Posted on 07/07/2006 10:05:17 PM PDT by freedom44
High in the mountains of northwestern Iran, a Christian archaeology expedition has discovered a rock formation that its members say resembles the fabled Noah's ark.
The team discovered the prominent boat-shaped rocks at just over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on Mount Suleiman in Iran's Elburz mountain range.
"It looks uncannily like wood," said Robert Cornuke, president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE), the Palmer Lake, Colorado-based group that launched the expedition.
Photos taken by BASE members show a prow-shaped rock outcrop, which the team says resembles petrified wood, emerging from a ridge.
"We have had [cut] thin sections of the rock made, and we can see [wood] cell structures," Cornuke said.
Cornuke acknowledges that it may be hard to prove that this object was Noah's ark. But he says he is fairly convinced that the rock formation was an important place of pilgrimage in the past.
The BASE team has uncovered evidence of an ancient shrine near the outcrop, suggesting that this was an important place to people in the past, Cornuke says.
"We can't claim to have conclusively found the ark, but it does look like the object that the ancients talked about," Cornuke said.
Noah and the Flood
The story of Noah's ark is told in three major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
The Book of Genesis describes a great flood created by God "to destroy all life under the heavens."
But before the flood, God told Noah, one of his human followers, to build an ark and fill it with two of every species on the Earth.
But this location doesn't fit the description given in Genesis of the ark's passengers journeying from the east to arrive at Mesopotamia.
Cornuke and his team think that Mount Ararat might be a red herring.
"The Bible gives us a compass direction here, and it is not in the direction of Turkey. Instead it points directly towards Iran," Cornuke said.
Pilgrim Shrine?
Using the Book of Genesis and other literary sources, the BASE team journeyed to Iran in July 2005 to climb Mount Suleiman.
They chose Mount Suleiman after reading the notes of 19th-century British explorer A. H. McMahan.
In 1894, after climbing Mount Suleiman, McMahan wrote in his journal, "According to some, Noah's ark alighted here after the deluge."
McMahan also spoke of wood fragments from a shrine at the top of the mountain where unknown people had made pilgrimages to the site.
"We found a shrine and wood fragments at 15,000 feet [4,570 meters] elevation, as described by McMahan," Cornuke said.
Subsequent carbon dating of samples from the shrine showed the wood fragments from the site to be around 500 years old.
Lower on the mountain, expedition members came across the ark-like rock formation, which they estimate to be about 400 feet (122 meters) long.
Rocks From the Sea?
Not everyone is convinced by the BASE team's claims.
Kevin Pickering, a geologist at University College London who specializes in sedimentary rocks, doesn't think that the ark-like rocks are petrified wood.
"The photos appear to show iron-stained sedimentary rocks, probably thin beds of silicified sandstones and shales, which were most likely laid down in a marine environment a long time ago," he said.
Pickering thinks that the BASE team may have mistaken the thin layers in the sediment for wood grain and the more prominent layers as beams of wood.
"The wider layers in the rock are what we call bedding planes," he said.
"They show fracture patterns that we associate with … the Earth processes that caused the rocks to be uplifted to their present height."
The boat-shaped structure can also be explained geologically, says retired British geologist Ian West, who has studied Middle Eastern sediments.
"Iran is famous for its small folds, many of which are the oil traps. Their oval, ark-like shape is classical," he said.
Meanwhile, ancient timber specialist Martin Bridge, of England's Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, is doubtful that a wooden structure would have lasted long enough to petrify under ordinary conditions.
"Wood will only survive for thousands of years if it is buried in very wet conditions or remains in an extremely arid environment," he said.
Bible scholars think that Noah built his ark somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, making preservation highly unlikely except in extreme environmental conditions.
And even if the wood had petrified, there seems to be little evidence of Noah's carpentry, according to Robert Spicer, a geologist at England's Open University who specializes in the study of petrification.
"What needs to be documented in this case are preserved, human-made joints, such as scarf, mortice and tenon, or even just pegged boards. I see none of this in the pictures. It's all very unconvincing," Spicer said.
Bridge, the Oxford timber specialist, points out that it would also be impossible for a boat to run aground at 13,000 feet.
"If you put all the water in the world together, melting both the ice caps and all the glaciers, you still wouldn't reach anywhere near the top of the mountain," he said.
Yeah, and if you ask the priests about it they just tell you all kinds of unsubstatiated stories. I don't believe it until I see proof.
Hey, I added two cartoons to my profile, just for you!
Based on that article, the rest of the site is not on my priority list. Unless I need a good laugh.
