Kooky Christian Ark Project Tries to Prove Bible as Historical Fact

[SecularMotion]

As far as christian mythology goes, perhaps the most prominent of stories is that of Noah's ark. That's why a group in Kentucky are trying to build the ark in attempts at proving the bible as historical fact. What will people think of next, right? Perhaps they didn't get a chance to see Evan Almighty!

Sources say the ark is being built on over 800 acres of farmland, which is hopefully privately owned. Christian followers are pooling together to work on this modern-day ark in the event of a world disaster. They're intending on rescuing all of the world's creatures.

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979965198

[chelsea0011]

1. I love the comment at the site by the guy who states that evolution is

still only a theory and can't be proven unless one goes back in time. Ahem, that's why they call them fossils. How these "head in the sand people" can still say the earth is only thousands of years old astounds me.

[HereSince1628]

4. People who are looking for proof will not be swayed

by overwhelming supporting empirical evidence. Afterall, they won't accept anything but PROOF, by God! Or is that "Proof by God!"?

[judgegblue]

2. This ark is part of a Christian amusement park being built by

the same group that operates the Creation Museum in northern ky. By the way, the state and county govt is giving the group tax breaks.

[tanyev]

3. Ya'll be sure you got real strong cages for the lions. And the bears.

Just sayin'.

[edhopper]

5. to quote forest Gump

"Stupid is as stupid does"

[AlecBGreen]

6. Curious

"Christian followers are pooling together to work on this modern-day ark in the event of a world disaster. They're intending on rescuing all of the world's creatures.?

Did they skip Genesis 9:11? "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." Maybe it will be a flood of Velveeta cheese?

[d_r]

7. It stumps me

that somehow all the marsupials in Australia crossed the oceans to get to Noah, and then they all went right back to Australia. And the unique species of places like the Galapagos and so on. Two Okapi came down out of the African rain forest, and then went right back to African rain forest. Poison arrow frogs somehow survived the trek from South America through terrain they couldn't survive in, and then went right back to the rain forest. Only the rain forest wasn't there, of course, because the trees had all died under the flood. But they made it. And all those fresh water fish stayed alive when the waters receded and somehow the fresh water lakes and ponds and rivers and streams that were covered with salt water somehow went back to being fresh water. Or maybe that the salt water species stayed alive when there was so much rain that filled the oceans with fresh water. They had two black rhinos, two white rhinos, two javan rhinos, two indian rhinos and two sumatran rhinos. Heck, there are different subspecies of white rhinos so maybe they had to have more, can't think that hard though. Heck, they had two of each of over 5,000 species of mammals, 8,000 species of reptiles, kept alive over 6,000 species of amphibians, over 10,000 species of birds, and 10 MILLION species of insects. No wonder there wasn't any room for the poor dinosaurs.

[dmallind]

8. nah - it was just "kinds"

All rhinos came from two archetypal rhinos about 5500 years ago. Even all the different sloths came from one pair of proto-sloths that somehow could move fast enough back then to repopulate South America from Turkey, where they landed with the others on Ararat...

[struggle4progress]

9. How charming the old story of Noah is! In the ancient cuneiform clay tablets,

Gilgamesh has a good friend, who dies, and so Gilgamesh sets off in search of immortality. Someone points him upriver, to the abode of an immortal, who was once a mere man but was awarded with immortality because he saved humanity from a great flood. Portions of that cuneiform morality tale occur almost word-for-word in Genesis. Gilgamesh, sadly, misses the point entirely and wanders away searching for something magical to eat, that will make him immortal

The ancient Jews did not hand this down unchanged but sank their teeth into the story: the proto-Noah, in their retelling, never becomes immortal -- he remains human, he becomes drunk and exposes himself, and he finally dies. Still, we are told he was "righteous and blameless in his generation" -- which in the old tradition becomes the basis for further argument: perhaps he could not have been considered blameless in another time and place?

