WorldNetDaily: Dispute about Noah’s Ark Discovery

The jolly logo adorning this post is in honor of WorldNetDaily (WND), the journalistic organ that won our Buffoon Award. WND is an absolutely execrable, moronic, and incurably crazed publication. Over and over again it proves itself to be an instrument of idiocy, a wretched rag, a deep pool of theocratic throw-up, a sinkhole of stupid, a fountain of feculence, and … yes, they’re also creationists.

Today they’re presenting us with news about Noah’s Ark. The last time they did so we posted Noah’s Ark Discovery: Competition Among Kooks.

Their latest article is titled Noah’s Ark hunters go to war with each other. It’s sub-titled: “Christians involved in fierce bickering over claim biblical boat finally found.” Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:

More than a year and a half since Christian explorers trumpeted their alleged discovery of Noah’s Ark atop Mount Ararat in Turkey, a war of words is escalating among fellow believers who call the claim an intentional deception that will disparage an actual find of the biblical vessel.

“Every false report undermines the potential of a true discovery by bolstering the critical view that Noah’s Ark is a myth and therefore cannot be found,” says a new report issued by the Virginia-based World of the Bible Ministries.

That is one wild-looking website! Let’s read on:

In April 2009, WND reported that Chinese and Turkish explorers with Noah’s Ark Ministries International, or NAMI, said they were “99.9 percent sure” they found the remnants of the legendary biblical vessel high up on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.

The 15-member team said it recovered wooden specimens from a structure at an altitude of 13,000 feet and that carbon dating suggested it was 4,800 years old. Several compartments, some with wooden beams, were said to be inside and could have been used to house animals.

We had a lot of fun posting about that one. See WorldNetDaily: Noah’s Ark Found! We continue:

Now, after further investigation on Mount Ararat, Randall Price, a Judaic studies expert at Liberty University, and geologist Don Patton have issued an in-depth critique on the matter, standing firm in their contention the evidence shown to international news media was actually material transported from the northeastern Turkish town of Trabzon near the Black Sea, and transplanted atop Ararat as part of a movie production about Noah’s Ark.

Oh, how embarrassing! WND gives some details of Price’s criticism. But then it gets interesting:

Noah’s Ark Ministries International is firing back at the report, stating, “We are very disappointed and enraged by some Christian scholars, who used partially factual, and plausible-yet-false materials, piled into an article looking like a scholarly report, with bold titles accusing NAMI of making a fraud. It severely maligned and hurt this organization and the exploration-team members. …

The WND article then describes the charges and counter-charges. This is a tough one. Is that the real Ark or not? We don’t know whom to believe. Here’s more:

In a dispute of biblical proportions such as this, money often becomes a factor, and Price and Patton are complaining the publicity over NAMI’s alleged discovery is having a ripple effect on churches, Christian schools and Creation ministries in the U.S. and China: “We have letters from church pastors, seminary presidents, and missionaries in China who are opposed to NAMI raising large sums of money from Christians through their film and testimony without providing the evidence necessary to prove their claim.”

Creationists are raising money without providing evidence? How could such a thing happen?

There’s a lot more in the article about this controversy, plus some fascinating scripture references about the Ark. You will, no doubt, want to study it all very carefully. Take your time in doing so. This is really important!

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