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It was sixty years ago today the Kon-Tiki landed on a reef in the South Pacific Ocean!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki



  This is the story about a man who created for himself the adventure of a lifetime. Anyone read the book? Seen the movie?

David---

Just recently I read where Thor Heyerdahl's granson Olaf repeated the journey his grandfather
made in 1947. Olaf's raft was put together better and made it in faster time---but Thor's accomplish-
ment at that time was amazing. I read the book a few times and always found it to be very exciting---
I would imagine myself on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I love those kind of books!!

--Joe

  Thanks, did he write a book about it? Watching the movie is a kick! These macho Norsmen pulling sharks out of the water by their fins and pounding their heads with a pipe! "Ya that's good Sven conk him hard!"

I read Adrift last year!  By Steven Callahan. Steve's boat sank off the coast of Africa and he drifted accross the Antlantic! Just like Thor he road the current!  I figured it was a good classroom activity with my third graders. So we counted off the days starting in September and Finishing in November! We wrote him a letter and recieved a response.

http://www.amazon.ca/Adrift-Seventy-Six-Days-Lost-Sea/dp/0618257322

David---

No---Olaf hasn't written a book yet, but he most likely will. I read "Adrift!" also. I have read many
books about the survivors of ship wrecks. There is a book called "Sole Survivor--A Record of Endurance At Sea". It is about a Chinese man who survived 133 days at sea back in the 40's. Those types of books always amaze me, as keeping your sanity would be one of the hardest things to do---can you imagine how frightened one would be to sit adrift in the ocean with sharks circling and the weather threatening you?

One thing that happened on the "Kon-Tiki" voyage was the discovery of a fish called the "snake mackerel"---

The Kon-Tiki explorers discovered the legendary snake mackerel (latin name Gempylus) and had a rare sighting of the whale shark. Heyerdahl had two experiences with the Gempylus. The first was at night, when the snake mackerel was washed into Torstein's (one of the crew members) sleeping bag, the second was also at night, when the Gempylus tried to attack the lantern.  --from Wikipedia.

Great book to read!!

You like these books too! I love survival! Kids versions (fiction) Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain.  Yes I remember the snake makeral and the whale shark. What a great adventure! I have a big illustrated edition the kids love it. Thor was just a big kid!  Another book you probably have read, "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakouer. True story about Chris McCandless. It is now being made into a movie!

     Last year I almost died in the San Jacinto mountains! I hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail just north of Palm Springs. For three days I didn't see anyone, I didn't bring enough food, water, I underestimated the 02 levels at 10,000 feet! My phone didn't work! I finally ditched my equipment and limped into Idyllwild.   I'm heading back tomorrow! Hope I can do it right this time!

I will try and find a copy of Sole Survivor.


If I remember correctly Steven had a shark bump him awake one night. His raft was inflatable rings and the only thing separating him from the shark was nylon/plastic! Yea I think I would wake up!

Oh, here you are, Dave! I was looking for you.

I don't particularly like being accused of "hating" someone, as you have mentioned below. Do you have a complex or are you just a little bit too sensitive to what others say to you.


I'm sure you'd like to blame me now for the "last straw" as you mentioned in the quote, but I think that is also a jump from reality as we know it.

Giant Blue Moon

Oh, hi Moon, do you like to read books? Do you like to hike? What would you like to chat about?

Yes I like to read books, too. Right now I'm reading Pavilion of Blue Whales, er Blue Moons, er, Pavilion of Women by Pearl Buck. I like her books.

I, too have read "Adrift". His survival skills were amazing. I'm surprised GG didn't make it  required reading for learning survival skills for those "left behind".  ;)

Giant Blue

     :D :D :D

David,

I read Kon Tiki when I was in high school, (1956-1959), and at least once in the 70's. 

Thor Heyerdahl has had a long and interesting life.  He seems to be some kind of cultural anthropologist, and many of his journeys have had to do with confirming his theories.  When he was first married before WWII he and his new bride were deposited on an island in the south seas to live in paradise.  It turned out not to be such a paradise once you had to deal with the real problems of lack of medical care and social problems with the native culture.  I don't remember the name of the book I read about that experience.

Kon Tiki, was about his belief that polynesia was populated by South American Indians that sailed in rafts from the coast of Peru or Ecuador.  Later on he developed a theory that Ancient Egyptians had crossed the atlantic in rafts made from reeds.  He got this idea by studying tomb inscriptions.

To test it he had a raft built by people in Chad who live on a lake.  He got most of the way accross the Atlantic before it came apart.  Later on he had another built by Indians from Lake Titicaca. I was shipped to the Mediterranian  That one made it all the way accross.  The book is called "The Ra Expeditions".

