Sunlit Uplands, SC's leading "Christianist" hate blogger, proves if he's an expert at anything it's craptology. He is in snake oil peddling mode with this farcical story via Fox News (so you know it's true):
A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah's Ark.
The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.
Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."
There have been several reported discoveries of the remains of Noah's Ark over the years, most notably a find by archaeologist Ron Wyatt in 1987. At the time, the Turkish government officially declared a national park around his find, a boat-shaped object stretched across the mountains of Ararat.
Nevertheless, the evangelical ministry remains convinced that the current find is in fact more likely to be the actual artifact, calling upon Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten to verify its legitimacy.Here's some odd things about the story.
When you click on the link to Noah's Ark Ministries International, it's a dead link. When you Google it, there's no direct link, just a handful of sites claiming it exists.
Ditto the "Chinese evangelical archaeologist." Nothing but links back to this one story.
They don't say who did the carbon dating.
Ron Wyatt wasn't an archaeologist. He was a nurse anaesthetist with a religious mania who died in 1999.
Wikipedia:
By the time of his death in August 4, 1999, his claimed discoveries included:[1]
Noah's Ark (the Durupınar site, located 18.25 miles south of Mount Ararat)
Anchor stones (or drogue stones) used by Noah on the Ark
The post-flood house, grave markers and tombs of Noah and his wife
The location of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other (3) Cities of the Plain: Zoar, Zeboim and Admah
Sulfur/brimstone balls from the ashen remains of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Tower of Babel site (in southern Turkey)
How the Egyptians may have built the pyramids.
The site of the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea (located in the Gulf of Aqaba)
Chariot wheels and other relics of the army of Pharaoh at the bottom of the Red Sea
The site of the biblical Mt. Sinai (in Saudi Arabia at Jabal al Lawz)
The rock at Mt. Horeb from which water flowed when struck by Moses
The site of Korah’s earthquake.
A chamber at the end of a maze of tunnels under Jerusalem containing artefacts from Solomon's Temple
The site of the Crucifixion of Jesus
The Ark of the Covenant and the stones of the Ten Commandments
Christ’s blood, dripped onto the Mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant beneath the Crucifixion site.
A miter with an ivory pomegranate on the tip
The burial pots of Ashkelon.
Embarrassingly for all, the Turkish government has already created a Noah's Ark National Park somewhere else, say evangelicals, allegedly relying on Wyatt's "discoveries." A Turkish tourism site- and Wikipedia- doesn't list it among the nation's 39 national parks. That's because it doesn't exist.
An MSNBC science writer goes through the claim in detail and finds it utterly devoid of proof, including this observation by a scientist:
Zimansky said he would welcome hearing more about the site. "It would be nice to know what they have found - if there's a scientific publication in the offing," he told me. "Press releases are not the way archaeology advances."
Bullshit from one end to the other, and Cassidy slurped it right up.
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