Modern day Noah's Ark replica
Over at Laughing Squid, guest blogger Chicken John introduces us to a modern day Noah with his own ark. From De Ark van Noach:
In 2005, a Dutch building contractor named Johan Huibers started to build a replica of Noah’s Ark with his own hands. The history of this Ark is very special. Huibers: "In 1992 I had a dream where I dreamt that Holland disappeared in enormous masses of water, something like the Tsunami in South-East Asia. That sounds pretty rough of course."De Ark van Noach
But Huibers is not expecting a new flood.
He sees it as his task to bring the Bible story back to people's attention through the Ark replica.
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Now lets start loading up the animals and see how he handles that...
Wow, he could fit maybe five or six species of animals on that thing! It can be done again!
Two one-way tickets, please.
Where is he going to find two T-Rex's to go with the Neanderthals he's building bunk beds for?
I much prefer religious organizations that actually build useful things that help people. How many homes for real people could have been made with the materials and effort used to create this delusional monstrosity?
Wow. Having seen the clear plausibility of a pair of every species on earth fitting in that thing, my faith in a bunch of iron age creation myths is invigorated!
It does! It does look exactly like teh real one!
Broken link.
So... I'm wondering,
How does this guy know what the original ark looked like?
;)
bah! they buggered it up last time (no unicorns), why waste effort on a proven failed model?
I just checked your link to your older story about the satellite images of "Noah's Ark." It turns out I'm the one that prepared the image, as well as Space.com.
Long story short, I was working for the Palm Beach Post, and we ran a story about a gentleman who had heard rumors while at West Point that the CIA had found an "anomaly" (the CIA's term). I was asked to scan in oblique photos shot from a B-29 (or B-50?) in 1949, I believe, and I found something that looks somewhat man-made. It could also just be a trick of the light, hard to say.
Anyway, I began helping this gentleman analyze photos obtained through FOIA requests, etc., and he seems to believe the ark lies near the area I pinpointed.
Keep in mind I'm not saying I believe it's the ark, just that some of these things look like they might be a little out of place.
I haven't worked with him in a couple of years, and I haven't heard any news on the subject.
Here's a link to the Space.com story:
http://www.space.com/news/060309_ark_update.html
How much does gopher wood go for these days?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_wood
Let's hope that if he decides to get drunk and naked in his tent, he'll keep the tent flaps closed.
Otherwise people are going to use him as a justification for slavery for thousands of years.
"It floats like the Vassa and stings like a squid."
And here's a link to the image I first saw that looks like it might be man-made.
http://www.artbulla.com/images/ararat_anomaly_1949_Frame%25202.jpg
It's kind of one of those tricky images. If you look at it (mentally) one way, it looks like an obelisk lying on its side. If you look at it another way, it could be a vertical face of ice and its shadow.
Ah, I see this is supposed to be a half-scale model of the "real" ark. What a cop-out! Noah didn't even have power tools.
One more image, a cropped version of the previous. You can see what LOOKS like a square hatch in the upper surface just to the right of the tapered end, but again, it could all just be an illusion.
http://www.artbulla.com/images/ararat_anomaly_1949_Frame%25202_closeup.jpg
I would like the point out the hypocrisy when Christians pan the movie "Waterworld".
@ #17 posted by Lucifer
Maybe they think "Waterworld" is about "water sports..."
@ #17 Lucifer
Did Christians pan Waterworld? If so, why?
How much gopherwood would a gopher go for if a gopher would go for wood?
@ #5: "I much prefer religious organizations that actually build useful things that help people. How many homes for real people could have been made with the materials and effort used to create this delusional monstrosity?"
First, I don't think he is a religious organization. Second, in a free country one is allowed to do whatever they want with their money provided it is legal (or they have good enough lawyers). Finally, I think its pretty cool that someone had that kind of drive and ambition for such a large boat.
--
Perhaps if it was an atheism ark boing boing comments would be completely different?
