The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark (1993) Online

In 1993, CBS fell for a ruse when it decide to aired a documentary titled, 'The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark', featuring a man named George Jammal who claimed to have discovered Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey and brought back "sacred piece of wood" from it. Soon after the broadcasting, Skeptics Society adviser, Gerald Larue publicly revealed that George Jammal was not only an actor, but a hoaxer, and that Larue himself had played a role in the trick, in order to demonstrate the shoddy research of Sun International Pictures, the studio that CBS bought the television rights, from. Both CBS, Sun, and the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) respond to the allegations, by trying to ignore it, and continue to praise the project was genuine. It wasn't until, subsequent events began to undermine the defense. A few months after the broadcast, newsreporters from the Los Angeles Time & others, got Jammal to admit that the project was a hoax, and it was all, a lie in order to convert non-beliefs into the Christian faith. He got the idea by watching 1976 Sun Classic Pictures production, "In Search of Noah's Ark.". With the wood that he found; it was not 'sacred', but old wood taken from railroad tracks near his home in Long Beach, California, and hardened by cooking with various sauces like Teriyaki in a heating oven in order to age it, when finally tested. Jammal also admit that the dramatic mountain expedition to Turkey was also a deliberate hoax. In fact, not only did he get his location, wrong, by stating out that he was in some Russian town, but he hasn't travel, much or any since he came to the United States. His passport was mostly blank, by the time, he was interview for this film. Even the people that he met like Mr. Asholian, Vladimir Sobitchsky, and Allis Buls Hitian, along his supposed journey were bogus. You would think, both CBS & Sun International Pictures would had research more, about the supposedly death of Vladimir Sobitchsky; seeing how they need his family's permission to use his name and likeness. All these errors were intentional, to demonstrate just how bad SIP's fact-checking was. Jammal's story wasn't the only one, that wasn't accuracy. Other personal testimonies in the film were also highly false. One of these was Ed Davis who claims was tested to be positive by a polygraph machine. However, what the Sun program fails to mention is that, by the time, this documentary was film, two thirds of the scientific community who have the requisite background in polygraph procedures considered polygraphy to be pseudoscience. They also fail to mention Davis's test consisted only of six questions with, 3 of them, dealing with the issue of the Ark finding and the other three, dealing with other things. Even with that, one of his answers did showed unusual amount of stress in which Davis's claim of what local tribe took him to Mount Ararat. Over time, he would change his answer, from the Lourds to the Kurds. A third claimed Ark eyewitness was Fernand Navarra whom claimed to have found wood from the Ark. While, it is true, that the wood was tested in three different laboratories to proves that it was clearly in line with the biblical account of the flood. What the show did not say is that, Navarra purchased the wood from natives in town and carried it up the mountain himself, prior to his 1955 discovery. Finally, the show failed to note that Navarra has pointed out several different locations as where he found his wood. Other eyewitnesses' stories like Georgie Hagopian and Ed Behling has also been proved faults, due to their information, not matching with other explorers that visit that region. In fact, even the satellite photographs that the film show, was misleading. For example, the footage at the end of the program showed a photograph allegedly taken from the air by former astronaut James Irwin during his last flight over Ararat was in fact, a mountain in Ohio, taken by Bob Garbe. Even the famous Ark photograph of the Durupinar site that has the natural stone formation resembled a boat; in truth, just ancient volcano circler dome. It's not even from Mount Ararat, but from an area in the Mount Tendürek area of eastern Turkey. This is not the only thing, the film got wrong. The scientific demonstrations were misleading. While, I do like the idea of the hyper plate theory; it lacks much in-depth analysis, has implausible initial conditions, and data is often arbitrarily fitted to the model. Not on that, but this documentary didn't label their experts, correctly. Only six people were in the science community; while the rest were advocates of creationism, posing as scientists. The documentary also didn't study the bible, because, if they did, they would know that 'Ararat' refers to a region, not to a specific mountain. Maybe Noah Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey, or maybe not, but all I know is all this research by this movie should be taken with a grain of salt. Not even Ark researchers like Bill Crouse & John Morris believe in what, the film is saying. I don't blame them. The program was highly script, with cheesy reenactments, failing badly, due to below standards acting, special effects and make up. The only highlight is narrator, Darren McGavin, but even that, was kinda weak, with his straw man arguments. It got so bad, that 'The Discovery of Noah's Ark', narrative by G. Edward Griffin was made later that year, in order to fix this documentary. Seriously, what were CBS thinking? Do your research, next time! Make sure, the film is legit. It's already hard enough to believe the theory that Noah's Ark could had exist, but 'The Incredible Discovery of Noah Arks' makes the belief, even harder. It probably put the nail on the coffin on the subject. Can't recommended watching.

I met George Jammal shortly after he had completed his hoax. Just to give you an idea of how obvious the hoax was: George never left the country. George was never asked to produce any evidence (such as a plane ticket or passport stamp) to prove he left the country. The wood George claimed, as part of his test to see if the show's producers were even remotely interested in the truth, is not found in the Middle East. Before the movie was released, George showed the producers video of him "cooking" the wood on his stove to give it an aged appearance.

Despite all this, the movie's producers still released the movie and claimed it was factual. So much for honesty in the world of selling religion. George tried to perform a public service, but the producers knew that truth has no place in religious movies.

I was forced to watch this one night when I was home sick with the flu. I only watched it because I was too weak to get up and change the channel. I have never seen a bigger load of unsubstantiated and outright fraudulent horsepucky. The good news is that I have since started getting vaccinated for influenza on a regular basis so that I'll never be in the position of being a captive audience to a pile of crap like this again. So that at least is a good thing.

That said, I absolutely loved watching Darren McGavin's masterful performances in Kolchak: The Night Stalker, A Christmas Story, and Murphy Brown.

This documentary on Noah's Ark was fascinating. It took you through the story and explained why the Biblical account of Noah is accurate. It explained the three sources the flood waters came from, where the Ark is today, how Noah and his family were able to take care of all those animals for such a long period of time, and other lingering questions. I watched this program repeatedly until a friend accidentally taped over it.

One of the men interviewed on the program who said he had actually been to the Ark showed a small piece of wood that he said came from the Ark. If my memory is correct, he was later proved to be a fraud, but overall this program was excellent. I would love to have it on tape or DVD!