What Do You Get When a True Believer Visits the Ark Park? Can You Say 'Fluff Piece'

Just like this one: "The ark — something to think about".  If you haven't heard of a 'fluff piece' before, it's jargon for an report that doesn't examine something with a critical eye.  This is a good example.  There have been many reports about the Creation pseudo-museum and the Ark Park that call them not just bad science, but bad religion.

"The problem, according to Harvard biblical professor Michael D. Coogan, is that the museum “rests on an assumption that the bible is literally true in everything that it says.” Coogan emphasized that in the case of Noah’s Ark “that is simply not the case,” adding that the early chapters of Genesis are known to contain mythological references, and that its writers “drew on previous sources directly in constructing their own account.”" (The Jewish Times: Noah’s Ark 2 – The Kentucky Years)

“I held strongly to the view that it was an opportunity to expose the well-intending Ken Ham and the support he receives from his followers as being bad for Kentucky, bad for science education, bad for the U.S., and thereby bad for humankind,” [Bill] Nye wrote about the experience.

The closing line from her opening paragraph certainly set the stage:

"The project stands as a powerful visual reminder of God’s twin attributes, justice and mercy."

So, supposedly killing millions of people in a world-wide flood . . . is an example of justice and which part is mercy?  I imagine the majority of the people supposedly killed shared one common crime -- a belief in one specific deity other than the Abrahambric God.  Funny how other civilizations at the time didn't mention this world-wide flood event, did they?

I love this line:

"But as Noah’s wife says in one fictional video, “Scoffers will scoff.”"

Yes, dismiss any critics by quoting Noah's wife and never address the meat of any criticisms like the lack of any evidence for the ark or a single world-wide flood, or the ability for one family to repopulate the Earth, let alone the time that would have taken --  just to name a few.  Forget the criticisms of how the ark park was financed or the discriminatory hiring practices little kennie put in place in violation of the law.  No, why get caught up on details when with the wave of one hand you can dismiss any critic as a 'scoffer'.

Her closing line:

"One thing is for sure: Anyone who enters the ark will leave with something significant to think about."

Well I have to disagree with the word 'significant'.  The author of this particular fluff piece already swallowed the kool-aid.  I doubt any of her thoughts following her visit were 'significant'.  Visiting little kennie ham's other monument to his own ego, the Creation pseudo-museum, didn't leave me with any significant thoughts.  I left more feeling a little sick to my stomach at realizing what a mockery of both religion and science it is.  I seriously doubt the ark park would do anything more significant than that.  Narrow-minded Evangelical believers will use it to reinforce their beliefs, the rest of the world will fall between finding it slight humorous or slightly nauseating.

No, I have no plans to visit the ark park.  Little kennie got enough of my money visiting his pseudo-museum.  However, if the Secular Students of America (SSA) decide to visit, i might change my mind.  They were an interesting group during my one and only visit to little kennie-land.

Is This an Example of a Big Christmas Present? I Don't Think So!

I celebrate Christmas, which might surprise some of you.  I consider it a secular holiday more than a religious one -- regardless of its history.  And while I sometimes get annoyed at Christians who insist of 'putting the Christ back in Christmas' usually while they are complaining about the lines while they are buying their Christmas presents, I like to tell them of the Pagan origins of the holiday so that way we are all annoyed :-)  Plus it's fun!

But that aside, I am curious.  If you received a gift card to Ark Encounter, would you consider that a Big Christmas gift? Apparently little, small-minded kennie ham seems to think so: "Give Something BIG This Christmas".

First of all, I was always taught to try and tailor my gifts to the person you are giving them to . . . with one possible exception, and I'll explain that one later.  The reasoning for the tailoring is that you really do not want to give a gift that would be unwelcome or unappreciated, regardless of the words exchanged upon opening.  My joy in giving gifts is the reaction upon opening, which is why I never bought my children underwear as a Christmas gift.  I always try and aim for something they need and also something they like.  If the two can come in one package, so much the better!

So giving a gift such as little kennie is suggesting would only be appreciated if they share kennie's belief set, which few really do.  I know kennie doesn't recognize any belief set other than his own, but the rest of the world certainly does.  Kennie's narrow-mindedness shouldn't ruin a perfectly good holiday for everyone else!

So before giving a gift for one of kennie's ministries, shouldn't you understand if such a gift would be appreciated?  I know kennie doesn't really care, because he will have his money regardless of whether or not the recipient actually goes to one of his ego-monuments.  But shouldn't you care if such a gift would be well received?  After all, you are buying a gift for a friend/relative/co-worker.

I also realize that, like little kennie's ruinous foray into Halloween trick-or-treating, what he is really doing is not only making money, but getting you to pay for the privilege of doing his preaching for him.  He's trying to inject himself into one of the more fun parts of the holiday, and at the same time, ruin people's gift giving.

