Posted on 06/30/2006 8:26:43 AM PDT by DannyTN
Team believes it found Noah's Ark Returns from Iranian mountain with petrified wood, marine fossils
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 30, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A 14-man crew that included evangelical apologist Josh McDowell says it returned from a trek to a mountain in Iran with possible evidence of the remains of Noah's Ark.
The group, led by explorer Bob Cornuke, found an unusual object perched on a slope 13,120 feet above sea level.
Cornuke, president of the archeological Base Institute and a veteran of nearly 30 expeditions in search of Bible artifacts and locations, said he is cautiously, but enthusiastically, optimistic about the find.
Some of the team's photos can be seen here.
Also on the team were Barry Rand, former CEO of Avis; Boone Powell, former CEO of Baylor Medical Systems; and Arch Bonnema, president of Joshua Financial.
The team returned with video footage of a large black formation, about 400 feet long – the length of the ark, according to the Bible – that looks like rock but bears the image of hundreds of massive, wooden, hand-hewn beams.
Bonnema observed: "These beams not only look like petrified wood, they are so impressive that they look like real wood – this is an amazing discovery that may be the oldest shipwreck in recorded history."
The team said one piece of the blackened rock is "cut" at 90-degree angle.
Sealed with pitch
Even more intriguing, they said, some of the wood-like rocks tested this week proved to be petrified wood.
It's noteworthy, they pointed out, that the Bible recounts Noah sealed his ark with pitch, a black substance.
When the retrieved pieces were cut open, a marine fossil was discovered. In the area around the object, the team found thousands of fossilized sea shells, and Cornuke brought back a one-inch thick rock slab replete with fossilized clams.
With the discovery of wood splinters and broken pottery at the remote 15,300-foot level, the team says it also found evidence that ancients considered it an important worship site for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Cornuke became involved in the search for the ark after meeting Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin, participating with him in several searches on Mount Ararat in Turkey, but with disappointing results.
Cornuke began looking elsewhere, after finding clues in the Bible such as Genesis 11's reference to descendants of Noah coming to the Mesopotamian valley from the east. Cornuke believes that would put the biblical mountains of Ararat somewhere in northern Iran.
He also points to ancient historians such as Nicholas of Damascus and Flavius Josephus who wrote, just before and after Christ, that timbers of the ark had survived in the higher mountains of present-day Iran.
Cornuke noted that during World War II, an American Army officer and road construction engineer in Iran named Ed Davis said he saw the ark on a high mountain in the country after being led there by Iranian friends. After the war, according to Cornuke, Davis passed a lie detector test affirming he saw timbers from an ark-like object.
Before his death, Davis gave Cornuke a map showing the way to the object.
"It was right where Ed said it was in his map," Cornuke said. "After seeing it from a distance, I thought it at first unimpressive, but once we stood on the object we were all amazed at how it looked just like a huge pile of black and brown stone beams."
Noah tours
Cornuke's is the latest of many expeditions – most of them at Turkey's Mount Ararat – in search of Noah's Ark.
As WorldNetDaily reported, a new travel website is promoting summer tours to a Turkish site near Mount Ararat believed by many to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark.
Many believe this is Noah's Ark, already found on a mountain next to Mt. Ararat (courtesy: wyattmuseum.com)
Noah's Ark Holidays, which bills itself as an "ethical travel referral website" is behind the offer, with a pitch for the location in Dogubayazit, Turkey.
The late Ron Wyatt, whose Tennessee-based foundation, Wyatt Archaeological Research, also believed the ark is located at Dogubayazit, some 12-15 miles from Ararat.
Meanwhile, as WorldNetDaily reported in March, others who believe the vessel is on Ararat itself became excited with the release of a new, high-resolution digital image of what has become known as the "Ararat Anomaly."
Satellite image of 'Ararat Anomaly,' taken by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird Satellite in 2003 and made public for the first time in March 2006 (courtesy: DigitalGlobe)
The location of the anomaly on the mountain's northwest corner has been under investigation from afar by ark hunters for years, but it has remained unexplored, with the government of Turkey not granting any scientific expedition permission to explore on site.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible speaks of Noah and the ark, and Jesus Christ and the apostles Paul and Peter all make reference to Noah's flood as an actual historical event.
According to Genesis, Noah was a righteous man who was instructed by God to construct a large vessel to hold his family and many species of animals, as a massive deluge was coming to purify the world which had become corrupt.