You live for this kind of thing. LOL
Yes, I do. I don't understand how people can take literally a story for ignorant herdsmen thousands of years ago and do all kinds of mental gymnastics to find a way to make it feasable.
Reading this thread, I'm having trouble resisting this conclusion. But I'm still holding out!
No you dont "piss me off"...you dont have that power over me..
Your faith clearly lies with the theroy that man is just another animal...
My faith tells me man is much more...
I'll take my faith over your logic and reason any day...no matter how much you scoff, berate, belittle, or try and insult me.
You look in the mirror and see a monkey...I look in the mirror and see a child of God...
I like my mirror better...
Chist could be standing right next to you...and like peter...you would deny knowing him...
That deserves pity...not scorn...
Do you think God likes that you think you can see into the hearts of other men? Pretty presumptous of you.
I am just asking you to show how the ark story could logistically happen, show some evidence. You can't because its like proving that Santa visits billions of households on new years eve.
What do you care what god thinks...isnt that a little presumptous of you ?
I didnt look into your heart...I looked at the big Evolution banners in you profile...
Like I said...your mind is closed on the subject...there is no proof that you would accept...
BTW..if santa visits your house on new years eve..he's late
Yes, you did, you presumed to speak for my personal beliefs.
My mind is wide open, that is why I keep asking you all to show me some proof so I can change my mind. You can't handle that though..
As for my evolution banners, so what? How are they different from someone quoting the bible in their profile? Unless you want a double standard and don't believe that people who think different than you have the right to express themselves.
Believe whatever the heck you want, but if you are gonna spout your beliefs off and ignore anyone who asks you to prove or explain them, thats pretty weak minded of you.
Indeed. At least check 4 Kidz with Lambuel
If you find an Atheist in your neighborhood,
TELL A PARENT OR PASTOR RIGHT AWAY!You may be moved to try and witness to
these poor lost souls yourself, however
AVOID TALKING TO THEM!Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter and will lash out at children or they may even try to trick you into neglecting God's Word.
Very advanced witnessing techniques are needed for these grouches. Let the adults handle them.
My IQ is 235. Now you have to place your trust in me rather than Savant. I imagine Satan's IQ is even higher. I recommend you not place your trust in Satan.
Believe what you want to believe. There's enough evidence in Scripture and in libraries and in bookstores and the web to support the contention that Jesus wasn't misrepresenting history. If you choose not to believe Jesus and the evidence, as I said, that's something you can take up with Him.
Sometimes God is not reasonable. He sent His perfect Son to save you and me, for example. Not reasonable at all.
horse pucky
Even Einstein admitted to it - because he didn't like where his research evidence was leading him - away from his theory.
Scientists have an idea - a theory - in their head to start with and go from there. Some will follow the evidence that present itself, others will bend the evidence to fit what they were hoping to prove or disprove - point: the recent admission of the scientist who now admits he fudged his stem-cell research
he has been rather frothing at the mouth...protests too much? Does indeed sound threatened by something. Maybe it's all those Catholic nuns he had in school...maybe he's thinking that if, by some stretch, he's wrong - those nuns will get him on the other side ;o)
Hah, gotcha! He actually visits billions of households every Christmas eve!
I suppose you don't believe in the Easter Bunny either even though there's
ample evidence that he exists (e.g witness the annual easter egg
hunt on the White House lawn).
hmmm, okay, but I think you went to some very unconventional Catholic schools. I think there are lots of Catholics on the board that would find it hard to believe that you were taught such things in a Catholic school.
"God said it, I believe it, and that SETTLES it" says the texas bible thumper's bumper sticker. What I'm doing here is pointing out the obvious flaws in the noah story, that you are in denial(not the river)that way back when your(pakistani)father LIED to you. Noah's raft didn't land on top of Mt Ararat, it washed up on the beach. It didn't rain for 40 days, it rained for 4 days during a HURRICANE. Thus the noah story is oral tradition handed down through the generations and jazzed up with each telling, sort of like the nazi's "aryan superiority"(macho monkey myth). If your IQ is higher than Marilyn Von Savant's how come you're a nobody? You're obviously not smart enough to see through the noah myth, what else are you blind to? You shall know the truth and be FREE saith Jesus...
It was a traditional Catholic grade school and high school, we were taught science and religion and the difference between literalism and symbolism.
Horse pucky.
What did the animals eat after the flood? How did the S. American arboreal animals like the sloth get home? How did the reptiles survive the cold mountain top? How can you prove that all animal life on earth can be traced to one male and female of their species that was on an ark?
Etc....
Lots of name calling by you guys, but no logic or reasoned answers. And its been this way the whole thread.
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