OK, I did mention that I had one possible exception when sizing up potential gifts, and that is when looking for something as a joke gift.  Like the time my daughter got me gold-lame boxer shorts!  Appropriate?  Hardly, but funny as hell and something commented on occasionally since that year's gift exchange.  Now I don't recommend a gift card to one of kennie's ministries as a joke since ticket prices are running in the $40 range, an expensive price for a joke.  But that would be the only reason I would even consider giving one to anyone.

Hey, if anyone has an empty kennie gift card, that might work . . . sorta like those phony lottery tickets that were the rage a few years back . . . only at least with those the recipient had a small period of excitement upon opening, instead of the 'WTF' look kennie's card would most likely receive.

I wonder if one of the local strip clubs in Kentucky sells gift cards??  Now that would be funny to send kennie, almost as good as that thank-you letter he got from Planned Parenthood!

How does a Creationist Explain Extinction?

I've asked this question before and rarely got an answer that makes any sense, especially when you run into a creationist who wants to explain how baby dinosaurs were on the Ark all along.  Today's Non-Sequitur had this:

The source doesn't allow me to copy it for myself, so I hope the link stays live.  If you can't see it, you might try searching for Non Sequitur for Nov 17, 2017.  It's worth a little effort.

Of course come creationists, like little kennie ham, won't like it, but then do they like anything that doesn't support their particular brand of religious story-telling?  After all, kennie is the one selling the idea that dinosaurs and men lived together in perfect harmony.  Remember this picture:

I took it on my only foray to little kennie's Creation pseudo-museum.  When I see velociraptors with children I don't think harmony, I think 'lunch!'  But since kennie fails to recognize the enormous time difference between dinosaurs and human beings, I'm not surprised that he thinks everyone lived happily for a while.  I mean on a geological scale, kennie's 6000 year old Earth means the time difference between dinosaurs existing and humans was pretty short, so some overlap is almost expected. 

Every time I think about kennie's idea of dinosaurs on the ark, all I can think of is the scene from Jurassic Park II, you know the one, T-Rex on a ship:

Yup, "LUNCH!"

Talk about Quick Change . . . it's a Ministry . . . No, It's a For-Profit Tourist Attraction . . . no, it's a Ministry . . .

Let's review a bit of history, the Ark Park, officially 'Ark Encounters, LLC', is a for-profit corporation.  This allowed them to push for public tax breaks and funding requests, which they received mostly because of Republican politicians.

So, when it comes to hiring practices, this for-profit business is being allowed to discriminate and hire based on religious beliefs.  If it wasn't for those pandering politicians, this would have ended their public tax breaks and funding.  If you don't think that was one of the reasons for the for-profit LLC, this is from the Ark Encounters own Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page . . . or it used to be.  For some reason lots of it is missing from the current FAQ.  But there is this website, the Wayback Machine.  It archives many webpages and it just so happens to have saved the originals from the Ark sites.  Here is a quote:

"The for-profit LLC structure also allows the Ark Encounter to be eligible for various economic development incentives that would not have been available with a non-profit structure."

Interesting, one of the reasons for going this route was specifically for those tax breaks and other incentives.

However the local community, specifically Grant County, Ky, is in the middle of a serious financial crisis and the hopes that all the visitors to the ark park would bail them out has not materialized.  So the county took steps and imposed a $0.50 tax on entertainment tickets -- called a 'safety tax' -- on on attractions like the ark park.  The purpose of this tax is for emergency services -- you know the kind services that might be needed if lightening does to kennie's ark what it did to Big-Butter Jesus in 2010.

Little kennie ham whined about that already -- we mentioned it in "Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise".  Well now we know their more formal response.  Apparently little kennie and company are requesting an exemption from the entertainment tax on the grounds that they are a ministry.  The Grant County News reported it: "Ark Encounter requests safety fee exemption".

"Skinner and the other councilmembers voiced their disagreement with the exemption request; with councilman Kim Crupper noting that the Ark Encounter operates on a for-profit status. City Attorney Jeff Shipp added that the organization’s corporate filings in Missouri indicate that they are a for-profit corporation. "

To back that up, here are another two quotes from the 'Wayback Machine'.  As usual, I underlined the most interesting bits:

"Why is the project so big, and why is a for-profit LLC going to own the Ark Encounter? 

