Huibers' Noah's Ark may be in London next summer

Two years ago, I posted about Dutch builder Johan Huibers' effort to build his own Noah's Ark as a way to help bring attention to God and inspire Children with the biblical story of the flood. He's now applied to moor the £1 million ark in London on the River Thames during the 2012 Olympic Games. From The Telegraph:

The vessel is 450ft long and 75ft wide and will be stuffed with pairs of model animals, while an aviary with free-flying live birds will take up most of the enormous deck house...

Twenty-five barges held together by a steel frame form the base of the ship, which also holds two conference rooms capable of hosting 1,500 people.

"Noah's Ark 'could arrive in London for Olympics"

• [Anonymous]

  So this thing cost over a million quid and it doesn’t even float? And this meant to…inspire people? To do what? Build non-functioning models of modes of transportation in made-up stories? Great job. I definitely can’t think of anything better to spend that kind of money on.

• [Jupiter12]

  I don’t understand why people are getting their feathers ruffled over this. This ark exhibit isn’t my cup of tea by a longshot but as long as it wasn’t publically funded there’s no reason it bothers me. The $175,000 restoration of the Buddha statue in Golden Gate park doesn’t bother me either. Neither does the Christian Science Reading Room that was recently constructed near my neighborhood (although I always wondered what that is. More of a library or a bookstore type of place?). A Wicca supplies shop opened nearby as well and I couldn’t care less. If people are happy with their religious beliefs, so be it. At the very least I must give this guy some credit for building what looks like an enormous strip canoe.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Maybe because Buddhist art lovers aren’t trying to make it illegal to teach evolution in public schools.

• [Don]

  If I put a surfboard on a barge and stand on it, does that make me a surfer?

• [Anonymous]

  Will there be stuffed model mosquitoes and stuffed model botflies on board too? What about stuffed model killer whales?

• [Purplecat]

  I hope he has insurance. London doesn’t have a great track record at housing large wooden tourist attractions.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6675381.stm

• [Glippiglop]

  Wait, can someone please explain to me how this thing is meant to move in a desirable direction? I mean there’s no ports for oars and no sails either.

  Is it powered by faith in sea currents?

  • [Mister44]

    I don’t know how THIS boat moves – but the Ark was just supposed to float. It wasn’t going anywhere. It’s a neat project I guess. Depressingly, I saw a model at a berry picking farm that showed how dinosaur eggs were transported on the Ark, vs trying to cram them all in.

    And most Christians are not outright trying to ban the teaching of evolution. Most of the major sects have said evolution is ok to believe in. It is annoying to take a segment of a population, and use their position to brand the entire population with a stereotype.

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      And most Christians are not outright trying to ban the teaching of evolution. Most of the major sects have said evolution is ok to believe in. It is annoying to take a segment of a population, and use their position to brand the entire population with a stereotype.

      The overlap between the Noah’s Ark segment of Christianity and the Don’t Teach Evolution segment of Christianity must be close to 100%. How many mainstream Christians do you know who believe that Noah crated up every species on the planet and saved them from a flood?

      • [gravytop]

        I have a friend like you, who in order to prove his point simply invents statistics. You did make that 100% figure up, right?

        The earlier poster’s implicit point that this is getting much more criticism here at BoingBoing because it’s Christian-themed than it would be if it were almost any other religion cannot seriously be argued with. I assume you have no idea whatsoever whether the creator of this ark wants evolution taught in schools. Perhaps I’m wrong, and I’m happy to be corrected if that’s the case

        • [teapot]

          The earlier poster’s implicit point that this is getting much more criticism here at BoingBoing because it’s Christian-themed

          What is the value of that point when such criticism is to be expected? The majority of BB regulars probably hail from societies based on christo-judaic values. The majoirty of BB readers have an interest in critical thinking. It therefore stands to reason that this will recieve criticism on BB. To suggest the BB readership does not criticise the retarded beliefs of other religions is simply not true. Comments about virgins in the sky are plentiful in posts about idiocy relating to Islam.

          You did make that 100% figure up, right?

          Where would you get such data? There is no way it exists, so all we can do is guess. “must be” is the qualifier that signifies he was speculating. In any case do you disagree with his assertion? Why? I agree that it is likely those who believe Noah’s Ark is a literal description of a real-life event would also tend to believe that the earth is 6000 years old and humans walked the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. What makes you think otherwise?

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          What the hell is up with Christians being so desperately defensive? You run the western world and make life hell for everybody else. And then, when anybody criticizes one of your batshit-crazy, ark-building fanatics, you act like somebody just kicked down your door and crucified your puppy. If you want to defend some fool who takes the Flood story seriously, knock yourself out. It’s your reputation.

      • [Mister44]

        Personally none. That I know of. It is seen as either an allegorical story, or that there was a boat and a flood – but it wasn’t world wide nor contain every animal.

