Finally a Creationist experiment (kinda)

[Laurens]

Dutch carpenter builds full-scale replica of Noah's Ark"¦ and he plans to sail it up the Thames for the Olympics

So apparently:

Johan Huibers spent three years and more than ,£1.03million constructing the gigantic wooden boat

Three years! So doesn't this prove once and for all that Noah couldn't possibly have built the ark in the time given in the Bible? Bearing in mind he couldn't just order bits of wood, and had no access to modern technology and resources...

So we could say this is an experiment... Proving that Noah's ark is a fairy tale...

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

But then again, Noah had magic wood, magic nails, magic tools and magic help. So if anything goes wrong they can just say "Well that proves that Noah's ark was a even greater miracle because we can't make boats like that with current technology therefore the miracle of devine materials must have taken place at the time of Noah. It was simply not put in writing because Noah was none the wiser and couldn't tell regular materials from God's special materials". Oh and "God must have endowed with a blackhole type gismo to expand space on the ark for every species to fit".

 

[Laurens]

But then again, Noah had magic wood, magic nails, magic tools and magic help. So if anything goes wrong they can just say "Well that proves that Noah's ark was a even greater miracle because we can't make boats like that with current technology therefore the miracle of devine materials must have taken place at the time of Noah. It was simply not put in writing because Noah was none the wiser and couldn't tell regular materials from God's special materials". Oh a God must have endowed with a blackhole type gismo to expand space on the ark for every species to fit.

:lol:

I would love it if they published a paper with something along these lines as their conclusion...

"The experiment conclusively shows that even with modern resources, tools and materials, and a greater workforce than described by (God et al 3000BC) it is not possible to build an ark in the time allocated to Noah. From this we can conclude that Noah must have had miraculous assistance in the building of his ark"

 

[Duvelthehobbit666]

Well it is reinforced with steel so it kind of lacks the plausibility. And I find the inspiration lovely. A dream about a flood which covers part of the Netherlands. Having a dream about a large flood in a country country famous for its large amounts of water is impossible so it must be divine intervention.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

It would also be nice to see how many animals he would be able to keep on the ship, even if the animals are nothing more then your average barnyard critters and pets. See how much labor it takes to feed and clean up after them. Perhaps he could keep the Ark out at sea for an extended period as well. They would also not be able to dock while the Ark was out at sea, as the Ark should have enough room on it to store all the food needed as well.

 

[televator]

But then again, Noah had magic wood, magic nails, magic tools and magic help. So if anything goes wrong they can just say "Well that proves that Noah's ark was a even greater miracle because we can't make boats like that with current technology therefore the miracle of devine materials must have taken place at the time of Noah. It was simply not put in writing because Noah was none the wiser and couldn't tell regular materials from God's special materials". Oh and "God must have endowed with a blackhole type gismo to expand space on the ark for every species to fit".

Sometimes, the line between adult creationists and 5 year old children is not so clear.

Child 1: "Pew-Pew! Ha! I got you with my canon!"

Child 2: "Nuh-uh! I was wearing armor."

Child 1: "Body armor can't stop a canon!"

Child 2: "Well...um...magic body armor can."

 

[unkerpaulie]

Dutch carpenter builds full-scale replica of Noah's Ark"¦ and he plans to sail it up the Thames for the Olympics

So apparently:

Johan Huibers spent three years and more than ,£1.03million constructing the gigantic wooden boat

Three years! So doesn't this prove once and for all that Noah couldn't possibly have built the ark in the time given in the Bible? Bearing in mind he couldn't just order bits of wood, and had no access to modern technology and resources...

So we could say this is an experiment... Proving that Noah's ark is a fairy tale...

Actually, according to the internet, between the time God first instructed Noah to build the ark, and the time the flood came, was a span of 120 years. During this time Noah himself had his 3 sons, and by the time the flood came they had grown up (his eldest was 100 at the time of the flood) and had wives of their own. So taking 3 years to build an ark actually demonstrates that it could have been done within 120

 

[Laurens]

Actually, according to the internet, between the time God first instructed Noah to build the ark, and the time the flood came, was a span of 120 years. During this time Noah himself had his 3 sons, and by the time the flood came they had grown up (his eldest was 100 at the time of the flood) and had wives of their own. So taking 3 years to build an ark actually demonstrates that it could have been done within 120

Okay, but we know that people don't live to be 500 years old...

 

[bluejatheist]

That's a fair point if we're going by the bible alone. But still the real test would be to try and put all the animals and organisms that the Bible claims could fit on the ark and see what happens. Either way such test doesn't do anything to validate the Bible, since the goal of most creationists is to prove the Bible is infallible, not just a strange manual to shipbuilding

 

[Your Funny Uncle]

Duvelthehobbit666 hit upon the main issue here: It's steel reinforced. Brian Dunning did a skeptoid episode on the subject and concluded that it was nigh on impossible that a ship that size could've been build from wood alone. This guy may have made a ship the same size but if it's steel reinforced then it' was made using technology that Noah wouldn't have had access to so proves precisely nothing.

 

[unkerpaulie]

That's a fair point if we're going by the bible alone. But still the real test would be to try and put all the animals and organisms that the Bible claims could fit on the ark and see what happens. Either way such test doesn't do anything to validate the Bible, since the goal of most creationists is to prove the Bible is infallible, not just a strange manual to shipbuilding

It's rather difficult to have a discussion about whether some biblical event took place without referencing the bible to see what it said. Considering that, according to the bible, Noah was a robust 480 year old chap (middle-aged, since the bible said he died at 950), and and lets say he had his 3 sons help him as soon as they could walk and follow instructions, then as slow and laborious as the process was, in that time frame it cannot be considered impossible. The bible says that his construction materials was wood (it says gopher wood, but "gopher" is actually the hebrew word for wood, and not a specific tree type), and pitch, or some type of tar or resin sealant. Granted that the wood he started with didnt rot, warp or break, and assuming he started from the bottom up and applied the pitch during construction, in that timespan the pitch would have become extremely solidified, making the ark both water-tight and the pieces of wood strongly bonded. At the very least you'd have a very sturdy base and hull. It's hard to imagine gluing wood together to make any type of durable structure, much less a boat that had to stand for 100 years thens stay sea-bourne for 3 and a half more, but back in those days hammers and nails probably wasn't invented yet, definitely not screws, and the best construction technology at the time may have been fitted joints and tying them together with rope while the pitch took its time to set.

The nature of the experiment was to demonstrate that a wooden vessel in the dimensions of the biblical ark could be built. Not whether the animals could actually live in it. However, considering that we are comparing a steel-reinforced structure with a pitch-reinforced one, I really can't see how this makes a fair comparison anyway.

 

[WarK]

Elrond was over 6,000 years old when he departed over the sea.

 

[Laurens]

Elrond was over 6,000 years old when he departed over the sea.

:|

Good point...

 

[Deleted member 619]

Elrond was over 6,000 years old when he departed over the sea.

Yes, but he was half Elf.

 

[RedYellow]

But then again, Noah had magic wood, magic nails, magic tools and magic help.

Magic help would have been God just using his power from the beginning to make all the sinful people disappear, instead of concocting the most needlessly laborious and destructive plan he could think of. A plan so retarded, that he had to think of a way to rescue all the animals from it, again without just using his power to preserve them or re-create them after the flood. If the conservapedia guy is smarter than his God, he'll edit out the entire Ark story from his conservative edition of the bible.