Because feasibility studies revealed that the Ark would attract 1.6 million guests in the first year, the project needed to be much more than just the Ark alone to handle the anticipated crowds. Accordingly, eight additional biblically themed attractions were included in the Ark Encounter complex to accommodate all of the expected guests.Due to the size of the Ark Encounter project, a for-profit LLC structure was selected to be able to help raise the approximately $150 million necessary to build it ($125 million of that total will come through investments). We also desired to avoid financing the project through debt. In addition, this large amount of funding would not have been probable solely through donations. The for-profit LLC structure allows for the primary funding to come from private equity investment, while at the same time ensuring that the control of the content, design, and operations of the Ark Encounter will be led by Crosswater Canyon, a wholly owned subsidiary of Answers in Genesis. . . ."

"Is this a non-profit endeavor? 

In a sense, the Ark Encounter is both a for-profit and not-for-profit endeavor. The Ark Encounter is a for-profit operation but is managed by a non-profit subsidiary ministry of Answers in Genesis. The LLC and its members will be responsible for all of the normal taxes required for pass-through business entities."

The good news, at least for now, is the county is standing their ground and reminding kennie that the ark park is not officially a ministry, but a for-profit corporation and therefore plans to reject the requested exemption.  Hopefully they will stick to their guns.  While kennie's legal beagle agreed it is a for-profit company, he said that if the exemption is not approved that the ark park is "considering their options".  In some ways I hope they push it to the courts.

I know, I know the odds of Kentucky actually enforcing its own laws on kennie and his ark park are slim, but there is always a chance the people of Kentucky might get a break and realize that not only is the park a ministry, but the tax breaks and other funding help they received should never have happened, especially in the light of them being a for-profit business.  So if the ruling is it IS a ministry, pull the state and county support -- including going back and getting fair value for the things already given based on the for-profit status.  If it is ruled a for-profit business, demand kennie comply with state and federal hiring practices and insure  . . . as originally agreed . . . that the park pays its normal taxes, which would include this 'safety tax'.

This is kennie being kennie.  'I'm a ministry, protect me . . . no, wait, I'm a for-profit business, give me tax breaks . . .'  He wants tax breaks and funding of a for-profit business, but he wants the legal protections for a religious non-profit that allow him to discriminate in his hiring practices -- after promising not to do so and avoid paying taxes -- even taxes designed to fund services he may need.  He seems to switch coats as it pleases him, and he looks nothing like Marie Antoinette.

Ark Park Failing?

An article in the Religious News Service: "Ken Ham disputes reports the Ark Encounter is sinking" caught my eye and my first reaction is "Of course he's disputing it!"  It's easy to dispute something no one is really saying.

Most of the articles about the 'ark park' don't claim it's failing, but that it is failing on its promise of economic benefits to the local area, that's all.  There is a world of difference, but it's easier to refute things not being said than those that are.  With one exception every other report shows the ark park hasn't had the impact kennie promised.  In one report, the one kennie mentions, it says that one community has seen an increase.  It is attributable to the park?  I don't know and neither does kennie, but he's going to take the one claim and use it to his advantage.

Ham dismisses the multiple reports from actual shop owners, calling it anecdotal evidence, but the one positive report doesn't talk to any business owners, just the Mayor of Dry Ridge.  Yes, politicians never stretch the truth, do they?  I think a reporter or two should talk to some of the other business owners in Dry Ridge and see if the ark has had an impact.

Granted the ark park isn't doing as well as kennie wants it to do.  His early predictions of attendance, approximately 2,000,000 per year were cut to between 1.4 and 2.2 million for the first year back in 2016.  The reality is that its been open just over a year and hasn't hit the 1 million mark yet, the reports say it might hit it next month . . . might?.  Not a good sign!  Other more reasonable estimates say about 345,000 average per year, recognizing that the first few years will see the most visitors.  Only time will tell which sets of numbers are nearer to accurate.

Attractions generally do best in their first few years, and then attendance drops.  That's why they are continually adding new attractions to keep their core audience coming back year after year.  I have a friend who has been to Disney World every year since he was 18, he's 40 now.  Little kennie is no different, he plans to add other features, I've seen mention of a Tower of Babel and a re-creation of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I believe those exhibits were going to be part of the ark park originally but it had to be scaled down after the failure of much of his funding schemes.

He, little kennie, learned a bit from his first ego monument, the Creation pseudo-museum, and how it was getting pretty poor numbers after being open for several years, He did try and added a petting zoo, gardens, and a zip line -- but opening the ark park has bolstered those attendance numbers at his other ego monument and quite possibly saved kennie's bacon for now.  The question is will the normal statistical occurrence of dropping numbers occur with the ark park?  Has any attraction, particularly one based loosely on the Bible bucked that trend?  I am not aware of any.  Many that have existed are closed, like Jim and Tammy Fey Bakker's Heritage USA and Dr. Dino's Dinosaur Adventure Land.

