# Kentucky's Ark Encounter: $100 million boondoggle
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 2, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907 "2016-07-02T04:33:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/1 "2016-07-02T04:33:49Z")
Even though I’m Christian, I do not believe that the Noah’s Ark story was a worldwide flood. It would be geologically impossible, among other things.
In the meantime, Ken Ham, a longtime apologetic who has debated a number of atheists and skeptics in public fora, has somehow come up with $100 million to build a life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, according to Biblical proportions, and stocked it with animatronic replicas of people and animals.
He also anticipates 1 million visitors a year (at $40 per person :smack: )
Yeah, yeah, I know everyone laughed at Noah too. But that isn’t the same thing.
> **[Go Inside the 7-Story Noah’s Ark Replica Being Built in Kentucky](https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/meet-the-man-behind-the-first-biblically-accurate-noah-s-ark-replica-717069891990)**
>
> Ken Ham hopes his $100 million full-sized imitation attracts more than a million tourists a year.
I kind of like this commentary from a man who was a fundamentalist Christian for a while and later converted to paganism. NSFW for language. 😛
[Kentucky Government Helps Fund Noah's Ark Replica: Load That Ship With Predatory Animals - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9yUh5ME7ag)
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### Author:  [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/2 "2016-07-02T05:19:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Even though I’m Christian, I do not believe that the Noah’s Ark story was a worldwide flood.
The first and second parts of this sentence are mutually contradictory.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/3 "2016-07-02T05:36:50Z")
**Flyer** : Nonsense. Many Christians take the story as only allegorical. Only a minority of the faith hold it to be literal truth.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/4 "2016-07-02T05:40:09Z")
Whatever floats your boat.
Just keep these idiots away please. Building a fence this summer. May make it taller.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/5 "2016-07-02T05:45:06Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> **Flyer** : Nonsense. Many Christians take the story as only allegorical. Only a minority of the faith hold it to be literal truth.
An allegory of what?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/6 "2016-07-02T05:47:48Z")
> [@Flyer](#):
>
> The first and second parts of this sentence are mutually contradictory.
I’m an atheist, and even I consider this statement to be incredibly ignorant.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/7 "2016-07-02T06:30:46Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> **Flyer** : Nonsense. Many Christians take the story as only allegorical. Only a minority of the faith hold it to be literal truth.
So how do you draw the lines between what is “true” and what is BS? Why not the whole story of Christianity be allegorical? Sorry, I agree with Flyer.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/8 "2016-07-02T06:37:26Z")
> [@Flyer](#):
>
> The first and second parts of this sentence are mutually contradictory.
Do you know what it means to be a Christian? Do you know what it means to take the Bible literally? Do you know what it means to be logical?
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/9 "2016-07-02T09:56:43Z")
Many Christians believe the New Testament literally, but the Old Testament mostly mythically. They’re Jesus worshippers more than God worshippers.
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### Author:  [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/10 "2016-07-02T10:36:32Z")
Hell, you can be a christian and not even believe in god at all and certainly not think that Jesus is a god.
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### Author:  [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/11 "2016-07-02T11:15:29Z")
There are something like 40,000 different denominations of Protestantism alone. I’m not sure that you can actually choose your own God. But, you have to think that most of the possible combinations would’ve gotten covered by now.
I’d love to see a flow chart to help someone narrow down their choices a little. I love the thought that there might be a denomination out there somewhere that believes exactly what a given Christian believes, but they just never locate each other.
As an aside, there are a bunch of things in life that would seem to be really simple and straight-forward. But, which are actually staggeringly complicated. Religion, Love, Sex, Food. It’s an adventure.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/12 "2016-07-02T11:28:31Z")
I should have thought of this way of parting people and their money.
> [@Flyer](#):
>
> The first and second parts of this sentence are mutually contradictory.
> [@White SIFL](#):
>
> So how do you draw the lines between what is “true” and what is BS? Why not the whole story of Christianity be allegorical? Sorry, I agree with Flyer.
The Bible is not an instruction manual for Christianity.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/13 "2016-07-02T11:33:28Z")
Wow. 0 to hijack in one post. I am im pressed.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/14 "2016-07-02T11:45:04Z")
> [@Flyer](#):
>
> The first and second parts of this sentence are mutually contradictory.
Even the most literalist Christians I know are okay with the idea that it was a local flood that covered all of humanity (who had not gotten far–this was before the Tower of Babel) rather than literally covering the whole planet. It make sense–God was mad at humanity. And, even today, we have no problem saying “the end of the world” when we mean “the end of humanity.”
