The "liberal press" giving flat-earthers undeserved credibility

AOL News was headlining this story on Friday from ABC News - Has Noah's Ark Been Found? Christian Archaeology Team Believes It's Found Biblical Remains 06/29/06:

"I can't imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark," said Arch Bonnema of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (B.A.S.E) Institute, a Christian archeology organization dedicated to looking for biblical artifacts.

Bonnema and the other B.A.S.E. Institute members hiked for seven hours in the mountains northwest of Tehran, climbing 13,000 feet before making the apparent discovery.

"We got up to this object, nestled in the side of a hill," said Robert Cornuke, a member of the B.A.S.E. Institute. "We found something that has my heart skipping a beat."

The "Christian archeology organization" description and the quote, "I imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark", should be immediate tip-offs to the alert that this may be something other than archaeology of the highest professional standards.

A key thing to remember about Christian fundamentalism is that the fundis believe, on the one hand, that their version of the faith trumps science in all things. At the same time, they're fairly obssessed with showing that science in fact validates ever their most dubiously literal readings of Scripture.

And one of the fundi favorites is to eagerly seize on any opportunity to interpret an archaeological find as confirmation for a literalist interpretation of Biblical events. Actually, the story of Noah's Ark being found has been around so long I think it qualifies as a proper urban legend.

Call me skeptical on this one.


Not least because of the mission description at the home page of the BASE Institute that is trumpting the latest incaration of Noah's Ark Disovered:

The Bible Archaeology, Search & Exploration (B.A.S.E.) Institute is dedicated to the quest for archaeological evidence to help validate to the world that the Bible is true, and that it represents an accurate, non-fictional account of God’s will to bring the people of this world back into relationship with Him.

It's also very odd that when you look at the AOL/ABC article closely, there's no actual factual material reported there even so much as confirming that the "find" is an old boat of some kind. The team found something sticking out of a mountain, they say. It looks like wood. For some reason they think it is as large as the Biblical Ark, though it's not at all clear how they determined that if the mystery object is stuck into the rock. And it even says at the end, "B.A.S.E officials concede that there would be no way to conclusively prove that their finding is actually Noah's Ark."

In other words, the "Noah's Ark" claim as reported in the article is essentially fact-free. This team found some structure of indeterminate age sticking out of a mountain in the area where tradition says the Ark would be made of something that kinda looks like wood. How any of that constitutes a claim to have possibly found "Noah's Ark" escapes me.

As long as we're on the subject of archaeology, the Skepchick blog offers a fun post on Mummies for Dummies 06/29/06, also reminding up to keep a healthy level of critical thought applied to news stories about archaeological finds.

That's especially advisable when the mainstream media are willing to essentially write press releases for an archaeological institute whose priority is clearly to promote a particular version of the Christian religion.

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