Later on he sailed an Arab dhow from the Persian Gulf all the way over to the Pacific Coast of China.  I have forgotten the name of that book.

The last I heard of him he opened the Winter Olympics in Lilehammer, Norway.  (Spelling ?)

Tom Maddux

Tom----

I believe the name of the book about he and his bride alone on the Island was "Fatu-Hiva". He also wrote a book called "The RA expedition" about the reed boat experiment you mentioned. I also read another book he wrote about Easter Island called "AKU-AKU". I found his writings fascinating when I was 15 years old or so, and read everything he had written at that time. He was Norwegian---they must have exploration in their blood, descended from the Vikings and all I guess! :D

--Joe

 Hey Joe, I took AKU AKU with me on my camping trip. I think it is a sequel to Kon-Tiki. He asserts the Island was first populated by people who came from the East off the continent of South America around 398 A.D. (The popular opinion was that Easter Island was the last to be populated by Polynesians from the West around 1400 A.D.) He and his team did a tremendous amount of archeological digs uncovering different people groups, artifacts and he uses these to determine that the island was inhabited at a much earlier time. He also uses DNA to determine ancestry!  This was in the early 1950's! (I'm still reading the book.) It seems to me that Thor has an agenda behind his work. He is possibly legitimizing a claim to the island held by the Peruvians?  I have a lot of questions brewing inside of me that I would like to shoot at a fine Christian as yourself!

Tom, there is a brand new edition out of the book you mentioned. It's at the Irvine Library. I remember reading the RA book! The boat tried to go from Egypt to South America via the Antlantic current, It sank just short of its goal!

   :P :P

Hey check it out!
http://www.kon-tiki.no/Heyerdahl/

I'm going to buy the model!


http://www.kon-tiki.no/Shop/index.html

David---

Thanks for those links.  Heyerdahl strongly believed that Polynesia was peopled from
migrants from South America. He believed that man had used the oceans to travel much
larger distances than historians believe. Whether he came close to proving that is doubt-
ful though as anthroplogists still don't accept his hypothesis.  But he definitely was a very
brave and interesting person---that's for sure!!

--Joe

Joe and Dave,

In one of Heyerdahl's books that I read years ago, there was a section containing several tables and illustrations showing the similarities between the cultural artifacts of Siberian natives and the Indians of the Pacific Northwest.  This would fit the generally accepted idea that North America was peopled by people migrating from Siberia during a break in the last ice age.

Heyerdahl was participating in an argument that was going on among cultural anthropoligists in those days.  The Diffusionists claimed that ideas were developed in the Middle East and then spread slowly around the world via migrations and contacts between peoples.  Things like the existence of pyramids in Africa, Asia, North and South America was one evidence.  The Egyptian pyramids are the oldest.

The other side were known as the Independent Inventionists.  They pointed out the absence of actual evidence of contact between many cultures.  Cuneiform doesn't look anything like Maya glyphs, and the NA pyramids are all stepped and flat topped.

The discussion went on for decades.  Now, however, DNA studies have pretty much shown the migration patterns.  I have never read about how Heyerdahl's ideas have stood up to DNA evidence.  The Book of Mormon sure hasn't fared very well.   ;)

Heyerdahl's sea voyages were made in order to prove that ancient peoples had regular contact with each other even accross great expanses of ocean.  He sure demonstrated that it was possible.  I think in the long run the diffusionists have won on some points, and the Independent Inventionists on others.

One thing I learned from Heyerdahl was not to believe the history books when their non-sailor authors tell us that ancient voyages were always made within sight of land.  In pure sailing ships safety lies in getting away from the land in order to avoid being destroyed by a shift in wind direction.  Samuel Elliot Morrison, a US Navy admiral, made sailing voyages retracing Columbus' journeys.  He said the same thing.

Dave,

I read AKU AKU, but had forgotten it until you mentioned it.  I remember thinking how neat it was that Heyerdahl had gotten close to the natives until they revealed things to him about their history and religion that they had kept secret from academics that visited the island.  I wonder if the Manu they assigned to him ever gave him any trouble?

Tom Maddux

   Tom, Joe, thanks,


          I am currently reading "The Mystery Solved" pub 89. I was surprised to learn that he made a second successful journey, sailing from Morocco to Barbados, in the RA II (1970). He claimed the first one's problems were due to the "ropes bursting". He also made another journey "The Tigris" in 78. Here he sailed from Iraq to Africa! (Amazing to think that while we were sitting on our numb asses listening to George, Thor was busy doing all this awesome stuff!) Why was he so obssessed with this? It seems to me that the notion "Columbus Discovered the New World!" wouldn't set well with Thor.

