# Kentucky's Ark Encounter: $100 million boondoggle **URL:** \ **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:** 8
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/141 "2016-07-07T21:55:06Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > Except when the Old Testament tells them to kill homosexuals… I said “many”. Some believe in it, the so-called “fire and brimstone” types mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/142 "2016-07-07T22:35:29Z")
Claims that Jesus is prefigured in the OT are quite common. The Gospels themselves play that game, taking Isaiah or Ezekiel and saying, “See? They meant Jesus.” One radio preacher gave a lovely talk about how Abraham and Isaac prefigure the crucifixion – leaving out the business where God spared Isaac but refused to spare Jesus. Not a very good resemblance. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/143 "2016-07-07T22:43:53Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Is there a place on that ark for dinosaur eggs? I heard some preacher or something (who claimed that dinos and Noah lived at the same time) say that he knew you couldn’t fit all those dinos on an ark of that size. Duh! Therefore, Noah took only the eggs. Makes perfect sense to me! It seems to me that there will alway be three things on which you can make money. Golf, weight loss and religion. Maybe a blessed driver that will melt the pounds off. That explains hat happened to the dinosaurs. Noah and family took the wrong eggs for breakfast one morning. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/144 "2016-07-07T23:56:22Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > That explains hat happened to the dinosaurs. Noah and family took the wrong eggs for breakfast one morning. 😛 Or one of the other animals ate the eggs? Considering how many species of dinosaurs are known, that would be a LOT of eggs. One of my FBFs, who is herself a devout Christian and lives nowhere near this thing, posted a story about it and said, “I would love to visit this!” When I told her about the admission price and the employees getting fired, etc. she said she still wanted to see it but was a bit less enthusiastic about it. (Her oldest daughter has had 3 kids with 3 different guys, none of whom she married, and has apparently battled a very severe drug addiction that was precipitated by the death of the first one soon after birth, when she was about 15 years old.) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/145 "2016-07-08T01:11:16Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > 😛 > > Or one of the other animals ate the eggs? > > Considering how many species of dinosaurs are known, that would be a LOT of eggs. > > One of my FBFs, who is herself a devout Christian and lives nowhere near this thing, posted a story about it and said, “I would love to visit this!” When I told her about the admission price and the employees getting fired, etc. she said she still wanted to see it but was a bit less enthusiastic about it. > > (Her oldest daughter has had 3 kids with 3 different guys, none of whom she married, and has apparently battled a very severe drug addiction that was precipitated by the death of the first one soon after birth, when she was about 15 years old.) Hey, it’s cool. As long as you BELIEVE. No need to be a good person or take responsibilities for your actions. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/146 "2016-07-08T02:14:37Z")
40 bucks to walk around a 100 millions dollar shoe box complete with animatronics and stuffed rugs - lifelike models of animals, including dinosaurs and a pair of unicorns. Unicorns in an Ark. - That about sums it up. On the other side of reality, NASA’s Juno mission has [begun orbiting Jupiter.](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/team-begins-powering-up-science-instruments) ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/147 "2016-07-08T02:41:13Z")
> [@](#): > > If people of faith wish to go who are we to judge? well, I see two problems: the people who built the thing aren’t paying taxes to the local area because they have a religious exemption, yet they are using local resources like water, and second, the company running the thing is forcing their employees to follow certain religious doctrines about their sex lives or they get fired. If someone just wanted to build a fun tourist attraction based on a book, well, people do that all the time. Using the “religious” card to get special treatment, no. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/148 "2016-07-08T02:43:20Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > … No, that’s _not_ what “myth” means, according to any standard dictionary you can find. In response to: > [@Skammer](#): > > Like many bible stories, Noah’s ark is a myth. That doesn’t mean it is or isn’t literally true, it means whether or not it is true is _irrelevant_. The historicity of the event is not the point of the story. Once that is understood, it becomes silly to cling to the argument that it literally happened. Actually **Skammer** is correct and **Czarcasm** is not. [First definition up:](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/myth) > [@](#): > > 1. a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature. You have to go down a few to get to the implication of falseness being part of the definition. The point of a myth is not if it is true or not. The point of a myth is often that it is a story that helps a culture define itself and its values. [Another source:](http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mythology) > [@](#): > > refers to a body of stories that attempt to explain the origins and fundamental values of a given culture and the nature of the universe and humanity. In modern usage, the term can also mean stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events. Ancient myths are generally founded by imagination and intuition rather than objective evidence. Myths identify and help explain human propensities and natural phenomena with the actions and attributes of gods in a primordial past. > > The truths inherent