Noah's Ark Update: Yep, Its a Hoax

PaleoBabble is reporting on the Chinese "expedition" to Mount Ararat to find Noah's Ark. Now it seems that Randall Price who has been trying to find the Ark for years and is probably the most knowledgeable man about the subject is reporting that it is a hoax. PaleoBabble quotes Price as saying:

To make a long story short: this is all reported to be a fake. The photos were reputed to have been taken off site near the Black Sea, but the film footage the Chinese now have was shot on location on Mt. Ararat. In the late summer of 2008 ten Kurdish workers hired by Parasut, the guide used by the Chinese, are said to have planted large wood beams taken from an old structure in the Black Sea area (where the photos were originally taken) at the Mt. Ararat site. In the winter of 2008 a Chinese climber taken by Parasut’s men to the site saw the wood, but couldn’t get inside because of the severe weather conditions. During the summer of 2009 more wood was planted inside a cave at the site. The Chinese team went in the late summer of 2009 (I was there at the time and knew about the hoax) and was shown the cave with the wood and made their film. As I said, I have the photos of the inside of the so-called Ark (that show cobwebs in the corners of rafters – something just not possible in these conditions) and our Kurdish partner in Dogubabyazit (the village at the foot of Mt. Ararat) has all of the facts about the location, the men who planted the wood, and even the truck that transported it.

This is sad on many levels. First, (even aside from the lack of scriptural support that such a vessel exists on that mountain), given what we know of geology, water movement, and the fossil record, there is very little reason to accept that there was a world-wide flood. Such a search is, therefore, misguided and an enormous waste of resources that could be used to reach people for Christ in other ways. Indeed, such a spectacular undertaking that makes FoxNews only serves to remind people with even a modicum of scientific knowledge how "out there" many Christians are.

Second, it is sad that there are those out there who would go to such lengths to dupe well-meaning Christians with such claims only to show how gullible they are. As the saying goes: "Haven't ya got anything better to do with your time?" PaleoBabble is correct, though, that Price showed true class by owning up to the fact that it was a hoax and he had been taken in, although it is not clear how taken in he really was.

Hat tip to Chris Massey
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