(256)   Wed 16 Apr 97 15:42
By: Rod Swift
To: All
Re: More on Plimer case
St:
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@EID:2e59 22907d40
@MSGID: 3:690/660.0 33548302
From The West Australian, Thursday April 10, 1997, Page 33:

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ARK AUTHOR: I THREW MONEY INTO THE HOLE
Sydney
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AMERICAN author David Fasold says he spent $75,000 visiting
and researching what some claim is the resting place of
Noah's Ark in Turkey before he stopped "throwing money into
this hole in the ground".

  One of two men behind the so-called Evolution v Creation
legal battle, Mr Fasold told the Federal Court in Sydney: "I
stopped throwing money into this site, into this hole in the
ground, in February 1995.  I became very concerned that a
mistake had been made."

  Mr Fasold, who described himself as an ark-ologist rather
than an archaeologist, or an ark-oholic, agreed he had
written the 1988 book "The Ark of Noah" because he bleieved
in the authenticity of the site.

  But he had mixed feelings after visiting the site in 1994
with Melbourne University geology professor Ian Plimer, he
said under cross-examination.

  Mr Fasold and Professor Plimer are suing pastoral elder Dr
Allen Roberts and the Ark Search Association Incorporated
for allegedly misleading consumers in public lectures,
brochures, video and audio tapes.

  The author is also claiming breach of copyright, alleging
that a drawing he made of the site, the "centrepiece of my
entire work", was used without his permission.

  After first visiting the site in 1985, he mortgaged his
house in the US and sold some business assets to finance
further expeditions, according to an affidavit given to the
court.

  Replying to a question, Mr Fasold said: "I have worked
with archaeologists long enough to know I have no
archaeological training."

  Asked if he still believed in the site in 1988, he said:
"On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I was unsure.  The rest
of the week I was pretty sure."

  Mr Fasold said the first print run of his book had sold
out in 54 days -- "I wish I could say 40 days and 40 nights."

  Professor Plimer also appeared briefly in the witness
stand late yesterday, saying he attended lectures given in
1992 by Dr Roberts, who has a doctor of Christian science
degree from a US university.

  Information in booklets which were on sale at the lectures
was scientifically insupportable, he said.

  Professor Plimer, who has said he does not believe in the
literal truth of the Genesis account of creation, swore "by
almighty God" on the bible when he took the stand.

  By contrast, Mr Fasold, raised in a fundamentalist family,
made an affirmation when he began giving evidence.
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 * OLX 2.1 TD * Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways

--- Maximus 2.02
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