The literal reading is really not very interesting. No, this story is a sermon: if ever we foresee the end of all flesh before us, we must (like Noah) act to carry, through the coming storm, whoever and whatever what we can, until we see a rainbow on the other side of the winds and waters -- and then, even if we be drunkards like Noah, perhaps we too can hope to be remembered as "blameless in that time"

[frogmarch]

10. Thanks for that. Fascinating.

If the Gilgamesh story and its history are common knowledge, why do some Christians take the Noah story literally?

[struggle4progress]

11. How would I know? You could ask them, I guess. I don't understand the literalists

:shrug:

[frogmarch]

12. You know a lot, so I asked you.

I thought you would know. I am disappointed that you don't.

Really, it is an interesting story, and I enjoyed your post.

[darkstar3]

13. Allow me to clarify, and possibly mitigate your disappointment.

Struggle knows a lot regarding individual subjects about which he cares. He has already stated that many existential questions are far beyond the scope of his interest, and he will therefore not bother to investigate them.

[frogmarch]

15. Thank you. Except

for an intermittent twinge or two, I'm okay now.

I see. That explains it then.

[struggle4progress]

17. Yeah, well, sorry: I had to give up my ESP years and years ago. Tuning into other people's

thoughts was just too crazy-making; I just couldn't handle all the noise. So I can't reliably tell what's going on in other people's heads anymore

[frogmarch]

20. I knew you would say that.

Yes, I suppose it would be maddening.

[BillStein]

18. some x-ians cite Gilgamesh

and Ut-Napishtim as proof of the veracity of Genesis! According to one co-worker, the fact that the story appears in earlier documents is proof that it happenned

[frogmarch]

21. How do they explain

the differences between the Gilgamesh and Noah stories? I imagine they have some handy explanations up their sleeves.

[onager]

14. Opinions from Kentucky media...

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky’s second-largest newspaper:

Hostility to science, knowledge and education does little to attract the kind of employers that will provide good-paying jobs with a future.

Anyone who wants to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible has that right.

However, the way the Beshear administration handled this makes it appear Kentucky either embraces such thinking or is desperate to take advantage of those who do.

Neither is appealing.

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/12/03/1550758/ark-incentives-cheap-jobs-poor.html#ixzz1VoFzOXFr

Louisville Courier-Journal:

Gov. Steve Beshear needs a vacation. Indeed, he should have taken it this week.

Other than extreme fatigue, how else can one explain his embrace of a project to build a creationism theme park in Northern Kentucky (near the Creation Museum) and the apparent willingness of his administration to offer tourism-development tax incentives to developers of the park?

...in a state that already suffers from low educational attainment in science, one of the last things Kentucky officials should encourage, even if only implicitly, is for students and young people to regard creationism as scientifically valid.

But if the Beshear administration is determined that Kentucky should cash in on its stereotypes — and wants to fight Indiana to snare the theme park — why stop with creationism? How about a Flat-Earth Museum?

http://ecotads.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/editorial-creationist-tourism-courier-journal-com-the-courier-journal/

(Note: the full C-J editorial has been moved behind the Pay-Wall, so all I could find were excerpts.)

[struggle4progress]

16. "How about a Flat-Earth Museum?"

:thumbsup: :rofl:

[BillStein]

19. Are they building it to the actual dimensions?

I wonder how many animals will fit on it. According to Wikipedia, "The Bible reports Noah was commanded to build an ark having a length of 300 cubits, a width of 50 cubits, and a height of 30 cubits". a cubit is approximately 20", so:

300 x 20= 6000/12= 500 feet.
50 x 20 = 1000/12= 83.33 feet.
30 x 20 = 600/12= 50 feet

How many animals can you fit into that space?

[laconicsax]

22. It depends on careful planning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_BzWUuZN5w

[deacon_sephiroth]

23. I'm glad

it's keeps em off the streets for a while. It's a silly endeavor that's just going to end up making the master's of this little slave troop money, and the rest will pat themselves on the back for having proven once and for all that everything they've ever thought is both real and correct, but if they're not out shooting democrats, disgracing funerals, or molesting children for a few hours a day then it's a step in the right direction.

[kwolf68]

24. LOL

Good point. Keep 'em occupied.