Do I really care about the economic numbers?  To be honest, not much.  My main issue with the park, and kennie's nearby pseudo-museum, is the message of ignorance they proclaim.  When I was at the pseudo-museum I listened to a parent explaining how perfect the world was before Adam at the apple and how sin and disease are all because of Adam.  The poor kid was swallowing it up!  I'm sure the parent believed it as well, more's the pity.

The person I felt most sorry for was the child.  Once you get locked into such a narrow belief set, how many educational and career fields become closed because of your closed-mind.  With church attendance shrinking, there's only room for so many ministers, right?

Ark Park: Economic Boom or Bust?

There have been a great many articles about the economic impact that 'little kennie' ham's latest monument to his own ego, the Ark Park, has had on the local community.  The clear majority has been bad news for the citizens who thought it was going to be a tourist goldmine.

If you remember, one of the rationalizations that kennie used to sell the building of his ark park was how many visitors it would being into Grant County, Ky and the surrounding area.  By portraying it as a tourist trap and not a ministry, he sold it to the State and local governments who granted him all sorts of incentives and breaks.

But in all the press concerning such economic benefits, I have seen only one semi-positive article, the rest portrayed communities feeling more than a little victimized.  There was one that should to be viewed with a grain of salt . . . it was written by little kennie himself ("Economic benefits of Ark Park unfairly downplayed").  The clear majority of the reporting has shown that the ark park hasn't meet the expectations of the citizens who are paying for those incentives and breaks.  Here are a few examples:

"While a steady stream of visitors has flocked to visit the ark and the nearby Creation Museum, the impact on Williamstown’s economy has been far less than what many local residents expected." (Answers in Genesis? Ark, other attractions haven't boosted economy as expected, The Daily Independent, June 7, 2017)

"Stormey Vanover is less hopeful. . . . She has operated Country Heart Crafts on Williamstown’s Main Street for the past nine years, sometimes with a profit, sometimes at a loss. “We do get a few people from the Ark, but they don’t really know we’re here,” she said amid the Kentucky-made soaps, candles and ornaments featured in her store, which is surrounded by empty storefronts. “It’s just not impacting us the way we thought it would.” " (Town expected flood of business after Noah’s Ark opened. So far, it’s a trickle, Lexington Herald Leader, June 2, 2017)

But the project’s single largest source of funding was actually $62 million in junk bonds floated by the town of Willamstown, population less than 4,000, home to the Ark Encounter and the county seat of Grant County, which faced bankruptcy this spring.“In terms of revenue for the county, we don’t get too much from them,” says the county’s chief executive, Stephen Wood. The Ark Encounter negotiated a vastly discounted 30-year rate on property taxes in 2013 under a previous administration. “I hate it, but that’s the deal,” says Wood.(A giant ark is just the start. These creationists have a bigger plan for recruiting new believers., The Washington Post, May 24, 2017 )

So, with the conclusion that the economic windfall isn't happening, the next question is who is to blame.  While that might not sound like a fair question, it does need to be addressed because little kennie, for all his pronouncements about how well the ark park is doing, posted this today:

"Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure. Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking." (The Secularist Media War Against the Ark Continues, Answers in Genesis Ministry News, June 12, 2017)

Basically it's the atheists' fault.  Regardless of the lack of reporting from little kennie on actual attendance figures, or economic information impact, it's all the secular groups' fault.  Now I have a question, do you think believers in kennie's narrow version of the universe really pay much attention to the media, especially when the media isn't particularly flattering about one of their ministries?

I'm serious, I don't think anything the media says would affect their interest to visit kennie's ministries.  The media hasn't been particularly flattering to his Creation 'museum' and it seems to be making kennie lots of money, but not the communities in the surrounding area.  So, if anything, the media's representation of the ark park is probably keeping some people away, but would those people want to visit it anyway?

Serious question, while some might visit out of curiosity, but no media coverage, flattering or not, will get most people who disagree with kennie's point of view to visit one of his ministries.  So why aren't the local communities experiencing some sort of economic renaissance?  One thing might be kennie's overstated projections.  In his post Kennie said ". . . The economic recovery that the officials and residents have been seeking" but that's not an accurate picture.  It's not just that those communities were seeking, but that's the economic impact kennie said they would receive . . . providing they gave kennie all sorts of incentives and breaks so he could build his ministry there.  They did, yet the economic benefits are going where exactly?

Before the ark park was built, little kennie made a number of projections made, he even reduced his final set of attendance estimates to between 1.4  and 2.2 million visitors a year, recent reports say he's close to seeing his 1 millionth visitor -- which is interesting since it's been open over a year now.  More realistic estimates claimed while the first year will bring in many curious believers, as time goes on, it will decline to about 375,000 a year.  Far below his projections.