Trilby
Because they could stand the idea that Jesus could walk on water but not breathe underwater using gills. or that he was a pain the ass as an infant and that his parents didn't think his dirty diapers were particularly holy or miraculous. But I digress.
1. This is a half scale replica of the Biblical ark.
2. A glance at the vessel confirms that it would therefore not be possible for two of every one of the modern world's animal species to survive for very long on the Biblical ark, even excluding marine animals and if you could get them all aboard in the first place.
3. Therefore there must have been fewer species of animal in Noah's day.
4. Thus, either speciation has occurred since the flood, or God had another creative burst around then that the Bible for some reason doesn't mention.
5. Whichever position in 4 is true, the reliability of the Bible is undermined and this blasphemous boatbuilder should be burned to death forthwith.
i like it when people go out of their way to draw attention to the more ludicrous bible stories.
how about the one where god uses bears to murder children for taunting a man?
Building it half size on a barge was a prudent I think. Built to spec, the "real" ark would be between 300 and 450 feet, making it among the largest ships ever built. The Wyoming, built at the turn of the last century, had a deck length of 350 ft. Despite modern steel crossbars, she suffered from chronic leaking. Building a completely wooden, seaworthy ship of this size really would be miraculous.
Jesus once told me - "It's not about the boat."
or was it Lance Armstrong. I forget.
Oops, I meant to write "among the largest WOODEN ships ever built".
What if I told you that the deforestation caused by Noah's lumber operation led to a rapid climate change that caused heavy rains and flooding?
Wow. The shrewdness towards this guy's craftsmanship is pretty sad. I guess if this were listed in MAKE magazine then it would be cool.... Lay off the haterade.
...and one other thing: that Johan is one handsome dude.
@ Cunning #25: I don't think this half-scale version is actually seaworthy either. The web site for the project notes that it's sitting on top of a barge so it can be towed around Holland.
So technically this isn't a "boat" so much as a large model built by one very dedicated hobbyist.
Has anyone seen the awful "NOAH'S ARK BEING REBUILT HERE" sign and frame right on I-68 in Frostburg, Md.? I live in western Maryland and I see it everytime I drive around that area. It's been there for 2 decades and nothing but a rusty half of a building frame is there. Apparently the guy who built the sign and frame had a "vision" and is creating the ark (really supposed to be an ark-shaped church) as sort of a bomb-shelter for the biblical apocalypse.
It would make a great set for a Genesis based porn film.
Noah: We forgot to load the lady rhinoceros.
Shem: Please, father, let my wife do the honors.
Hey! A Pron Old Testament! I'm in!
second #31 :)
My theory on the Ark of Noah:
(Not to bash Johan Huibers, of course. Interesting project, and his faith is real, even if I myself do not necessarily share it.)
The story of Noah is quite ancient, and was most certainly told orally long before it was written down. Although storytellers were usually good at committing things to memory, they would embellish as they saw fit. Virtually identical "universal flood" tales appear in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh and the Greek myth of Prometheus, as well as in other cultures. However, they are not themselves universal. They come from places that were subject to flooding, either seasonal or unexpected.
In "Gilgamesh," the Ark is described as a wooden cube. Biblical scholars generally agree that Noah's Ark was probably assumed to be more of a box than a boat.
My guess is that some Sumerian farmers constructed large wooden boxes or paddocks with roofs and floors for the purposes of preserving their families & livestock in the event of a flash flood. These would have been difficult to steer, and at times would crash on hillsides. Some of these may be the source of "Ark fragments" reported by mountaineers, and the detail of Noah landing on Mount Ararat.
None of this, of course, proves much of anything. There may or may not have been a Noah, who may or may not have done any of the things attributed to him --- much like King Arthur. His story may even be a synthesis of several peoples.' We do know that no planet-wide flood has ever occurred during the entirety of human existence, and that two of each species would have been impossible for one man to collect or fit into an Ark, and that two animals is an insufficient gene pool for any species. But such a story would seem plausible enough to pre-scientific peoples seeking a moral explanation for their existence.
