(Update 15 June 2011: The Sydney Morning Herald article does not seem to be available now but the New York Times carried a similar report.)
Huibers’ ark evokes amazed interest because it breaks the stereotype of it being like a large bathtub and wholly implausible. Check out the photo slide show on the SMH article.
Johan Huibers … the successful owner of a big construction company, has spent the past few years building an ark, using the measurements for the one Noah is said in the book of Genesis to have built: 300 cubits in length, 30 cubits high and 50 cubits wide. … He is building the ark out of Swedish pine, because some versions of the Bible describe the wood God ordered Noah to use as “resin wood”, which Huibers says is pine. “We should finish by the middle of July,” he says …
This event in history, which occurred just a few thousand years ago, demands a major re-evaluation of every area of modern thinking. Properly understand Noah’s Flood and we will better understand our world today, including our human origins, biogeography, languages, Australian Aborigines, geology, paleontology, the Ice Age, animal extinction, climate change, and so on.
Geologists often disparage this event as a myth and continue to ignore its implications, but Huiber’s life-size replica challenges that view.
Andries
Why is there no mention that the hull was built from STEEL and then covered in wood? This is important to know for purists, who want to know that the ark replica is built from comparable materials to the one in the bible.
Asked differently, can you confirm whether steel will play a major part in the construction of the next full scale ark?
Tas Walker responds:
Hi Andries,
Sorry but I don’t know whether steel is used in the construction. Perhaps someone may provide a link.
I see from your website that you believe Noah’s Ark was impossible and an Ark of this size could have been build strong enough with only wood and without steel. The purpose of Huiber’s ark is to show how big Noah’s Ark was. He did not need to build it strong enough to survive a global flood because God promised He would never bring another one on the earth.
Engineer Tim Lovett has considered possible structural designs for the Ark and shown how it could have been built strong enough. See for example his assessment of the waves the Ark would have had to handle. Have a look around his site at some of the other features of the Ark he has considered.
You should also get yourself a copy of John Woodmorappe’s book “Noah’s Ark a Feasibility Study“. This book answers questions that you have not yet thought of.
Wes
What I want to know is who carried the AIDS virus, ebola, smallpox, anthrax, leprosy, polio, malaria, bubonic plague and any number of other biologically caused diseases on the ark?
Tas Walker replies: This article Diseases on the Ark discusses some of those issues and suggests the following possibilities: specialization of the pathogen, mutational ‘horizontal evolution’, carriage by a symptomless host and survival outside a living infected organism. For a more detailed examination of this and other questions about the Ark see John Woodmorappe’s Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study.