Bill Payne wrote:
You completely ignored my question about moving the 20,000 ton stone,
Ed. Why is it that when you are presented with evidence supporting
Kent's statement, you ignore the evidence and broaden your attack?
Here's the paragraph again; this time please speak to the issue
described below. How did those dim-witted cave men cut 100-ton
irregular blocks around their entire cicumference to < 1/64-inch
tolerance, and how did they move a 20,000 ton stone?
> > "In the ancient city of Sacsahuaman, near the city of Cuzco, Peru, there
> > is a magnificent wall built by the Incas, deliberately using irregularly
> > shaped blocks of stone. Some of the blocks weigh as much as 100 tonnes
> > and are so accurately fitted together that still today it is not
> > possible to insert a piece of paper in the joints between the blocks.
> > Even more incredible, however, is a larger stone block in the area. The
> > size of a five-storey house and weighing an estimated 20,000 tonnes, the
> > builders of Sacsahuaman could, and somehow did, move this block! The
> > feat of moving such a staggering weight has never been attempted, let
> > alone duplicated, with modern machinery. Even the largest crane in the
> > world today is capable of lifting only about 3,000 tonnes." (Rene
> > Noorbergin, _Secrets of the Lost Races: New Discoveries of Advanced
> > Technology in Ancient Civilizations_, Norcom Pub. Co., TN, 1977, cited
> > in Donald Chittick, _The Puzzle of Ancient Man_, Creation Compass,
> > 1997. Quoted here from "Creation ex nihilo", Vol. 20 no. 2, March-May,
> > 1998, p 13)
I knew that some of the offshore oil platforms were big, but even I was unprepared for how big. The Troll Platform off of Norway consists of 2 parts, a superstructure and a concrete base. Both the concrete base and the production facility/crew quarters superstructure was made in dry dock. The base was built lying on its side and was over 400 meters long. When finished the dry dock was flooded, the base floated out into the fjord and the 4 columns making up this huge concrete platform were filled with water, sinking it into the fjord. The top of the 4 columns were then barely peeking out of the water. The several story superstructure was built in drydock also but it was built ontop of barges. When the drydock was flooded, the barge floated with the superstructure on top of the barge. The barge then was floated out on top of the 4 concrete columns. Since there is no crane that can lift the superstructure, water was pumped out of the concrete base which caused the concrete to ri
se in the water and mate with the superstructure which was then also lifted off the barge. The barges were moved and the Troll platform was ready to be hauled out to sea.
The now single unit object was towed by a bunch of tugs 65 km out to sea where the platform was again filled with water, causing the entire structure to be grounded where pre-drilled oilwells were awaiting connection.
This object, which was moved by modern technology had a total weight of 1,050,000 tons!. This is far in excess of Chittick's ridiculously low expectations for modern technology. Once again the ICR group have their facts wrong. These are simple facts that could be gathered by anyone with a day or two worth of research. Why is it that apologists like Chittick have such trouble with things like this? I obviously am very frustrated because too many Christian apologists can't get their facts correct.
If you want to see photos and facts about this platform see:
http://www.shell.no/troll/photos/reality.html
http://www.shell.no/troll/facts/troll_platform.html
http://www.shell.no/troll/facts/