SGU Episode 35

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SGU Episode 35
March 22nd 2006
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 34                      SGU 36
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
P: Perry DeAngelis
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Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

News Items

Noah's Ark (14:52)

S: Well, finally in the news this week, Noah's Ark has cropped up again. Now, of course, it doesn't take a Biblical scholar to know the story of Noah's Ark. This is early on in Genesis. The world was covered in a worldwide flood. God spoke to Noah; warned him of this; instructed him to build an Ark; put two of every animal on there. Actually, I think it was all of the—it was two of every predator and seven of the domesticated herbivores.

B: Really?

S: Yeah.

E: Hm.

S: But basically, fill the Ark with animals to perpetuate their species; they survived the Flood; the Ark came to rest at the top of a mountain. You know, in modern times, Biblical scholars have interpreted that as Mount Ararat. Actually, I think that even goes back into Medieval times; the thinking that that was Mount Ararat. And, I remember in the 1970s, there was a movie, In Search of Noah's Ark, where they—

B: Remember that?

S: Remember that movie?

B: Yeah.

S: So there was a lot of blurry photos of outlines of alleged ships. I remember even at that time, and I was very young at the time, and I was still in my formative ages, it occurred to me that, you know, they were promoting different blurry photographs that were mutually inconsistent. You know, they were mutually exclusive. They looked like two different kinds of ships.

J: Steve, do you remember the Leonard Nimoy show; what was that show—

S: In Search of...

J: Remember the cheesy program they had on that?

S: Yeah, it was a horrible, horrible show.

J: I used to buy that show hook, line and sinker when I was a kid.

S: That was pure mystery mongering, that show. It's really terrible.

J: I was so young and stupid, though, I just loved it. I believed every frickin' thing that happened on there.

S: Well now—

P: If you watch that show now, it makes you sick.

S: It is; I mean, now you're like, "oh my goodness".

B: Of course, Jay; it was Spock. Come on!

J: Yeah, I know; hey, come on.

P: It's true.

S: So, they claimed there was this big ship on top of Mount Ararat, but it's in a militarily sensitive area of Turkey, so they've never let expeditions go up there. Well, these days, you don't really need to send an expedition to the top of a mountain—

B: Satellite.

S: —you could just, you know, position a satellite over there. Exactly. Have you guys been playing with Google Earth? That is awesome.

J: Love it. What a awesome application.

S: You could view the entire world with a mosaic of satellite images, you know. Of course the first thing everybody does is find their own house, which is funny. It's fun to do that. But anyway, we have pretty high detailed satellite images of pretty much most of the surface of the world. So, some scientists poring over satellite images—and this has been happening for a while now; this is just the latest in this phenomenon—think they see Noah's Ark in these satellite images. The one being promoted now—we'll have it on our web site—it's... you know, it's pretty pathetic. To me, it looks like a natural wind-swept mountain edge; you know, mountain geological feature. It's only "boat-shaped" in the most generic sense, in that it's basically a very elongated kind of oval shape.

J: Steve, that turned out to actually be a mobile home with a Chevy pickup parked out front.

S: Yeah, I think you may be right.

E: Not surprising.

S: So, again, promoters of the possibility that this could be Noah's Ark emphasize the similarities, the fact that this is sort of vaguely hull-shaped. And they are very dismissive of the apparent inconsistencies. For example, it's twice as big as the boat that is described in Genesis, and it's also the wrong shape. It's not more of a box shape that is described and that has been classically interpreted. It is more traditionally oval-shaped; pointy at the "bow and stern". But they say, "but it has the right ratio". So they're impressed by the right ratio, but they're not concerned by the fact that it's twice as big as it's supposed to be and it's the wrong shape. It also doesn't have any features that would distinguish it from a natural geological shape. And looking at it, you know, it looks like a piece of mountain. Have you guys seen this picture?

B: No.

S: I sent it to you.

P: I saw it. I saw it on television; yes, I would agree.

E: I saw it when it came out.

P: It looks like nothing. It's worse than the Face on Mars.

E: Much worse.

S: These guys say—it's the same thing as the Face on Mars or the canals on Mars or whatever.

P: It's just ridiculous.

S: You know, using planes for either fly-over and now, of course, satellite images to try to identify features on the ground is used commonly, but archaeologists and geologists, etc. would tell you that you always need on-the-ground confirmation. Because you just can't tell what things are from these, you know, birds-eye view sort of two-dimensional images. You just can't tell what they are. So, without on-the-ground confirmation, this is just another splotch on a satellite image.

J: Of course it is. Of course.

S: And it is no different than the Face on Mars or the pyramids of Mars or whatever.

P: It's ridiculous.

J: My question is, why even bring it up? Why make any kind of point out of it until you send somebody there? At this point, who cares that they saw something that might look like a—

P: Because a lot of people put a lot of their lives in this sort of faith, Jay. It means a lot to a lot of people.

S: Right. A responsible scientist would do that, Jay. Would mount the expedition; would get the higher resolution images or whatever before going public with this. Again, this is really just sensationalism.

J: But Steve, is this—

P: It hardly matters. It hardly matters in my opinion, too. If you send somebody up there and they don't find anything, they'll just say the Turks moved it; they're protecting it; they're Muslims; they burned it. It doesn't matter.

J: Yeah. What will happen is it'll turn into like, "oh, here's another shred of proof that it exists", but no one'll ever bother to prove it or disprove it.

S: Yeah; it won't matter to the hard-core true believers, but to the public at large, it will marginalize it. It's like with the Face on Mars. It was the same thing. You had the sort of—

P: The picture should marginalize it. Excuse me. The picture should marginalize it, so...

S: You're correct.

P: Right.

S: But perhaps you may give people too much credit.

P: (chuckles)

DNA vs. the Mormons (58:23)

S: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a production of the New England Skeptical Society. For information on this and other episodes, please visit our website at www.theness.com. You can send us questions, comments, and suggestions to podcast@theness.com. 'Theorem' is performed by Kineto and is used with permission.

References