Noah's Ark | The Legend of God's Existence and Punishment

You must have heard about the ark Noah (Noah) conquered the flood in the bible. For Christians and those who have read the bible, this legend must be familiar.

Does Noah's Ark or something like it exist?

Legendary

The story goes that one day when he had to witness the crimes committed by man, God felt extremely angry and regretful that he had created mankind. He decided to create a flood to wipe out all the seeds of evil. At that time, on the earth, there was a man named Noah whose heart was righteous, so God did not want to kill him, and he warned him in a dream about his intentions. The man advised Noah to build a big boat that could hold all his family members along with all the animals, but only 1 pair of each species.

Listening to God, Noah built a giant boat, 360m long, 23m wide, 13.6m high - divided into 3 floors and put all kinds of animals on it with only 1 pair of each species. As soon as the boat was built and all the species were on board, the great flood came. Sure enough, the water source in the abyss cracked, overflowing everywhere, a heavy and violent rain lasted for 40 days and nights. God has finished punishing mankind, all crimes along with life are destroyed except for the creatures on Noah's ark.

After the terrible flood, the water gradually receded from the ground, when Noah released a dove from the ark to see the situation outside. The first time, the dove could not find a place to rest because the water had not receded, so it flew back to the ship. Seven days later, the dove was released again, and this time it flew back, with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the waters had subsided and the earth was at peace because God's wrath had ceased. He continued to release the pigeon, this time it flew away and did not return. Today, stemming from the legend of this Noah's Ark, the image of a dove holding a branch is a symbol of peace.

And so Noah brought all the creatures out of the ark, back to the earth to continue living. God made a covenant with Noah and warned mankind: "Be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth, but remember that as long as you are cruel, and the blood of others is still flowing, so will your blood. you will also have to flow."

Noah in the documents

If we look further than the Bible, the character Noah actually appeared in documents from the Mesopotamian civilization. This era was when they sketched out the same story as in the bible, however Noah here is called Ziusudra. After that era came the Babylonians, they recorded a similar story in history. Noah here named Utnapishtim was warned of a great storm and built a great ark, divided into six parts. Roughly, this character appears in many documents of different regions with different names.

Scientists think that perhaps the stories are built on reality and it happened in the area of the Tigris, Euphrates rivers. In fact, they have a basis when they find evidence of a great flood in this area dating back to about 2900 BC. This flood wiped out a city. After many theories and studies have been made, scientists think that Noah could be a very rich merchant. He has the ability to prepare a large boat to withstand the flood. Through generations of word of mouth, Noah eventually became a legend with many details in Christianity - Judaism, Islam. Perhaps it was for religious purposes that he was depicted with the characteristics of each religion.

In the Bible, Noah is described as an exemplary Catholic, a good lamb of God, a bright spot in a sinful world. And his survival was due to his upright character and God's choice. In the Quran, Noah is called Nuh, he is one of the five prophets of Islam. The book of Surah speaks of Noah speaking as a prophet of God foretelling his neighbors of the danger that would come if they did not live better. Apart from these differences, the story of Noah in all the documents is quite similar. Mount Ararat and Judi are two peaks mentioned in two religions. To this day, many people believe that the ship still exists on one of those two peaks.

Theories about the flood

First, we can't yet naturally speculate that Noah's ark was real. The question should begin with history, whether such a great cataclysm really happened. In theory, many scientists think that's not the case. However, geologists William BF Ryan and Walter C. Pitman of Columbia University have suggested that the great flood was the result of a rapid rise in the Black Sea's water level after the glacial process, dating to around 5600. year BC.

The "Noah's Flood" hypothesis is believed by geologists to originate from the melting ice peaks in the Mediterranean Sea, through the Bosporus Strait to the Black Sea with high flow. The result is flooding over an area of about 96,560 square kilometers on earth. In 2007, researchers found evidence that a melting Greenland ice cap raised global sea levels by 1.4 meters between the years 8740 and 8160 BC. This incident caused many people to evacuate to escape the flood area.

But most scientists are still very skeptical about this theory and think that it is not large enough and capable of creating "noah ark".

Noah's Ark - yes or no?

Since ancient times people have searched mountain after mountain to find out where the legendary Noah's ark was moored. In ancient times, many expeditions set out in search of the ruins of Noah's ark, choosing a multitude of mountain ranges to explore in the Near East. One of these is Pir Omar Gudrun, formerly known as Mount Nisir, located near Kirkuk in Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia), east of the ancient Assyrian homeland in the Zagros range.

But it wasn't until photographer Ron Wyatt published a photo of a fossil ridge resembling a Noah's Ark on September 5, 1960 in LIFE magazine that it really caught on. This is probably one of the most famous pictures of Noah's ark. In 1977, it was Ron Wyatt with an expedition to Mount Ararad and confirmed that the place where the photo was taken was Noah's ark.

After Ron Wyatt, many explorers ventured to search for traces of this legendary ship, but they did not get the expected results because Ararad is an extinct volcano, 5km above the level. Sea water, mountain peaks are covered with snow all year round, so finding the legendary Noah's Ark is not easy.

According to many scientists, it was impossible to build a giant wooden boat as described in that period. Wood is also not a guaranteed material to bring thousands of lives through a large flood as described. Over the past 20 years, there has been a lot of misinformation surrounding the search for Noah's ark. In 1993, CBS aired a documentary announcing spectacular finds believed to be from the ship. But not long after, there were many accusations that all the information in this document was forged.

Mount Ararat in Türkiye is also a focal point for archaeologists. But it wasn't until photographer Ron Wyatt published a photo of a fossil ridge resembling a Noah's Ark on September 5, 1960 in LIFE magazine that it really caught the attention of people. This is probably one of the most famous pictures of Noah's ark. In 1977, it was Ron Wyatt with an expedition to Mount Ararat and confirmed that the place where the photo was taken was Noah's ark.

However, there are many scientists who believe that it only exists in legends.

If at that time of the flood, Noah's Ark was stranded on the top of Mount Ararat, it is very likely that it was pushed down by glacial movements long ago. Like that, it must have been smashed to pieces, pieces of wood from that huge boat would have been scattered over a very large area of Mount Ararat, but so far no one has picked up any large pieces of debris. except for the people mentioned above who picked up pieces of wood chips at an altitude of nearly 5km. According to science, wood can only last for a few centuries.

The discovery of the ruins of Noah's ark in history made the public bewildered, whether this was an arrangement of nature, reminding people that if they do not know how to appreciate nature, life must be it's time to confront the most terrible calamities... And whether there will be a second Noah ark to save humanity from extinction when we are facing climate change today, natural disasters and man-made disasters?

To this day, the mysteries of Noah's ark, about the great flood in the past still intrigue scientists and lovers of learning and discovery. The existence or non-existence of Noah's Ark is still controversial. However, scientifically we do not have any viable evidence that it exists. Many theories have been built, many searches have been launched, but perhaps proving that Noah's ark is real will be quite an impossible challenge. And when archeology found the remains of Noah's ark, as a warning to people in this day and age: Wake up, before it's too late!