in myths thus are not reducible to their historical veracity … [And another:](https://mythicamerica.wordpress.com/the-meaning-of-myth-in-the-american-context/) > [@](#): > > The myths that affect us most, in theory and usually in fact, are those that blend empirical truth with fiction. The more truth they contain, the more convincing they are, the harder they are to refute, and therefore the more influence they have. > > However empirical truth or falsehood is not the most crucial question when it comes to myth. As the definition above indicates, a myth communicates some very real truths to the people who accept it as a living myth. This is the sense in which most historians of religion have come to use the term. They say that myth has its own truth, a different kind of truth than science offers. > > The people who tell a myth do not judge it by whether it can be proven factually true, either. Rather, the myth is a sort of lens through which they see the world. It tells them what they can accept as factually true and what they must consider false. It tells them what to pay attention to and what to ignore. It tells them how to interpret their experiences. In all these way, myth shapes their view of truth. > > To modern interpreters, myth is symbolic, not literal, truth. … > > … Consider, for example, two classic American myths: the Pilgrims and Rosa Parks. Both stories, as told in elementary schools and known by most Americans, include elements of both fact and fiction. The Pilgrims’ economic status and motives are typically marginalized in or banished from the story, as are their internal disputes, while their religious commitments and desire for religious freedom take center stage. Similarly, Rosa Parks’ age and her socioeconomic status get center stage, while her careful training for civil disobedience and her (and her husband’s) very active work in the NAACP for years preceding her day of fame are largely forgotten. > > Ultimately, though, **when a myth is working its factual truth is irrelevant** , because the people for whom a myth is alive do not judge it by whether it can be proven factually true. Rather, the myth is the lens through which they see the world and judge what is true and false. So it shapes their view of truth. It tells them what they can accept as factually true and what they must consider false. A living myth is what “everyone knows.” therefore it is not subject to interrogation, much less debate; it is, rather, the foundation for debate, the set of premises shared by all sides. > > Consider again the Pilgrims and Parks. Both are emotionally powerful stories, made up of symbolic details that are readily and vividly visualized, and both communicate similar messages: People from all over the world come to America because here victims of injustice can and should stand up for their rights. if they are courageous enough, they can find a new kind of freedom unavailable anywhere else in the world. … Bolding mine. Yes common modern usage is one which pejoratively implies untruth, but such misses the value that myths hold for a culture. The truth of a myth is its symbolic value to the culture, whether or not it is historically accurate. The latter is indeed irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/149 "2016-07-08T04:25:01Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > If not for the exact words of the bible, what do Christians have to base their faith on? Is the bible the sacred word of God or not? If so, then every word must be taken literally. If not, then why even bother? If a perfect god wanted to leave instructions to his creation then wouldn’t those instructions be received with perfect understanding? Wouldn’t transferring the word of God be like pouring water from a pitcher to a glass? Why would the word of God be written into a book that no one agrees on the meaning or truthfulness of the words? Stone atheist here, but… you get that religious belief predates the invention of writing, right? People have had religious for as long as we’ve been people - maybe longer. We’ve only been reading for about 6000 years, and only really been _literate_ for an even shorter period. Biblical literalism just doesn’t make any kind of sense to me. What’s the point of God giving us a book that tells us exactly what wants us to do? Why not just make us so that we just know what to do instinctively? If God is interested in free will, why would he give us an instruction book? Does God want to know if we have the capability to tell good from evil? Or is he only interested in seeing if we can follow directions? Because that last one doesn’t seem nearly as interesting an experiment to me. Again, I’m not a Christian, so I don’t can’t present an authentic Christian perspective. But there’s a reason the four books of the Gospel are called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and not God, God, God, and God. It’s the New _Testament_. It’s a bunch of stories of people _testifying_ to their religious experiences. It’s right there in the name of the book that this is a collection of human observations, and not a literal divine writ. Now, as to why Christians accept these observations as having any validity at all? Well, if God did exist, and his existence was in some degree observable by humans, then it follows that anyone would also be able to perceive evidence of his existence, not just the ones who wrote the Bible. So a Christian might accept the parts of the Bible that comport with their own observations (“Love thy neighbor”) while disregarding the parts that don’t fit with what they’ve observed (“Stone the infidel”). Of course, as an atheist, I know God doesn’t exist, and as such is not observable in the world. But people do have religious experiences, even if their origin is not actually supernatural. Look at people at a revivalist meeting, when they’re rolling around on the floor, speaking in tongues. They’re experiencing _something_ there, even if it’s a form of mass hysteria, and not a brush with the divine. That’s an extreme version of it, but most people of faith will have a story or two where they feel they were in touch with some larger presence than themselves. There’s some evidence that these experiences can be replicated in a controlled environment by stimulating certain areas of the brain. Even if it’s a neurological quirk that people routinely misinterpret as supernatural, that still puts them in the same starting place as if they really saw God: they have an experience they’re trying to make sense of, and they approach the Bible (or whatever text is dominate in their local culture) as a source of observations that may or may not comport with they believe they experienced. Either way, the point is the same: faith precedes religion. There is a sense that there’s a larger truth to the universe than is immediately observable, and specific dogmas are adopted that are compatible with their perceived experiences. