I’m 99.9% unsurprised by the announcement (via P.Z. Myers) that the Chinese researchers’ 99.9% beliefs that they’d found Noah’s Ark on top of Mt. Ararat turned out to be 99.9% con job. Those poor bible historian/archeologists were fleeced by locals who had planted old wood on the site knowing full well those fools would believe they’d hit the holy jackpot and announce it to the world.
While it’s unfair to take advantage of the ignorant folks living in a fact-vacuum, I still say do more of this. Fool them and trick them as often as possible and every time make sure you show off the fact that trickery was behind what they thought was true and maybe, just maybe, some of them will learn how to be skeptical of not only the things they want to believe, but the things they see as proof of their beliefs as well.
They need to learn a lesson here. Reality trumps faith. Reality is the logical Spock that beats heaven’s mystical (plaster) rock, (counterfeit) paper and (broken) scissors of belief.
Reality trumps faith every time.
One Minion's Opinion 