While it would be nice to blame kennie, the fault isn't entirely his.  Yes, his forecasts and projections have been mostly smoke, but the local people and their elected officials are also responsible.  What they should have told kennie when he announced plans to build his ministry was "Have fun!"  They should not have offered any incentives or tax breaks, after all it's a ministry.  But they were looking for a lifeline and that bought into kennie's overly optimistic numbers. Remember the adage "Let the buyer beware.", well they bought into it and now they get to pay for the privilege.  If I recall correctly. kennie forecasted 3000 new jobs, but in reality on about 900 have materialized.  A small county not getting 2100 anticipated jobs is another significant impact.

Things are so bad for Grant County that they may have to go bankrupt.  But they do have a plan, and it hits kennie where it hurts, in his wallet.  They are proposing a $0.50 tax on entertainment ticket sales.  We wrote about it in "Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise".  Little kennie claims such a tax would force him to raise his $40 ticket price.  Sure, 1.25% tax is going to 'force' his to raise his ticket prices.  It wouldn't have been necessary if kennie had made realistic projections and the county understood what it was getting.  But that is a little too much to ask.  

What I will say, at this point, is someone is making money off of the ark park, and it's not the local community.  Gee, I wonder who it could be?  In the meantime, little kennie's 'ark of ignorance' is open for business while the rest of the area might not be able to say that for long.

Now We Know How It Happened! A United Ark!

Now we know why Unicorns and Dinosaurs no longer exist:

They were obviously the ones who either volunteered or were thrown off the United Ark! (source)

BTW, if you don't read Bizarro.com, you are missing out.  Let's see, they are on my regular reading list, along with xkcd.com, Funky Winkerbean, Jesus and Mo, and Non-Sequiter.

Book Review: Righting America at the Creation Museum

First off, I haven't read this book (yet).  While I do read a lot, I can't read everything I would like to, there is only so much time in the day.  In this case I ran across this review and thought it was very interesting.  "Book review: ‘Righting America at the Creation Museum’ "  I wasn't going to read it, thinking it was yet another puff piece about little kennie ham's monument to his own ego.  Plus it was written by two University of Dayton professors.  While I do live in the Dayton area, UD is one of the premiere Catholic Universities in the country.  Those of you who have been reading my blog are familiar with my issues over various organized religions.  Secondly it was in the "Mennonite World Review", self-described as "An independent ministry of Christian journalism serving Mennonites and the global Anabaptist Movement"  You can see my skepticism, but I also recognized it as a knee-jerk reaction and I try not give way to knee-jerk reactions.  Which means I have read a great many things that end up quickly dismissed.

So I started reading the review, still expecting to see a puff piece, wow . . . I was surprised.  This book . . . well let me quote the review:

"Susan L. Trollinger and Wil­liam Vance Trollinger Jr. [the authors] describe the Creation Museum as an arsenal for the Christian Right’s culture wars. It’s an apt analogy, but perhaps a better comparison would be a propaganda campaign."

That sort of opening certainly got my attention.  No puff piece would have used the term 'propaganda campaign'!  The review got better:

"They describe exhibits that don’t adhere to stated principles, opportunistic applications of Scripture and dubiously employed uses of theology, history and science — all in a facility that douses visitors with a flood of information in a fast-paced environment that obscures the shortcomings."

I likened the 'museum' as a carnival ride.  An Opportunistic applications of Scripture . . . I would have worded that slightly different, and have in the past.  The Creation 'Museum' and its sister exhibit, the 'replica' of Noah's Ark. are  based on kennie ham's personal interpretation of the first 11 chapters of the Christian Bible, or as I like to say: "The Bible according to kennie ham".  For example:

"The museum’s biblical foundation is problematic. It asserts not only that all Scripture must be read literally but also that it’s commonsensical and doesn’t need interpretation — which is itself an interpretation. Righting America points out that the museum doesn’t address the striking differences between the two creation stories in Genesis and the two sets of instructions to Noah, who first was told to take two of each kind of animal but later seven pairs of each clean animal and one pair of each that was unclean."

See what I mean, little kennie cherry picks the hell [pun intended] of the Bible and then assumes he's the only arbitrator truthfulness.

There are more critiques, some even more damning than what I have posted here.  I encourage you to go read it all for yourself.  If I quote any more, I would simple have to quote the entire article, but that's against the rules to reproduce it in its entirety.  So go and enjoy this reminder that little kennie doesn't represent all of Christianity, as much as he seems to think he does.  He only represents a small minority, a very small minority.  In my opinion most Christians probably think he's nuts.

Ark Park Attendance Figures, really?

Little kennie ham's folks finally mentioned some numbers about ark park attendance, although they do seem to conflict with actual reports of empty parking lots and few people, so I am not sure what
numbers to believe.  Here's the article: "Riding wave of popularity, Ark Encounter exceeds attendance projections", the article claims that in the 9 weeks since it's opened, it's seen over 300,000 visitors.

