Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Noah’s Ark: Thinking outside the box

Documentary
35 minutes, 2008
Rating: 9/10

This is a fun and fast look at what Noah’s ark might really have looked like.

The picture most of us have in our heads comes from classic paintings, which show an ungainly, rotund, oversized rowboat that simply doesn’t look seaworthy. Or we see in our mind’s eye those cute cartoon depictions we remember from our children’s story bible that had an ark so small the giraffes had to stick their necks out the top. No wonder then, that so many people – Christians included – are skeptical about the Bible’s account of Noah, his ark and the Flood.

But as Tim Lovett shows in this documentary (and in his book of the same name) close examination of what the Bible actually says, gives us dimensions that have more in common with a modern ocean-going oil supertanker than the bathtub toy ark we played with as a kid. Lovett has studied ancient shipping building practices, and finds in them a hint as to how the bow and stern might have looked. He argues that ancient (post-Flood) boats probably copied these distinctive and stabilizing design features from the ark.

Crisp computer animation, large-scale models and a liberal dose of good-natured humor make this a DVD that parents and teens will enjoy. You can see the trailer at OutsideTheBox.notlong.com or below.