In 1986, Bob Cornuke was arrested for espionage in Turkey with former astronaut Jim Irwin, the eighth man to walk on the moon. In a telephone interview from his home in Colorado Springs, Cornuke told how he ended up on the expedition to find Noah's Ark with an Apollo 15 astronaut.
"A mutual friend introduced me to Irwin, who said I'd be a natural for the trip. I'm not a professional archaeologist; my background is in law enforcement. Irwin said my experience in the collection of evidence for criminal investigations would be helpful. But he was also worried about being kidnapped by Kurdish terrorists and being used to bring attention to their plight," Cornuke said.Cornuke may have kept Irwin safe from terrorists, but he overlooked the James Bond factor. After the expedition plane flew an exploratory mission over the mountains of Ararat, Irwin and Cornuke were arrested. "The government thought we were photographing military installations," Cornuke said. But instead of souring him on expeditions, the experience seemed to whet his appetite.
"I developed a real interest - I dove in the Red Sea, retraced the Exodus route and located what we believe is the real Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia. I'm an average guy who has done these expeditions and been able to disseminate the information to people so they can understand it," Cornuke said.
When Cornuke left the Los Angeles Police Department and moved his family to Colorado, he became vice president of an international construction firm. "I speak around the country about 20 times a year. People want me to do this full-time, but I need to be able to support my family. This ministry was given to me. For some reason, God's calling up and asking me to do things," he said. Cornuke is president of the Bible Archaeological Search and Exploration Foundation and a member of the High Flight Foundation.
Cornuke will speak in Salt Lake City on Monday (please see box) about creation and evolution.
"I'm coming at this subject from a different frame of reference. I look at how the philosophies of evolution came about and became a politically charged theory. Marx dedicated his `Das Capital' to Darwin's `Origin of the Species' because it supposedly eliminated all classes. Hitler's policy of racial purity was based on the `survival of the fittest. The key piece of evidence from the `Monkey Trial' - a tooth found in Nebraska supposedly from a half-man, half-ape creature - turned out to be from the remains of an ancient pig. The rest of the pig was dug up after the trial, but you never hear the rest of the story," Cornuke said.
"We have placed ourselves in a more superior role - we are worshipping the creature more than the creator like it says in Romans 1:25: `Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.' We like to think we make decisions based on reason, but we usually choose something based on emotion and then back up our decision with logical reasons. One day I might be happy as a clam with my job but if the next day, I was offered a better job, I would suddenly be able to find all sorts of reasons why my job wasn't right for me. Both creation and evolution cannot be proved empirically, they must be accepted on faith. But evolution is taught as fact in our schools, not theory," Cornuke said.
The explorer/lecturer appeared on the recent CBS TV special, "Ancient Secrets of the Bible."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cornuke lectures
Monday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Meta Tauta Society, 1935 S. Fremont Drive (2205 West). The topic is "Reasons to Believe in the Creation, the Flood, the Exodus." For information call 973-4800.
Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. at the Vernal Western Park, 300 E. 200 South, Vernal. The topic is "Discovering the Real Mount Sinai" (as seen on CBS TV's "Ancient Secrets of the Bible"). Call 828-7389 for information.
Both lectures are free to the public, and a love offering will be taken.