I really wish I knew the source of these numbers or even something verifiable for a couple of reasons.  The main one is I don't trust little kennie ham.  This is a man who lied to get Michael Zimmerman (The Clergy Letter Project) into an ambush-style interview while later complaining when something similar happened to one of his pet creation 'scientists'. He posted a picture of the Press Day and labeled it the Public Opening Day, giving the impression of crowds that were not real.  This is also the man who promised to comply with State and Federal hiring practices and reneged on that promise.  These are some of the reasons I do not trust little kennie ham!

Ham is also the one who predicted over 2,000,000 visitors a year, who apparently has reduced his number to 1.4 million.  That's a 30% drop is anticipated attendance.  You know who gets stuck if enough gullible . . . I mean true believers . . . fail to pay the $40 per ticket price (plus $10 for parking), it's the taxpayers of Kentucky!

OK, let's look at these highly suspicious numbers, 300,000 over 9 weeks.  That averages to 33,333 per week or 4762 per day (yes, it's open on Sundays).  If he can maintain this, he'll actually exceed his reduced estimate, but well short of his original numbers.  So the real question is can he maintain these numbers?  I doubt it.

Think about it, for most of the last nine weeks it was summer and schools were out.  Now schools are in session, winter is coming, and every 'attraction' usually sees a significant drop in attendance.  I am sure, since his monument to scientific ignorance is a religious attraction, that it will see a bump come the holidays, but will it be enough to sustain his numbers?  Only time will tell.  But even kennie has to realize that many visitors since it opened were there out of curiosity, not religious fervor.  They aren't going to be repeat customers!  I mean how many folks writing blogs and articles are going to make the trip a second time? 

Am I just blowing smoke here?  Remember how the attendance at his other ministry, the Creation Pseudo-Museum, was dropping steadily for years.  Recently it's been the ark that's also caused an increase at that craptastic attraction, but the question is whether or not it's sustainable.

One thing I do wish for are some verifiable attendance figures.  I wonder if Kentucky has some sort of system for making sure kennie isn't padding things.  I know, why would kennie pad the numbers and make his ark park appear more successful than it might truly be?  LOL!

The Ark isn't Impressive to All!

Today over on the Motherboard website is a nice article on little kennie ham's latest folly, "A Visit to 'Ark Encounter', Where Creationism and Dinosaurs Collide", by Taylor Dorrell.  Little kennie won't like it for a couple of reasons.

First of all, the most obvious reason, is because Taylor didn't bend a knee and give kennie the homage he seems to expect.  To kennie, the world is a binary set of people, those who agree completely with him and everyone else.  The simple fact that 'everyone else' is a huge majority doesn't matter much to kennie, he's convinced in his own righteousness.  Even if you are a member of one of the many similar religious groups -- if you aren't a member of kennie's, you aren't.

Taylor obviously is not.  Instead of simply re-iterating all the things kennie has said about his latest ministry, Taylor wrote honestly about his visit.  I'm not convinced honesty is a word that comes up often where kennie is concerned.  Here's a great quote:

"After experiencing both the Creation Museum and the Ark, I’ve concluded that most of the people visiting are very nice, but I see [Neil DeGrasse] Tyson’s concern with teaching children stories as fact: Ken Ham’s arguments against the Earth being billions of years old rely on the inconsistency of radiometric dating; he doesn’t believe that the light from far away stars and galaxies take billions of years to reach the Earth. When making these arguments, he’s quoting the Bible, not science or any discovery or data in the modern world, as a viable source."

As you can see Taylor sees one of my own issues, the education of our children.  I saw it when I visited kennie's other ministry, the poorly named Creation 'museum' in 2009.  It wasn't so much the adults wandering around looking like they were about to genuflect every three steps, it was listening to the adults 'explain' the exhibits to their children that was positively frightening.

The other reason little kennie might not like this article can be summed up with one little quote:

"I went on the first Sunday it was opened, expecting a large crowd. However there were very few visitors."

Yes, a first hand account on the dearth of visitors.  I know I have been waiting for some idea of how popular, or not popular, kennie's new monument to scientific ignorance is -- but so far the ark folks have been pretty quiet about it.  Other than kennie getting busted claiming the press day picture, with lots of people, was the opening day to the public, so far all unofficial reports have mentioned a lack of visitors.  I am reasonable sure kennie will find lots of people to blame, like the FFRF who sent a letter to area public schools suggesting that visiting the ark is a bad idea, or even Taylor here for not simply re-hashing a kennie ham press release.  But it seems that attendance at the ark ministry isn't coming close to little kennie's extremely generous projections.  Which could leave the taxpayers of Kentucky with a hefty bill.