        I wonder how many Jews take it literally…

        @teapot re: “how many Christians are out there fighting the fight to teach real information in schools.”

        I dunno, but I do remember my science teacher being an Irish Catholic and she taught evolution in High School.(in Kansas, even!)

        Personally I have spent hours arguing with people on the issue – hopefully influencing lurkers. I have been toying with writing a paper that is sort of a primer on evolution and how it can play nicely just fine with religion. But as a home schooler, I have seen the ‘science’ books with ‘apologetic’ sections. :o(

        re: “If moderate Christians don’t want to be tarred with the same brush,”

        You could say that about any population that has negative stereotypes. If I were to say all blacks are thugs and theives, or all Irish are drunk wife beaters, or all Asians are bad drivers I would not only be incorrect, but condemned for branding those populations as such.

        • [Don]

          “You could say that about any population that has negative stereotypes.”

          Except that Irish guys don’t step forward to remind me that all true Irish guys are alcoholic wife beaters.

          You can’t say that fundamentalist young-earth creationist wackaloons who were surprised not to be raptured last month, are a stereotype. They are real people, and they are Christians. The other followers of Christ can distance themselves from them (which they are not doing), or be ridiculed along with them.

    • [teapot]

      It is annoying to take a segment of a population, and use their position to brand the entire population with a stereotype.

      It is the duty of moderate and rational Christians to stand up against the power of ignorant Christian groups to mislead and miseducate our children. I know they must be out there, but how many Christians are out there fighting the fight to teach real information in schools as opposed to junky theology which can be debunked using logic alone? Sadly not enough.

      If moderate Christians don’t want to be tarred with the same brush, then they have to be more vocal in distancing themselves from the actions and opinions of extremists. If the teaching of evolution makes it harder for extremely religious parents to feed their creationist lies to their children then good. If their arguments don’t hold water then they are wrong.

  • [sdmikev]

    questions and logic are the work of the devil.

• [Freek]

  People are just expressing their opinion on it, hardly going nutts or screaming about it either.

• [Brainspore]

  I’m actually impressed if they were really able to build that thing for under a million pounds. That’s less than the doors alone cost for the L.A. Cathedral.

• [iCowboy]

  Clearly built using Bronze Age technology of – erm – steel barges and machined wood. Tell you what, if it can be sailed across the North Sea during the winter without either sinking, capsizing or suffering a structural failure, it can be moored somewhere on the Thames.

• [emmdeeaych]

  Quite a destination for rare birds

• [glamaFez]

  Scuttle it.

• [Ipo]

  If that is a realistic replica, it is more proof that the story was pulled out of Moses’ ass. Inspiring. It doesn’t float.

• [angusm]

  It might inspire children to think about the Flood, but if it also demonstrates the impracticality of keeping two exemplars of every living terrestrial species in a wooden boat for forty days, they might not come to the conclusions he wants them to.

  But maybe, like the Tardis, Noah’s Ark was bigger on the inside.

  • [Vernalex]

    “…every living terrestrial species in a wooden boat for forty days…”

    That is a crazy idea, but the story is even more absurd than that.

    The commonly repeated time is 40 days (much like how people say there were 3 wise men during the birth of Jesus when really it’s not specified). The truth is that while it rained for 40 days they were on the boat much, much longer.

    On top of those 40 days it took 7 days to load the animals, 5 months of sailing on the flooded world, 5 months for the waters to recede and additional time for the land to dry enough to walk on it.

    In total it comes to 1 year and 10 days aboard the ark.

    And these animals were supposedly cared for by a single family of Noah, his (nameless) wife, his three sons and their (nameless) wives. Who then incestually repopulated the world following God’s “grace” of biocide…

    What I’d like to know is what the animals (including the people) ate once they got off the ark. There would be no vegetation left after such a cataclysm (that creationists claim created the Grand Canyon) and definitely no animals.

    Oh, and they also claim the millions of different types of insects weren’t aboard the ark and they happily floated around on mats made of plants.

    And what happened to the fish that were fresh water fish and then had to survive in salt water when the oceans flooded their lakes and rivers?

    Simply stunning that people believe such nonsense.

    • [teapot]

      Thanks Vernalex and Phisrow…. you saved me a bunch of time. You will both likely find this amusing:

      “Professor Emeritus John Bradshaw from Monash University talks about ghosts, miracles, religion and he also takes a light-hearted look at certain practical problems in theology. All this was inspired by a visit to a dentist.”

      mp3:
      http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2011/05/orr_20110508.mp3

      Transcript:
      http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2011/3208808.htm#transcript

• [CastanhasDoPara]

  Yeah, in my opinion this is a waste. When will the idiocy stop? Xtians, pffft.

  Also, technically there were 7 each of the “clean animals” and 2 each of the “unclean” so they would have to cram a little bit more into that little boat. Another thing, they were to survive for all that time on five each of the “clean” animals, that is also pretty hard to swallow, ow.

