The developers of Ark Encounter, who have incorporated as a profit-making company, say they expect to spend $150 million, employ 900 people and attract 1.6 million visitors from around the world in the first year. With the Creation Museum only 45 miles away, they envision a Christian tourism corridor that would draw busloads from churches and Christian schools for two- and three-day visits.
“It’s our opportunity to present accurate, factual biblical information to people about a subject that they’re really interested in,” said Mike Zovath, a senior vice president of Answers in Genesis.
In the interest of verisimilitude, the ark is to be built with wooden pegs and timber framing by Amish builders, Mr. Zovath said. Animals including giraffes — but only small, young giraffes — will be kept in pens on board.
“We think that God would probably have sent healthy juvenile-sized animals that weren’t fully grown yet, so there would be plenty of room,” said Mr. Zovath, a retired Army lieutenant colonel heading the ark project. “We want to show how Noah would have taken care of them, taken care of waste management, taken care of water needs and food needs.”
Ark Encounter is designed to be a model of environmentally sensitive development, Mr. Zovath said, to minimize its carbon footprint. “I don’t believe in global warming,” he said, “but I do believe we’ve got to be good stewards of everything God’s given us.”
I do hope the drainage requirements have been taken into account. If the park ever flash floods, I may die from irony overload.
To recap, these guys are getting $37.5 million of their $150 million investment back in state tax breaks for a building an actual, factual bible theme park. To everyone who says this is great and wonderful and it will bring jobs to the NKY, would you approve if it was a Muslim theme park?
Why is it okay to approve state taxpayer money for a Christian theme park then? Or as Joe Sonka puts it, we need a new state advertising logo:
Yabba Dabba D'oh.
Posts
1 comment:
That'll work out for taxpayers the way all those sports stadium subsidies did.
Plus I know all my Bible stories. A theme park explaining Buddhist or Hindu origin stories might teach me something. (With its Jewish and Christian roots, however, Muslim background stories are apt to be the same as displayed in Kentucky, with Noah and the ark, David and Goliath, etc. Hey, maybe the KY state tourist bureau should pitch Muslim groups!)
Post a Comment