There's actually some reasonable evidence for a flood of the Black Sea when a natural dam broke in the Bosphorous, which predates most of the known flood myths in western tradition.
Proper size for Noah's Barque, maybe.
What amazes me is how people have or find funding for these whims. I could never convince anyone to fund so much as a pound of hamburg. How do these nutballs do it?
This thing Needs to be at "Burning Man".
Thinking about it, I believe that the ark story confirms a theory I've been working on. Yes, when it was orginally built, it did indeed carry two of every species (save for those miscreant dinosaurs, unicorns and other assorted fauna of myth).
The species simply continued to evolve afterwards...
Impressive. Now, if he had built it out of toothpicks, I would be REALLY impressed.
#24 pAULbOWEN, item 4. Only the crazy creationists believes the bible says evolution is not possible. They're mostly confined to the north american continent. Christians elsewhere think them silly and crazy.
@#21 dlelash,
Good stuff! LOL
@#22,
Snarky-snarky, full of malarky.
I just learned that Native Australians, although they lack a flood story, do have a GIANT WAVE story. Brrr. I'll take 40 days and nights of rain, thank you very much.
And next time, NO DAMNED MOSQUITOS!
the noah/ flood myth is from the babylonian/sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh", the oldest Written version of it, anyway, like ndollak said. it was written down not long after the black sea flood, which would have devastated that area. he didn't take 2 of EVERY animal, just the important ones. written approximately 2000 years before the bible, it also contains a slightly more entertaining version of the genesis/creation/garden-of-eden myth.
These things are not meant to be taken literally you know. As Joseph Campbell said "Christians mistake the ethnic for the universal."
Lucifer - you're a metaphor.
VagabondAstronomer #41
No, unless all those animals evolved in a few thousand years (they didn't).
When I was a kid, a guy down the street was (very slowly) building a boat from the ground up in his back yard.
This guy wins.
@ the choir of naysayers: Sure, Johan Huibers is a creationist kook and a damn fool. How is your hobby project going?
Yeah, we sure have 'em in Holland to.
Frank W "@ the choir of naysayers: Sure, Johan Huibers is a creationist kook and a damn fool. How is your hobby project going?"
I built a treehouse. Then I hit puberty and moved on to other projects.
@22 Perhaps if it was an atheism ark boing boing comments would be completely different?
That's just what I was thinking. I'm also surprised at BB readers being shocked that someone built something cool but practically useless. Really? On this blog?
This boat is awesome.
"About 12.000 trees are needed for the big Ark and of course this is certified wood."
Certified or not, we're talking a small forest here.
So... are they even gonna check to see if it floats?
With a little work this thing could be turned into the ultimate hotel. Think about it, people would come from miles around to stay at Noah's hotel.
floating his ark on a barge is a major FAIL!!!
On the site it says he's currently working on a real size replica.
It's currently not far from where I live, I might just pop over and have a look.
Meh. This guy's a creationist. Intelligent Design. Uses his ark to 'educate' people. My wife took our kids (who fortunately are too young to understand) and had a great time pointing at the animals. She did warn me though. "You'd hate it. It's full of 'educative material'."
The Ark may or may not have existed, but i still prefer science over faith to explain.. well.. science.
Even at half-scale, it's not big enough. Not even close. Even discounting arctic animals, birds, and sea creatures, not big enough by a large margin. The insects alone would pawn that thing. Assuming they count as "god's creatures"....
I agree the ark is a damn silly story in the light of modern scientific knowledge, but it's a story that millions (maybe billions) believe. This guy is a believer with big-time dedication and chutzpah, and for that I tip my hat to him.
"Right, right, but what's a cubit?"
too obscure?
Bill Cosby standup
LOL/Spittake at:
"Although it's only half the size from the real Noah's Ark ..."
Other real things: The real Batcave, the real Starship Enterprise bridge, the real Tardis, Noah's 800th birthday cake.