Chinese explorers stand by claim of Noah's Ark find in Turkey

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | April 30th, 2010 | Stephen Kurczy

[FootBall]

Chinese explorers stand by claim of Noah's Ark find in Turkey

The Hong Kong-based team rebutted skepticism over their claims of finding Noah's Ark in Turkey, though they said further research is needed to prove beyond doubt that they have located the fabled biblical boat.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s no lava in the photo, other than some loose rubble. I see what appears to be ice.

[aruanan]

Even though David Fasold has now recanted his interpretation of what he found, it still makes more sense than a lot of other scenarios. And what it had going for it was: 1. a ship design completely unlike anything in common use now yet matching the minimalist descriptions found in Genesis, 2. a site of something really big, symmetrical, man-made, and of materials consistent with such a craft, as well as numerous drogue stones littering the area.

The funny thing is that other Ark searchers knew of this anomaly and even dynamited part of it before moving on to look for something that more clearly matched their expectations of what it had to look like, gleaned, no doubt, from their early years of Sunday school lessons with their color supplements of some bearded guy opening a hatch in a hewn timber ship to receive a white dove carrying a leafy twig in its gentle beak.

[SunkenCiv]

It’ll be nice if the other ten Arks filled with fodder that Noah had to tow so he could keep his menagerie alive for half a year are found nearby.

[aruanan]

It’ll be nice if the other ten Arks filled with fodder that Noah had to tow so he could keep his menagerie alive for half a year are found nearby.

Over a year.

[colorado tanker]

currently I am among those doubters

I am too. Because of Genesis people have been looking at that mountain for years. This seems awfully convenient for a group that was paid a bunch of money to find what they claim they found.

[FootBall]

Mount Ararat is known as a StratoVolcano. This Lava tends to be Glassy like. Giving it a shimmer. In addition ice is covering the lava adds to the shimmer. It's a naturally occuring Glass called Obsidian which is found in Felsic Lava flow and is caused when this lava cools very quickly (like in a VERY cold enviroment on top at 13k Feet on Mount Ararat).

Click Here for StratoVolcano Wiki

The lava that flows from stratovolcanoes tends to be viscous; it cools and hardens before spreading far. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high-to-intermediate levels of silica (as in rhyolite, dacite, or andesite), with lesser amounts of less-viscous mafic magma.

Picture of Obsidian Lave almost identical to the Chinese explorer picture I posted above.

[cerberus]

No true believer needs ‘proof’ of the Genesis record. God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

“A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood." -Chinese Proverb

[Old Student]

“Because it means the story is not Jewish or Christian but was borrowed/co-opted during the Jewish captivity in Babylon.

It would then validate Sumerian and Babylonian Gods, not the Judaic God. It would mean the early Jews were just stealing it and making it up as they went along.”

Nope, Nope, and Nope.

It just means that people from that region kept some of their history, and passed it along. It doesn't validate or invalidate Sumerian or Babylonian gods, either. It just shows continuity. IIRC, Father Abraham was from the region where the Utnapishtim/Noah story comes from, so it doesn't mean the Jews stole anything, either. It's family history.

[Doulos1]

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.” I Cor. 2:14

[cerberus]

A mind that is truly not closed is not closed to the things of the spirit but it is also open to knowledge and reason.

[NavyCanDo]

I just found out my sister knows one of the scientist who discovered the structure, and that the structure being shown has been found some time ago but not by Chinese explorers, and it’s just now hitting the mainstream news when she learned the same montsh ago right from the source. She also said the what is being shown in the media is just part of what they found, and that the ship (and he says it most definitely is a ship) is in two separate sections as if broken in half. I called my sister tonight and learned a little more than what she wrote in the e-mail to me. Were going to talk more tomorow when I go visit with her.

My sister rights:

“This has been discovered before by my friend Dr. Ron Charles. You are seeing just a portion of it in the media. I have heard the personal stories on the discovery directly from him. Very interesting. The discovery was done by Dr. Ron Charles and his exuviating crew. I have a lot of info that I can get. He will be here in June for a few days you are welcome to come and talk with him. He will be at our church he is personal friends with my pastor, I have also had him overnight with his wife here. I have a great book from Dr Ron Charles you should read of all the discoveries he has made.
I have his wife on face book but he has to play it low key because of other things he is involved that is dangerous to be public knowledge.”

[SunkenCiv]

Obsidian is not transparent or translucent. It is shiny, and an example of a very nicely crafted hand mirror, carved of a single piece of obsidian, was excavated from a neolithic context in Anatolia, I’ll see if I can find a pic. I thought I had a scan of a B&W pic from Mellaart’s book of circa 1960. The site where it was found is Catal Huyuk, which was sacked and abandoned about 7500 BC.

Obsidian isn’t ice. That earlier picture shows ice. It also shows some rubble, which can be igneous, but in the “ark” shot is just some assorted loose rock the hoaxers tossed in.

However, some non-black obsidian that may be of interest to you:

http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjps/1300/obsidian.jpg
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/minerals/obsidian.htm

The pyroclastic flow that covered Herculaneum (neighbor of Pompeii, but closer to the eruption) was hot enough to carbonize wood (I guess that’s obvious) and otherwise leave it unharmed. There is more than one example known of wood doors that are still operable on their hinges, yet were carbonized in 79 AD.

http://bellcurveoflife.blogspot.com/2008/11/herculaneum-house-of-wooden-partition.html

[SunkenCiv]

In the 1940s, some joker *made up* an early-20th century Russian expedition that had found and measured the Ark, in order to raise money to mount another expedition to find what the Russians had found (presumably the Russian results were said to be forgotten due to WWI and the Bolshevik massacres and takeover).

I’m not among those who think this makes Christians look foolish — I think this latest hoax makes the gullible look a little silly though. :’)

[colorado tanker]

IIRC, this area was at one time difficult to access because it was so close to the NATO/Warsaw Pact border, but that's no longer the case. It appears a number of expeditions have been up there in recent years.

I’m not among those who think this makes Christians look foolish — I think this latest hoax makes the gullible look a little silly though. :’)

Agreed!

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[colorado tanker]

Here's a story about an email from a evangelical ark-hunter who says he's been to the site and the whole thing is a hoax.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100502/christian-archaeologist-gives-insiders-look-at-ark-discovery/