Not a conspiracy per se, but at least worthy of an In Search Of episode...

Space.com reports on the satellite search for Noah's Ark.

http://www.space.com/news/060309_ark_update.html

An interesting read. The satellite images are on the middle-right-hand side of the page.

Obviously, the mind sees patterns where it looks for them. Analytically, I have no doubt that if an ancient text instead had claimed the Ark were hidden in the sky that we'd already have hundreds of cloud formations caught on film to bear witness.

And in the choice between 'rock formation' or 'lost mythological Ark' I know where I'd place my bet.

However, the possibility is intriguing.

As such, moved from CT to BABBling.

gah- all this from a misquote... it's all about Noah's "BARK"... he was a terrible boss

Why do some people even assume that the Ark would still be around after thousands of years. Wasn't it made of wood? Not a lot of wooden things, especially large structures, preserve well over the centuries. And is there some reason why people think this massive Ark was buried?

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Echo from another thread of mine:

But at least one man wonders if it could be the remains of Noah's Ark
Now that's a lot of researchers.

Combining this imagery to make the Ararat anomaly transparent to the public, as well as to the discerning, dispassionate eyes of scientists, imagery analysts, and other experts.
Not hard to do with a transparent argument.

"I maintain that if it is the remains of something manmade and potentially nautical, then it's potentially something of biblical proportions."
That's a big IF, and certainly would be an astonishing find even if not biblical.

You're expecting people that lean towards (if not outright adhere to) literal interpretation of the Bible to provide logical support for their faith-based beliefs. Their desire for this to be THE Ark overrides evidence or odds that it is not. Even if all possibilities of it being THE Ark are ruled out, the belief lives on and just changes locations.

It is a belief that is impossible to falsify with evidence.

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Did you notice the links at the end of the story? One reads like an Onion headline:

End of the World? Not likely, say Scientists.

Turns out to be a link to a story about, amongst other things, Pat Robertson suggesting the Apocalypse is coming. Good Gravy, or shoukld I say . . .

Holy Outrageous Pontification Batman!

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wait a minute... how can that be noah's ark??

I found noah's ark!

It's on I-68 in Maryland. see?

http://hewhocaves.com/images/hark-an-ark.jpg

please note the lovely steel construction as well as the unfortunate riveting directly into the ground. Truly a quality ark.

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And if it floats, it will be a biblical miracle.

All I can think of is Bill Cosby's skit about god talking to Noah

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Are you saying Noah's ark was worse than his ite?









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Actually, Greek ships from the time have been preserved, though as you say the chance is incredibly remote.

Me, I'd like to find out what Noah's Ark actually was. I think it's fairly safe to say that there wasn't actually some dude that built a boat and put two of everything onboard - 40 days and 40 nights with two hippos? No thanks.

However; like any enduring legend I'm quite willing to believe that there was some episode in history that was the source of the legend. So my question would be what was the oroginal story? That would be far more fascinating research that looking for some mythological stinky boat.

Original story may be the flooding of the Black Sea, some 8000 years ago. This is, as most things relating to religious texts are, disputed.

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That theory has been refuted, it was first put forward to explain submirged deposits, remains and beach profiles around the shores of the black sea.

There is a good piece on talkorigins website somewhere but I can't find the link now.


I thought it was a variation on the Babilonian Gilgamesh story.

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It's possible that there was a "big flood" like the Black Sea idea. On the other hand, flooding was a very common thing. Where I live (Sacramento, now getting national attention as being a possible "New Orleans" some day) sits on a flood plain. Flood plains can be very handy for agriculture, but they have this habit of flooding. Today with all the dams and levees we don't get flooding unless something breaks, but if you go to "Old Sacramento" you can see the buildings from the mid to late 1800s. Although they use the first floor now, back then you would walk up to the second story - the first "floor" was used for storage (if that) because it would flood every winter. That sort of thing wasn't unusual until recently.

All the ideas in the flood story would make sense to any farmer and most city people in an ancient society. They would see examples all around them all the time. Why do you need a "big flood" when everybody sees floods?

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I've also read about speculations regarding the flooding of the Mediteranean basin. Imagine the whoosh of water if it was a dry basin and Gibraltor was an isthmus that finally gave way. THAT would be Biblical.

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"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

My recollection is a bit fuzzy, but I don't think there were any humans around at the time. It's thought to have happened about five million years ago, IIRC.

But it certainly would have been a "big frickin' flood".

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I have looked at talkorigins as well, but can't find a refutation, except for one answer to a post in 2000.
Anyway, of course there were many floods, annual ones and rare ones, and any of them or the combination of them all can have given birth to such a story (or a real event of course). It's just that this is by far the largest flood that has happened since the last Ice Age in that region. I can imagine such an immense (though slow) flooding to be the start of great stories, embellished and half forgotten over the centuries. We know that in oral cultures, some stories can stay for centuries, so perhaps this one stayed for millennia?
I don't think there can be made a one-on-one connection between the Black Sea flood and the Noach one, but that doesn't mean that the idea can be refuted easily either, and I haven't seen a good refutation.

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I think those ships were discovered underwater, not high up in a mountain. (and how/why would the Ark have been buried anyway?)

I should stop thinking about things like that.

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