• [Anonymous]

  How many Arks are in the Netherlands? this is THE second one I have zeen in the lady fee months.

• [irksome]

  I hope they included a storeroom for Noah’s liquor.

  The man was a notorious booze-hound.

• [Crubellier]

  I’m not a Christian, but I suspect even I could have found a more effectively way of using $1m to promote the Christian faith – doing something even remotely beneficial to society with it, for example.

  • [Gulliver]

    I don’t know. I think it sends just the right message. “God is an overpriced PR stunt with plastic props. Repent!”

  • [EeyoreX]

    If you find this humble $1M replica Ark annoying, then how about this planned $24.5M version of the Ark that the Creation Museum will have ready in a couple of years?
    http://arkencounter.com/

    The real kicker: they´re building it on dry land, and plan to get massive tax exemptions.

• [north]

  “and inspire Children with the biblical story of the flood”
  Oh you mean the story where god KILLED EVERYBODY ON THE ENTIRE PLANET that he decided were “wicked”?
  Yeah great story to inspire children with.

• [Anonymous]

  “The vessel is 450ft long and 75ft”

  What? No cubits? (Insert obligatory Cosby reference here.)

• [Anonymous]

  Now to me, this would be a great method to disprove the ridiculous story….you couldn’t fit half the San Diego zoo in that thing let alone 2 of every creature on the planet.

  Also I want to see him put 2 lions and 2 gazelles on the same boat and not end in blood!

  You sure this is a guy “promoting” bible BS?

  • [relawson]

    I never thought of this before! Perhaps there were 4 of every animal and then in the end only 2! hah!

• [shadowfirebird]

  It doesn’t even demonstrate the existence of a large biblical boat, unless God sent Noah a bunch of old barges.

  Still, nice floating metaphor. I can think of lots of genuinely nice things to teach with it. I wonder how it will be used…

• [chgoliz]

  Reading the comment thread here, and thinking about my own relatively meager but still sufficient knowledge of boating, I wonder if the literal belief in this Gilgamesh/Bible/Koran myth is in any way correlated to the decrease in actual working knowledge about the world.

  Anyone who spends time on a boat – say, a Bronze Era fisherman – would know this story was a fable. But most heartland suburbanites wouldn’t have a clue from their own experience.

  The stuff that couldn’t be explained because there wasn’t enough science yet: sure, I can imagine people 2,000 years ago believed whatever story a good preacher/con artist was telling. But the basic mechanics of building a boat, making meals with only local raw materials, and keeping animals from attacking/eating each other…well, that was everyday knowledge at the time.

  I guess I’m arguing for the Dunning-Kruger effect as an explanation for why so many people nowadays believe this stuff is literal fact instead of a oft-told story.

• [Anonymous]

  I wonder if Huibers sees the irony that he had to greatly improve on God’s construction specs to make it practical.

• [Rotwang]

  I’m no biblical scholar, but I think this ark has more in common with arks seen in movies than the one described in scripture.

• [curly_brace]

  epic.

• [Tau’ma]

  I hope The Soul Train could arrive in London for Olympics.

• [agreenster]

  What a colossal waste of time and money.

• [gabrielm]

  Obligitory SMBC comic

• [gabrielm]

  Obligatory SMBC comic

• [bcsizemo]

  So I’m getting that this thing isn’t actually in the water, it’s sitting on the barges?

  That’s a great example for kids. It’s like an artist rendering of a piece of technological history, only half impressive.

• [Graysmith]

  As if god and religion needed more attention.

  • [shadowfirebird]

    If god and religion got more attention, maybe he would have known to use the money to feed the poor?

• [jphilby]

  “Noah!”
  “Who is this, really?”
  “Where’s my ark?”
  “Where’s my barges and steel frame, bitch?”

• [Anonymous]

  Right, when it floats by its own.

• [hadlock]

  Only 75ft wide? Any pics of it in the locks at the Panama canal?

• [Alvis]

  Thank you for capitalizing it, but it shows more repsect to write “Ch-ldren”

• [libraryboi]

  Christ, what an asshole!

• [petre]

  it should be noted that the 450f/135m version is not yet completed. the photo above is of the 220foot/70 meter replica.

  i’ve see a few cleats in my time and those ones aren’t very big.

• [phisrow]

  That “gopher wood” must be a corrupt translation of the biblical Hebrew for “unobtanium”; because there is a reason that this ark is on steel barges: Hogging.

  Wooden ships, particularly, Just Don’t Scale past a certain size. The structures just aren’t stiff enough to resist poor boyancy distribution and wave stresses.

  • [shadowfirebird]

    Metaphorical wooden ships are, of course, not subject to these restrictions.

    What fundamentalists fail to grasp, I think, is that a non-literal translation of the bible is actually more powerful and more relevant than a literal one.

    • [shadowfirebird]

      … NB: I’m not actually christian.