In 1992, Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates, later Secretary of Defense, ordered the CIA to search Mt. Ararat photos for Noah's Ark. The fruitless search continued after he left office, until termination by the acting DCI in 1993.
http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/fi...839386.pdf
http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/fi...839386.pdf
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"