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/150 "2016-07-08T21:00:18Z")
Yeah, I know the link is from Fux Noize. Bill Nye was invited to tour it today, and took them up on it. > **[Bill Nye visits new Noah's ark attraction he criticized](https://www.foxnews.com/us/bill-nye-visits-new-noahs-ark-attraction-he-criticized)** > > Bill Nye is touring a new Noah's Ark attraction in Kentucky that he has called a danger to the nation's science education. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/151 "2016-07-08T23:10:16Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Is there a place on that ark for dinosaur eggs? I heard some preacher or something (who claimed that dinos and Noah lived at the same time) say that he knew you couldn’t fit all those dinos on an ark of that size. Duh! Therefore, Noah took only the eggs. Makes perfect sense to me! It seems to me that there will alway be three things on which you can make money. Golf, weight loss and religion. Maybe a blessed driver that will melt the pounds off. Of course you can fit dinosaurs on the ark. > **[That Giant Noah's Ark Attraction Has Caged Dinosaurs](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/noahs-ark-dinosaurs_n_577d9ff8e4b0344d514dea93)** > > It's like the 'Flintstones,' except on a big boat. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/152 "2016-07-09T00:07:31Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Bill Nye was invited to tour it today, and took them up on it. Based on the Facebook comments (which I was unfortunate enough to see thanks to a young relative), most AiG supporters think that this means Nye is being called to Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/153 "2016-07-09T00:15:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > 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? None of them float or are even sea-worthy. They were built to biblical specifications, which pretty much guaranteed that. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/154 "2016-07-09T00:18:09Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Is there a place on that ark for dinosaur eggs? I heard some preacher or something (who claimed that dinos and Noah lived at the same time) say that he knew you couldn’t fit all those dinos on an ark of that size. Duh! Therefore, Noah took only the eggs. Makes perfect sense to me! Know why the dinosaurs went extinct? After 20 days, Noah & family got a little hungry. Think of the size of that omlet! ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/155 "2016-07-09T01:39:02Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/156 "2016-07-09T16:37:25Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Know why the dinosaurs went extinct? After 20 days, Noah & family got a little hungry. Think of the size of that omlet! 😛 A while back, I was at a fellowship event at my church, and we got to talking about Noah’s Ark. (Most of them agreed with me that it was a regional flood.) Anyway, the phrase “A small elephant takes up less room than a big elephant” was said by someone, and led to a lot of :smack: :o 😃 . Most authorities believe that the animals he took aboard were juveniles and, in the case of mammals, weaned young. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/157 "2016-07-09T22:01:42Z")
If the flood as described in the bible was just regional, that doesn’t explain the evidence of sea shells found 100’s of miles inland from California to New Mexico. > **[Seashells in the Desert - DesertUSA](https://www.desertusa.com/desert-california/seashells-in-desert.html)** > > Fossilized seashells found in these areas reveal clues to the ancient Western Interior Seaway, which once split North America.  It covered much of the western interior of the continent between 69 and 80 million years ago.  > [@](#): > > The Capitan Reef, a 400-mile long north-south trending reef that crosses the border between southern New Mexico and western Texas, is one of the premier fossil reefs of the world. Many exposures of this massive reef appear on mountaintops, thousands of feet above today’s sea level. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/158 "2016-07-09T22:09:17Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > If the flood as described in the bible was just regional, that doesn’t explain the evidence of sea shells found 100’s of miles inland from California to New Mexico. No, but plate tectonics and continental drift does. Very well. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/159 "2016-07-09T23:05:53Z")
Yep: meanwhile, the global flood idea is contradicted by such places as Carlsbad Caverns, which, very obviously, have never been flooded by sea-water – because the delicate dripstone formations would have been destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907/160 "2016-07-09T23:39:45Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Yep: meanwhile, the global flood idea is contradicted by such places as Carlsbad Caverns, which, very obviously, have never been flooded by sea-water – because the delicate dripstone formations would have been destroyed. Maybe they were sealed off at the time? (j/k) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentuckys-ark-encounter-100-million-boondoggle/758907.md?page=9)