by Bloody Hotdogs! 25 Replies latest watchtower bible
The schooner Wyoming which was built in the early 20th Century was 100m long and proved wooden vessels of this size are not viable. From day one it leaked due to flexing and had to have pumps running continuously. It sank with the loss of all hands.
Perhaps they forgot the magic tar coating.
George
I noticed that article. They shot themself in the foot.
The size and shape of noahs ark as described in Genesis was probably written in the 500s or even 400s BCE. However is was copied from an earlier babylonian work (The Epic of Gilgemesh) which dates back into the 2000-1000BCE range and has traditions going back even futher possible to the Caspian sea flooding around 6000 BCE.
As pointed out since it is a boat designed in a river valley and is a story ade up by people who might have never seen the ocean we cannot expect any possible understanding of ocean vessals to shine through in this text. The exiled Judeans in Babylon (who used the Epic and made their hero Noah (Ezekiel 14:14) the new savior also have probably never seen the ocean and copied the story easily.
In fact with the exception of parts of the New Testament (Acts 27) the bible is extremly inaccurate as to ocean travel. They simply had no idea!
Yeah, JWs and most Christians miss the entire POINT of the story by focusing on what are essentially minor and irrelevant trivial details (like tar, etc, which are easily excused by "God Dun It" miraculous claims). As a result of focusing on the minor details, they're completely missing the forest for the trees (cynics might say it's intentional, designed to discourage free-thinking and rationality, allowing them to abuse the Bible passages for other purposes).
The POINT of the flood story is to demonstrate YHWH's SOLUTION to the problem of "evil men" that existed before the Flood. God's solution was not confined to the most obvious first step (wiping out evil humans), but the OTHER TWO steps that followed:
1) prohibiting bloodshed of other living beings, and
2) delegating Divine authority to mankind to enforce rule #1,
That was God's solution to address the problem of murder/manslaughter which supposedly existed BEFORE the Flood.
The reason JW's don't want people to know the real point of the story is that a proper reading opens a can of worms (questions) that are uncomfortable to answer (eg "why didn't God tell men NOT to murder each other BEFORE the Flood?" It also disproves the Christian claim that Noah offered salvation to humans before the Flood, since offering an opportunity for repentence and salvation that wasn't actually a part of the solution God implemented in the Flood account).
I wrote articles on it:
http://awgue.weebly.com/genesis-vs-2nd-peter-noah-didnt-preach-bupkis.html
Adamah
Great find. I had already read on Noah's ark not being technically really possible, but great to see it now published in the WTBTS own literature
there wre some godd comments on this awake story
8 days ago on
Awake stimulates critical thinkingon ARK size, story.
10707.
The Viking offspring in Sweden tried to build a bigger ship, from oak, after launch, it promptly capsized and sank.
scaling up has its down sides.
prologos
there was a guy in i think netherlands who also built an ark on a scale to match that given by the bible and guess what, it doesnt work and is no on display.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan%27s_Ark
Naturally he cheated and used steel and ohter aides.
yeah, he build it on top af a STEEL barge, it would collapse on its own and become a raft.
Think of the WT using the ARK as a symbol for safety, salvation,: NUTS.
IT IS DOOMED from the word go. The idea of salvation the WT way.
A one species load, "Sheep" like the transports from NZ. Australia bringing Mutton to the lands where their sacrifices are still required.
Hmmm, I think some are missing the unstated message of the Awake article: by pointing out the exmple of Zheng He's treasure ships, they're actually making the case that Noah's more modest size IS more likely, esp so if you allow for the possibility of miracles to keep it alfoat. They're not encouraging rationality, but actively discouraging it by using Chinese historical fantasies to make Biblical fantasy to seem more possible.
It's hard to swallow any other interpretation (such that the WT is killing the goose that laid the golden egg).
Adamah
adamah:
esp so if you allow for the possibility of miracles to keep it alfoat.
