If We Found Noah’s Ark Tomorrow... Would It Change Anything?
Apparently, we may have found Noah’s Ark. Again.
Researchers are investigating a 515-foot-long, boat-shaped formation in eastern Turkey near Mount Ararat. Radar has found some interesting things underground, and scientists say the site deserves considerably more study.
The Internet has been less patient. “It’s the Ark!” Okay. Let's say it is.
Let's give ourselves the archaeological discovery of the century. They dig down and somehow prove beyond reasonable doubt that this enormous ancient vessel really was Noah's Ark. Now what?
Do Christians become better Christians? Does a Catholic become a Protestant? Does a Jehovah's Witness remain a Jehovah's Witness? Does a Jew or Muslim (both of whose traditions include Noah) suddenly decide someone else's religion was right all along? Probably not. They already believed the story in the first place.
To me, it would prove that something happened, perhaps a catastrophic flood behind one of humanity's most enduring stories, and that would be extraordinary.
But it would also give me more questions.
As the primary accountant for the companies I ran, the math doesn't add up. According to the traditional biblical timeline, roughly 1,656 years passed between Adam and the Flood.
Starting with only two people, an average population growth of just 1% annually could theoretically produce nearly 30 MILLION PEOPLE by Noah's time!
Granted, there are plenty of unknowns, and 1% is a conservative assumption, not a population estimate. But the math itself is pretty astonishing. AND... Genesis itself describes cities were being built (no small undertaking), livestock, musical instruments and people working bronze and iron before the Flood. They weren't idiots. They were builders. Inventors.
So... with potentially millions of people, no one built a decent boat for trading, travel or exploration?
Even if 99.99% of them thought Noah was completely nuts, that leaves about 3,000 people who might have said:
"He may be crazy, but I'm reinforcing the hull anyway."
Maybe their boats wouldn't have survived. But surely somebody would have tried. And this is where archaeology runs into faith.
We can ask how the Ark floated. How many people were alive. Whether other boats existed. How large the Flood was. But eventually there's an answer capable of stopping short every one of those conversations:
God can do anything.
And that's fair—as faith and faith only. But once we use that to answer any question, there's nothing left to test, to ask, to wonder, to ponder... discussion over.
Critical thought has had its head cut off.
So perhaps finding Noah's Ark wouldn't prove religion got it right. Maybe that wouldn't even be the most important part of the discovery.
Maybe it's that underneath it all,
we discovered a piece of history that belonged to all of us.
I'd like to think we'd look at that battered old boat and see something we have in common. We'd become a little less interested in proving who's right and a little more interested in understanding the people who came before us, and what they might teach the people who come after us.
Would it bring us closer together? I'd like to think so. Then again, we'd probably argue over who owns the Ark.
Apparently, some things really can survive a flood!
Before you go, I'm giving away 100 Kindle copies of Seeds of Eden through 9/30.
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