So I can safely assume kennie will comment on this article, if he can find it among all the other negative articles about the ark park.  I'm sure kennie will accuse the writer of something like being an atheist of some sort, without a clue to his actual religious beliefs.  Obviously kennie isn't responsible for the falling attendance of his 'museum' and the apparent poor attendance of his phony replica . . . well what would you call it?  How can you make a replica of a non-existent ship?  A model maybe, but calling it a replica means that there had to have been an original.  In any event, kennie will find others to blame and if if gets worse, he will get to dump the bill on Kentucky and probably remind us how God told him to do it.

OK, enough of this, I am sure there will be more articles in the future, but the activity does seem to be dying down.  I used to get 5 or 6 links to articles about the ark park every day,  It's slowed to a maybe 2 a week, apparently it's falling just like it's attendance.

Biblical Math

Gryphen had an interesting post over on The Immoral Minority Blog : "Flood of "biblical proportions" destroys home of president of anti-gay Christian group. Really the jokes just write themselves."  While it would be tempting to turn this post into some sort of swipe at this particular religious nut, after all saying for years that disasters occur to gay people as God's retribution for being gay, you just have to see some level of humor in this.  However, having your home destroyed is a devastating event, but what I find most interesting is the Christian Hate-Monger calling it a flood of 'biblical proportions'.

Maybe what we have here is an excellent example of 'Biblical Math'.  I have to wonder if Liberty University or kennie ham teach classes in it.  Let's break down this example,  Tony Perkins is caught in a flood and loses his home, he and his family make their escape in a canoe.  So, let's break this down:

• Flood
• Canoe

Now the Noah story is something more like this:

• World-wide catastrophic flood
• Ark

What makes this interesting is that Tony describes the flood of being 'biblical proportions'.  Now I am in Ohio, only about 900 miles from Louisiana and we haven't been impacted by any flooding from this storm.  So obviously 'biblical proportions' either no longer means what it did back in Noah's day, or maybe the flood kennie and Tony like to talk about was one of less than 'biblical' proportions.  

Since I cannot imagine Tony or kennie admitting to any error, the current flood must be of 'biblical proportions', which means that if the proportion of the world flooded currently is the same as the proportion of the world that flooded back then . . . something must have happened to expand the flood from a localized event to a world-wide catastrophe!  That's where Bible Math comes in.

You use this type of extrapolation in Junior High Math classes for determining percentage:  

Solving for 'x' lets you determine what percentage 4 is of 12.  Since it holds true for numeric percentages, why not use it to prove whole Noah story?

So that being said, if the local flooding is of biblical proportions, then the canoe also needs to be of biblical proportions, right?  Yeas, that's the ticket.  We now have proof of the validity of the Bible, all we needed was a judicious application of 'Bible Math'!

And there you have it!  Solve for 'X' and you have determined that an Ark is the only possible answer.  Biblical Math in action, Noah's Flood has 'mathematical' proof!  I'm just not sure if little kennie will see the humor, or simply become even more apoplectic than he typically is.

Yet Another Post That is Sure to Annoy Little kennie ham, Yes!

Yes, another Christian basically saying kennie's off his rocker . . . and not just any Christian, but a Pastor!  Here's the article: "Noah’s Ark facsimile raises questions that go beyond fact"
Pastor Steve Hammer, Esperanza Lutheran Church in Phoenix, AZ, had quite a bit to say.  Including these gems:

"One of the things you will see at the Ark Encounter is human beings coexisting with dinosaurs even though the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago and human beings as we know them have only been around for a couple of hundred thousand years." 

"This may seem obvious to some, but sacred story is story. It is not science, it is not journalism, it is not history." 

". . .as the old saying goes, a good story teller never lets the facts get in the way of the truth."

I had to underline a few things to highlight some of the things sure to raise little kennie's blood pressure.  I can't help but wonder how many other Christians do not treat the Bible as if it were a science textbook?  From everything I have read over the years, including time spent in parochial school -- I have to say that it's not just most of them, but the overwhelming majority of them do not treat the Bible as a science, history, or even philosophy text. . . and that has to get little kennie's goat every time anyone posts about it.

PS: I haven't even posted this yet, when I checking my Google News Alerts and found that little kennie has certainly read Pastor Steve's article and responded to it! "Ken Ham Tells Pastors: If Noah Is a Myth, Then Jesus Is a Liar".  Little kennie accuses the Pastor of being a Liberal, which doesn't mean that the Pastor is actually a political Liberal.  You should realize that there are very few people to the political right of kennie ham.  To kennie, anyone who disagrees with him is a Liberal.  Here is a quote:

 ". . . says the account of Noah is not history, but if that's true then Jesus, Peter, and the author of Hebrews lied. The pastor says Genesis is myth."