'Noah's Ark' by Pennsylvania artist Edward Hicks, 1846
Genesis 6:5 states: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Noah was told by God to take aboard seven pairs of each of the "clean" animals – that is to say, those permissible to eat – and two each of the "unclean" variety. (Gen. 7:2)
Though the Bible says it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, it also mentions "the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days."
The ark then "rested" upon the mountains of Ararat, but it was still months before Noah and his family – his wife, his three sons and the sons' wives – were able to leave the ark and begin replenishing the world.
I'd like to know your explanation. That's the quasar or object that appears visually to be linked to a galaxy and the object and the galaxy have dramatically different redshifts right?
It might not fit in an YEC model, but the disparity certainly does raise questions of whether we understand all the factors affecting redshift. The object raises the possibility that we have significant "unknown unknowns" with regard to redshift.
Ancient Mesopotamian texts (pre-biblical) also refer to a great flood.
If you are unable to grasp the implications of SN1987A, just say so. I can attempt to dumb it down to your level.
I will be glad to. :-)
It will have to wait till I get out of the lab.
Nice tagline... but shouldn't it be "Sonrise"? ;)
What do you think explains redshift variability best?
"Ah, but we know that this cannot be, it's all a myth!"
LOL!...Either these are the remains of Noah's ark, or they are not. Believers don't need to see the ark to know the great flood really happened. Could it be compared to: "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed".?.. I think so.
I can't help but notice you sometimes tangle horns with unbelievers. Do you really think that a discovery of an enormous ship {if that is what this is} high up on a mountain is going to change their world view? I think not. I'll compare that to: "And He said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though One rose from the dead.
As for those with hardened hearts, unless something big really rocks their world, they'll continue along their way.
I looked for a reply to your statement, didn't see one. You can not apply what is spiritual to natual thought. You have hit the nail on the head because not one single person in this world can prove or even remotely show anything in the original bible text is false.
Everyone knows this, but still the naysayers are going to come and they will go and in the end there will be God and his word that stands above all...it has for an eternity.
Interesting. What scientific law is that?
That's just the thing. Wood at that height could probably be preserved as wood, perhaps 4000 years later. But in order to become petrified, it would have become submerged and buried by other sediments.
Then extremely slow movement of water molecules through that layer would replace the organic material in the wood while maintaining the physical structure of it.
It's impossible to conceive of those conditions on a mountain top. First, you can't bury it in sediment. Second you can't have the waterflow underground to make the replacement happen. It's just too dry or frozen.
The link you provided makes the categorical statement that it's petrified wood, but provides no backup for that claim. So, there's no way to know whether it's credible or not. Extremely unlikely claims need corroboration.
I'm not saying it's not petrified wood. I can't make that determination from the photos. All I'm saying is that I don't see how it could be. It fails the common sense test.
Great picture, although I am a believer.
I can't believe you don't see the ones on the right. They are visible without enlarging it. Right after the "break" in the wood, a bit farther right than the midline of the image. I saw the ones on the left too, but they looked a bit iffy, as though they could be nails OR debris on top. The ones on the right also might be debris but they are so equidistant they really look like nails.
Aa, ah, the usual ad hominem response. Don't address the subject, just change to the "anonymous internet poster". You are a master at this.
However, I note for your further consideration, that you have never disproved the Pixie Theory of Aerodynamics. I asked you to post evidence against it---you have offered no evidence against it. And, just who do you think you are? to assert YOUR belief to be paramount over those of the family values of Pixies?
Lyle is the same. He has a Theory of the Ark. He is probably a fraud, but maybe a true-believer. All of this can be explained by Pixie Theory. Teach the controversy. Follow the money.
That's the funny thing about advocates of Noah's Flood. Anything that makes no sense about the story gets a miraculous explanation.
Which really begs the point.
If God wanted to destroy stuff, He wouldn't use a lame flood that for which he had to change all the rules of physics. Nor would He leave evidence that it never happened.
He'd just do a ZOT.
It's so incredibly obvious today that it's a fable that it's ridiculous to be discussing it. Don't even mention the dinosaur angle. You'll get people here saying that Noah took baby dinosaurs on the ark.
This is quite cutesy of Danny. All the factors that relate to faith-belief and evolution-denying? Can Danny name two or three such factors?
significant "unknown unknowns" with regard to invisible gods, undiscoverable 'powers', faith-based rejection of pixies, 189 schisms in Christian theology.
Lyle is the same. He has a Theory of the Ark. He is probably a fraud, but maybe a true-believer. All of this can be explained by Pixie Theory. Teach the controversy. Follow the money.
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