   He points out that the history of Easter Island had three epochs or different people groups, the first being the most advanced and they accounted for the statues. He also goes on to note that the following groups suffered from civil war and abuses from Europeans looking for slaves. (This accounts for the degenerate behaviors witnessed in the last groups.) It wasn't until after all of this history that Christian missionaries came with the gospel.

   I really can't accept the notion that the people who were born and lived on the island during the first epochs have any accountability to the doctrines attributed to Christ. I can't see how anyone would!

Dave---you said:

i]It wasn't until after all of this history that Christian missionaries came with the gospel.

   I really can't accept the notion that the people who were born and lived on the island during the first epochs have any accountability to the doctrines attributed to Christ. I can't see how anyone would![/i]

I know I'm going off the Kon-Tiki subject for just a minute, but wanted to respond to this--

Often, when speaking with atheists/agnostics (I am not labeling you one Dave--your post just brought this thought to mind), they make statements such as the above. And true, we do not know the complete answer to questions such as these. If one must accept Christ to be saved, how could one who has never heard the message be saved? This is a very good question, and one that will be answered in eternity. We, as finite beings cannot understand the workings of an infinite God. David--I know your point is a bit different in that you are talking about their accountability more than their ability at that time to have been reached with the Gospel.

The thing that I think is ironic though, and completely illogical is to use that argument as a reason "not" to believe the Gospel, or an argument why one should not believe in Christ and God---or to use it as a reason why the Gospel just cannot be true. "I cannot accept that message, because any God who would damn people for not believing, who never had a chance to hear the message, must be an absolutely cruel being indeed...etc. etc."  And indeed, that would be a horrendous thing to do--to throw people into the lake of fire for not believing, even though they had never heard the message and not had a chance to believe. But we do not know the infinite wisdom of God, and we cannot and should not make accusations such as these.

What I always ask these same people, who claim God is so cruel, is:  "But have YOU had the opportunity to hear the Gospel? Has God reached out to YOU?  And of course, the answer is "yes"---they have had an opportunity to hear the message and be saved. To reject the message because others might go to hell who have not heard it is ridiculous, and very flawed logic for such "men of reason".  If you were thrown into the water off of a sinking ship along with 50 other people, and someone threw you a life-saver, would you look around and say "I simply cannot accept it---some around me appear not to have had life-savers thrown to them as I have!" Would you reject the way to be saved from drowning because others may appear not have had the same opportunity you have had? Of course not!! You would accept the life-saver, give thanks that you won't drown, and begin trying to save others too!! Will you refuse an offer made to you because (in your logic) others may not have had the same opportunity for salvation? That would be utter stupidity and terribly bad logic.

As for the Easter Islanders, and the doctrines attributed to Christ--yes, they do apply to them---however, in what manner is left to the wisdom of an Infinite God.  I know I got off subject but wanted to share these thoughts.   --JS

This is a very good question, and one that will be answered in eternity.


    To say that this answer is sufficient is like telling a slave to just accept his condition because he will "understand it in heaven."


    I am surprised that you read Heyerdahl's books without struggling with these kinds of questions. Heyerdahl strikes me as a person who had to know answers with verifiable evidence. He wouldn't be satisfied with just believing. If I am interpreting his comments correctly I think you would now categorize his eternal home in a place that is very hot.


     My Grandmother continues to "preach the gospel" to me even though she knows I don't believe it. I am sure she does it because she thinks that "magically" I might receive Christ again. Yet When she sends me a track or goes on about the 4 spiritual laws I can't help but feel she is insulting  my intelligence. Its kinda like someone coming up to you for the 10,00th time and saying... "Did you know a noun is a person, place or a thing?"

http://www.kon-tiki.no/Ny/Dok_eng/E-Heyerdahl.html


   Here is a bio on Thor Heyerdahl.


  This is a "Challenge" the institute is doing! I think it is great!


http://www.kon-tiki.no/Ny/Dok_eng/E-Chall06_07.html

David---

You said:
If I am interpreting his comments correctly I think you would now categorize his eternal home in a place that is very hot.

Only God knows his heart---which is what I was trying to say concerning the Easter Islanders, and eternity for that matter. God alone is the Judge. The sole point I was trying to make is that one should not reject the Gospel due to an "argument" one is really not sure of. One day we may see many Easter Islander's standing before God's throne---God alone knows the hearts. Thor Heyerdahl was an explorer and a scientist, espousing many "theories", and a very interesting man---but we don't know his heart of hearts, or what he believed---especially before he died. He may be in Heaven at this moment--God only knows. My point was how sad it is for someone to reject the Gospel, when it is clearly presented to them, due to the argument that others might not have heard that same message, and thereby accusing God of cruelty.  But---I know, this is a theological argument and not really meant for the "Kon-Tiki" thread.

I am going to dig out my old copies of Kon-Tiki and Aku-Aku and give them a read again though!! You have re-sparked my interest.