Which isn't exactly what the Pastor said, he never claimed creation was a myth, but he did say it was a story and not a historical fact.  Little kennie can't stand it!  Genesis has to be historical for kennie, which give you a hint just how weak kennie's faith really is.  Little kennie also said:

"Would the pastor rather have children be taught evolution as fact and creation as myth?"

The majority of Christians are taught the Bible is a collection of allegorical stories designed to teach various moral lessons.  The stories are not presented as factual histories and it was never an issue about the lessons it attempts to teach. Let me repeat that -- it was never an issue when it comes to the lessons it tries to teach!  Even if Mose's didn't actually come down the mountain carrying two stone tablets, that doesn't invalidate the lesson of "Thou shalt not kill" does it?  But, apparently, to kennie it does matter.  Instead of learning the lessons the Bible tries to impart, kennie gets hung up on spending more time trying to market it as historical.  Where is any sort of compassion, where are any of the positive messages from the Bible? 

Little kennie is a living example of this quote often attributed to Gandhi:

"'I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"

Does kennie offer any support as to the factual nature of Genesis?  No, he never has, and I doubt he ever will.  But in reality he seems to be missing the point.  Does the historical accuracy of the Bible really mean all that much?  It doesn't seem to  . . . not to anyone but the most narrow of the Evangelical Christian sects, like kennie and his Hamians.  The rest of Christianity seems to focus on other things.

GQ Visited the Ark Park . . . “To our mind . . . it’s hard to think of a message Jesus would like less.”

Of all the magazines, about the last one I would expect to pay a visit to little kennie ham's ark ministry is GQ, you know the magazine formerly known as "Gentleman's Quarterly".  Occasionally I have read articles on food, grooming, sex, music, and travel, usually while sitting in my local barber shop waiting to get my ears lowered (military humor).  I guess kennie's ministry could be considered under 'travel', but it still is a surprise to see GQ weigh in . . . and I loved it!

"Inside Ark Encounter, the Life-Size Noah's Ark Theme Park That Will Save (Some of) Us All" is the article and as soon as I read the title I knew it wasn't going to be another piece trying to canonize kennie.  Here's a few things that caught my eye, including one insight I haven't seen widely publicized.

"Noah’s ark is the first left after the gas station, down the street from the Mexican restaurant . . .But given that it constitutes a $100 million boat-shaped Bible theme park and the self-proclaimed “largest timber-frame structure in the world [It's not],” I’d expected a more dramatic approach."

Before getting into the rest, I do have to specify the ark is not the largest timber-frame structure in the world.  That honor belongs to Atlas-I, aka Trestle, a structure completely built of wood and glue laminate to test electromagnetic pulse impacts on aircraft.  Not a single nail, screw, or metal joint.  I bet kennie can't say that!  Here's a picture with a B-1 sitting on it:

Little kennie's ark is big, but it's not this big.  Trestle is built of 6.1 million board feet of timber, slightly under twice as much board feet as the ark.  Oh well, kennie, nice try.

OK, back to GQ, I added the underlines to stress the overall point I got from GQ:

"Mission-wise, it’s there to deliver the other part of the Noah story, the one in which God grows so furious with his sinful creation that he kinda sorta murders everyone on the planet with an apocalyptic flood."

GQ pointed out something I haven't read in any other reports, how positively depressing the ark is.

"One video about drowning people employs a Wilhelm scream. . . . How many mothers and children perished in God’s planet-wide car wash, you might be wondering? Ark Encounter says it could be up to 20 billion—which is roughly triple the population of Earth today."

" In case that’s too thoughtfully subtle, a sign reading “And everyone died except the 8 people on the Ark” hangs over a Country Bear Jamboree-type fence."

At the end, here is where the article from GQ drove home the point My addition is in the [], done to avoid quoting the whole paragraph:

"All this suffering makes for a pretty downbeat tourist experience. . . . At one point in reporting this story, I call University of Dayton history professor William Trollinger, who (along with his English-professor wife, Susan) . . . [their visit to the ark park and they]  . . .left he and his wife feeling the opposite of uplifted."

The last line in the article says it all, and one I will probably be quoting whenever I write about kennie's wooden ministry:

“To our mind,” Trollinger said, “it’s hard to think of a message Jesus would like less.”

So . . . I have to ask kennie, how is this an educational, historical, or recreational attraction?  Remember, that's how kennie is trying to get around the Constitution and preach to more public school kids on school trips.  What I got from the Creation pseudo-museum a few years back, was it's defensiveness.  GQ caught that as well, how kennie tries to rationalize his version of Genesis to the point of being a very negative and depressing message.