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Did you know Noah’s Ark was real and scientists just confirmed it?
That’s what you might think if you just read the headline from a Daily Mail article which says Noah’s Ark’s resting place has been “100% confirmed” after 4,300 years.
You’ll be shocked to learn the actual story doesn’t back any of that up. But will anyone read the story? Probably not. It doesn’t help that the article is behind a paywall, so most people will only ever be able to see the headline.
They also won’t learn that the group behind this story got NBC’s Today to cover the exact same story last year.
Needless to say, the only thing that has been confirmed is how easily Christian propaganda can spread.
Here’s what happened, as the Daily Mail describes it: Not far from Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is said to have “landed” after the flood, there’s a geographically interesting area called the “Durupınar Formation” which an “international team” has “100% confirmed” is man-made, not natural.
That’s it. That’s the whole story.
Even if it’s man-made, of course, that would say nothing about Noah’s Ark, but the group wants everyone to make that leap on their own anyway. Which makes sense given that the group that announced all this is called—wait for it—Noah’s Ark Scans.
According to their radar scans, underneath the mound is evidence of three structural layers (Noah’s Ark was said to have three floors), lots of “straight lines” (which you wouldn’t expect to occur naturally), and “cavity-like” spaces at different depths. They also found organic material. What they didn’t find was any clear evidence of decayed wood or DNA or anything dating back roughly 4,300 years.
In fact, contrary to the headline, here’s what the founder of the group, Andrew Jones, said about the discovery:
Jones acknowledged the evidence has not definitively identified the formation as the biblical vessel.
But he added: ‘I firmly believe the Durupınar Formation represents the buried remains of Noah’s Ark.’
He believes it. But even he can’t definitively say it’s Noah’s Ark.
Someone should tell the headline writer.
Jones, by the way, is a software developer and “explicitly not an archaeologist or a historian.” That’s literally what it says in his bio. Which is to say he has no credentials to make any reliable claims about what this mound actually is.
For what it’s worth, the Durupınar Formation was identified in 1959, and all the experts who have studied it say there’s nothing “man-made” about it. Everything Jones and his people found can be explained without resorting to the Bible.
Early researchers who surveyed and excavated the site reported finding only soil and rocks, concluding it was a naturally formed geological feature rather than remains of a vessel.
Most geologists continue to favor a natural explanation, while Ark researchers argue the new radar readings, core samples and nearby pottery justify another investigation.
That’s not the only weird thing about this company or this supposed discovery. Buried deep in the article is a statement from the company’s marketing and fundraising director Lauren Witzke, speaking about that pottery they found nearby:
'It's quite possible this pottery was used to store food and supplies on the Ark, and was used as Noah's family exited the Ark and set up camp (the Bible says Noah was living in a tent),' Witzke shared in a statement.
Before you think any more about that, though, you should know Witzke doesn’t have any credentials here either. She’s a self-described Christian Nationalist and former Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Delaware. (She lost in a landslide.) She has also promoted QAnon, described herself as a Flat Earther, and produced an anti-vaccine conspiracy movie. Not exactly someone with a long history of honesty. Or knowing anything about science.
Right Wing Watch posted a round-up of the worst things she’s said over the years. It’s not pretty.
Nevertheless, she insisted this expedition would force universities to rewrite their curricula because Darwinism (a.k.a. evolution) would be “dismantled.”
That won’t happen because this isn’t some unbiased scientific investigation. Noah’s Ark Scans is more of a ministry that started with a religious conclusion and now needs more money from gullible Christians to prove it... which they never will. Finding Noah’s Ark would ruin their company. All the money is in the discovery phase. That’s why a GiveSendGo campaign for the group says they have only a “few more weeks” to drill at the Durupınar Formation and they need $600,000 to make it happen. They’ve raised nearly $90,000 as of this writing. There’s no explanation of how they plan to use that cash if they don’t reach their goal.
I should mention that the company lists some credentialed archaeologists and geologists who work with them. But the Creation Museum does that too, routinely citing the Ph.Ds who dismiss evolution. It doesn’t mean those “experts” are using scientifically valid processes to come to their conclusions or that other experts in the field agree with them. None of these people are ever going to publish a peer-reviewed paper in a credible journal confirming this is Noah’s Ark.
You know how else we know this claim is bullshit?
If there was actual evidence that Noah’s Ark existed, the Creationists at Ark Encounter would be throwing a giant celebration and coming up with a brand-new publicity campaign.
So far, they haven’t even acknowledged the existence of this article on social media. (They did not respond to my request for comment.)
So who the hell said this was Noah’s Ark and that’s “100 percent confirmed”? The Daily Mail. Which was spurred to do so by a Christian group with a vested interest in proving Noah’s Ark was real—or at least making people think it’s a possibility.
Not scientists.
The Christians here wanted headlines so they could raise money, and they knew exactly which tabloid would run with it.
Noah’s Ark isn’t real. But Christian grifting is still alive and well.
The ark is as much a fiction as the 600-year-man who allegedly built it alongside his ancient sons (none of whom had shipbuilding experience). And bottom line? "The Great Flood" itself is a myth stolen from an earlier myth.
Epic fail.
They do this almost as often as they do the second coming of Christ