 days and nights, so, taken literally, the water source was atmospheric in nature. As the above fact states, there's only enough atmospheric water to cover the earth in 1" of water, and that's assuming that the earth itself doesn't absorb any, nor is there any runoff, which are both preposterous assumptions to make.

[JBS]

Not looking for anything, no walls that need breaking down. But thanks for the sentiment.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Everyone is in need of the forgiveness freely offered by Jesus Christ.