ABSTRACT
On 25 April 2010, in a press conference held in Hong Kong, the locally based organization Media Evangelism (hereafter ME) and its closely associated group Noah’s Ark Ministries International (hereafter NAMI)1 announced that their team from Hong Kong had discovered the remains of the Ark of Noah on Mount Ararat in Turkey. The same announcement was rearticulated by the organizations in subsequent press conferences in Beijing and elsewhere over the following weeks. It was obvious that the ME-NAMI team was excited about their ‘discovery’ as they once claimed that they were ‘99.9% certain’2 to have found the Ark. It was also obvious that the organization expected the announcement to shake the world. That expectation was understandable because, after all, the Ark of Noah did occupy a significant position in the ancient narratives of all Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and there had been numerous attempts over the past century or so to find and uncover its remains. It was therefore not difficult to imagine the enthusiasm that could result from such a discovery, both in and outside the religious communities.