’
Personally, I’m okay with the idea of a big local flood, that was big enough to be exaggerated to “the whole world.” There was no land in sight, and a significant number of people died (but not the “whole world”–too much of a bottleneck). There are too many flood myths for me to think a flood didn’t happen.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/15 "2016-07-02T11:49:19Z")
He tried to start this rubbish here in Tennessee, & our gullible politicians bought it, hook, line & sinker.
And then, a strange alliance formed–Fundamentalists, who thought a for-profit theme-park was heresy, and Church & State Separatists, who opposed spending Government money to fund religious groups.
They fought hard, & won.
But it was close.
Tennessee’s Political Class **are indeed** Rubes & Gomers, every one.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/16 "2016-07-02T12:54:02Z")
I started a thread on 6/27 about this Ark business.
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=796876](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=796876)
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/17 "2016-07-02T12:57:24Z")
Maybe there’s a market for a Christian ark attraction based theme park. Largest timber framed structure in the world? The animatronics look cool. Not everyone who comes to see it has to share his Biblical literalist creationist belief system … or even be Christian. They just have share the belief that looking at that thang is worth forty bucks a pop. Seems not worth it to me but some people drive out of their way just to see the world’s largest ball of string so who knows? He has visitors to his Creationist museum forty miles away and predicts the first forty days will bring in 1.4 million visitors.\* (After which he’ll open up a window and send out a raven …)
The issue is if it should have been [eligible for state tax incentives or excluded](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/27/judge-says-giant-noahs-ark-project-in-kentucky-is-/) on the basis of its being part of a religious missionary outreach.
> [@The Washington Times - Wednesday](#):
>
> A Noah’s Ark-themed attraction being built in Kentucky by a Christian group is eligible for potentially millions of dollars in tax incentives previously withdrawn by the state’s former governor, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
> In a 71-page decision, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove wrote that the Kentucky Tourism Cabinet can’t exclude the massive “Ark Encounter” project being built by the Answers in Genesis group from tax incentives based on its “religious purpose and message.” Answers in Genesis is a Christian creationist apologetics ministry. …“The court finds that the Commonwealth’s exclusion of AiG from participating in the program for the reasons stated — i.e., on the basis of AiG’s religious beliefs, purpose, mission, message or conduct, is a violation of AiG’s rights under the First Amendment to the federal Constitution,” …
Is it state sponsorship of religious or First amendment rights? The court says the latter.
\*Attendance at his [Creation museum](http://www.citybeat.com/news/city-desk/article/13008694/creation-museum-attendance-drops-for-fourth-straight-year) has apparently been slumping. Experts think the Ark won’t attract [quite so many](http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/01/21/ark-park-attendance-projections-reduced-report-finds/22104537/) as its developer claims - more like “640,000 visitors in its best year” but still enough “that it would have a financial benefit to the state and meet the economic qualifications to earn state incentives.”
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/18 "2016-07-02T13:07:49Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Even the most literalist Christians I know are okay with the idea that it was a local flood that covered all of humanity (who had not gotten far–this was before the Tower of Babel) rather than literally covering the whole planet. It make sense–God was mad at humanity. And, even today, we have no problem saying “the end of the world” when we mean “the end of humanity.”
> ’
> Personally, I’m okay with the idea of a big local flood, that was big enough to be exaggerated to “the whole world.” There was no land in sight, and a significant number of people died (but not the “whole world”–too much of a bottleneck). There are too many flood myths for me to think a flood didn’t happen.
Of course local floods have happened. Was there one large flood that inspired all the various flood myths, or did one culture’s flood myth inspire other cultures’ flood myths, or did various cultures all create flood myths independently in response to local historic floods with local damage? Based on the many similarities _other_ than the Flood alone with the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, I’d bet on the second but without a conclusive historic record who knows?
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/19 "2016-07-02T14:03:04Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Even the most literalist Christians I know are okay with the idea that it was a local flood that covered all of humanity (who had not gotten far–this was before the Tower of Babel) rather than literally covering the whole planet. It make sense–God was mad at humanity. And, even today, we have no problem saying “the end of the world” when we mean “the end of humanity.”
> ’
> Personally, I’m okay with the idea of a big local flood, that was big enough to be exaggerated to “the whole world.” There was no land in sight, and a significant number of people died (but not the “whole world”–too much of a bottleneck). There are too many flood myths for me to think a flood didn’t happen.
I bet the farther back in time you go, the more people took more parts of the bible literally. As science and technology render different parts of the stories not possible they get rellegated to parables or teaching stories or some version of the original that could be true. If all of the bible isn’t true, why should one believe any of it is true?
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/20 "2016-07-02T14:13:09Z")
Jesus Christ. Didn’t **Baker** start a thread about an Ark museum in Kansas? How many of these things you got floating around over there?
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