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Ararat
Review by John Cornwell
FT
August 11 2008
Ararat
By Frank Westerman
translated by Sam Garrett
Harvill Secker £16.99, 244 pages
FT Bookshop price: £13.59
Alongside the allure of the Holy Grail, which enjoyed a frenzied
revival with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, the quest for Noah's Ark ranks
as one of the top will-o'-the-wisps in the history of religion. The
Genesis story, shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, has it that
God, angry at human wickedness, flooded the earth. He saved just Noah
and his family, along with all living species, by advising him to build
a survival ark. According to the story, when the waters subsided,
Noah's ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. The mountain, a volcanic peak
5,137m high, lies within Turkey's borders ` a fact resented by Armenia,
which claims the territory surrounding the mountain and nurses bitter
memories of murderous Turkish oppression and annexation after the first
world war. It has long been assumed by scriptural literalists that the
remains of the ark are to be found somewhere on the mountainside.
The Dutch author Frank Westerman is a student of mathematics and
natural sciences, who was brought up as an evangelical Protestant. In
2005, he embarked on a trip to Ararat to sort out his thoughts about
faith, reason and the Bible. The result, Ararat, is an entertaining mix
of memoir, meditation, history and travel, with a rather thin
contribution to current squabbles over science and religion. The
central, compelling theme is the fascination exerted by the ark, the
discovery of which ` in the minds of Christian fundamentalists ` would
give tangible credibility to the biblical account of creation and the
flood. Westerman's vividly recounted stories of attempts to conquer
Ararat's inhospitable slopes include the ascent of Ararat by the German
scholar Friedrich Parrot, who reached the summit in 1829 despite a
prevailing Armenian tradition that the mountain is unconquerable due to
the presence of avenging angels. Parrot got to the summit and at least
disproved that bit of taboo. Since then, there have been many more
expeditions to the mountain, many hoping for sight of the ark, with a
sudden increase following the end of the cold war. Down the years, odd
bits of old wood have been claimed as ark relics. Among the celebrated
`sightings' was a photograph of an object taken in 1972 by a satellite
that has been interpreted by biblical enthusiasts as having the same
proportions as the ark. Then there was the American astronaut James
Irwin, who famously felt the presence of God on a space walk and was
drawn to Ararat in search of proof for his faith. He found a few bits
of rotting skis.
Westerman tells us that on the way up Ararat (I won't spoil the story
of his final assault), he realised that he had long ago rejected
religion and put his entire trust in science. `Beyond the veil of the
tabernacle there was nothing, and along Ararat's snowline were no
angels with swords of fire.' Yet his conviction that synergies between
science and religion depend on such activities as ark hunting is
misleadingly superficial. Outside of fundamentalist creationists,
scholars engaged on reconciling science and religion are more
interested nowadays in philosophical questions, such as why there is
something rather than nothing, than in chasing holy grails and bits of
the ark.
It is equally misleading to conclude with Westerman that absence of
Ararat's ark conclusively undermines religion. All the same, Westerman
concedes that the Noah story is a very good one and that good stories `
despite being entirely fictional ` often contain strong elements of
truth-telling. In an ominous warning that goes to the heart of a new,
scientifically argued, flood story, he observes that one of Ararat's
glaciers is showing signs of global warming and the coming rise of the
oceans: a consequence of human abuse of the planet if not downright
wickedness prompting divine wrath. Hence, in the dodgiest of religious
myths, he concludes, there can be more than a grain of sober truth.
John Cornwell is the author of `Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Riposte to
`The God Delusion' (Profile)
Review by John Cornwell
FT
August 11 2008
Ararat
By Frank Westerman
translated by Sam Garrett
Harvill Secker £16.99, 244 pages
FT Bookshop price: £13.59
Alongside the allure of the Holy Grail, which enjoyed a frenzied
revival with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, the quest for Noah's Ark ranks
as one of the top will-o'-the-wisps in the history of religion. The
Genesis story, shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, has it that
God, angry at human wickedness, flooded the earth. He saved just Noah
and his family, along with all living species, by advising him to build
a survival ark. According to the story, when the waters subsided,
Noah's ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. The mountain, a volcanic peak
5,137m high, lies within Turkey's borders ` a fact resented by Armenia,
which claims the territory surrounding the mountain and nurses bitter
memories of murderous Turkish oppression and annexation after the first
world war. It has long been assumed by scriptural literalists that the
remains of the ark are to be found somewhere on the mountainside.
The Dutch author Frank Westerman is a student of mathematics and
natural sciences, who was brought up as an evangelical Protestant. In
2005, he embarked on a trip to Ararat to sort out his thoughts about
faith, reason and the Bible. The result, Ararat, is an entertaining mix
of memoir, meditation, history and travel, with a rather thin
contribution to current squabbles over science and religion. The
central, compelling theme is the fascination exerted by the ark, the
discovery of which ` in the minds of Christian fundamentalists ` would
give tangible credibility to the biblical account of creation and the
flood. Westerman's vividly recounted stories of attempts to conquer
Ararat's inhospitable slopes include the ascent of Ararat by the German
scholar Friedrich Parrot, who reached the summit in 1829 despite a
prevailing Armenian tradition that the mountain is unconquerable due to
the presence of avenging angels. Parrot got to the summit and at least
disproved that bit of taboo. Since then, there have been many more
expeditions to the mountain, many hoping for sight of the ark, with a
sudden increase following the end of the cold war. Down the years, odd
bits of old wood have been claimed as ark relics. Among the celebrated
`sightings' was a photograph of an object taken in 1972 by a satellite
that has been interpreted by biblical enthusiasts as having the same
proportions as the ark. Then there was the American astronaut James
Irwin, who famously felt the presence of God on a space walk and was
drawn to Ararat in search of proof for his faith. He found a few bits
of rotting skis.
Westerman tells us that on the way up Ararat (I won't spoil the story
of his final assault), he realised that he had long ago rejected
religion and put his entire trust in science. `Beyond the veil of the
tabernacle there was nothing, and along Ararat's snowline were no
angels with swords of fire.' Yet his conviction that synergies between
science and religion depend on such activities as ark hunting is
misleadingly superficial. Outside of fundamentalist creationists,
scholars engaged on reconciling science and religion are more
interested nowadays in philosophical questions, such as why there is
something rather than nothing, than in chasing holy grails and bits of
the ark.
It is equally misleading to conclude with Westerman that absence of
Ararat's ark conclusively undermines religion. All the same, Westerman
concedes that the Noah story is a very good one and that good stories `
despite being entirely fictional ` often contain strong elements of
truth-telling. In an ominous warning that goes to the heart of a new,
scientifically argued, flood story, he observes that one of Ararat's
glaciers is showing signs of global warming and the coming rise of the
oceans: a consequence of human abuse of the planet if not downright
wickedness prompting divine wrath. Hence, in the dodgiest of religious
myths, he concludes, there can be more than a grain of sober truth.
John Cornwell is the author of `Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Riposte to
`The God Delusion' (Profile)