Owners of Noah’s Ark Sue Over Rain Damage

The owners of Noah’s Ark have sued their insurance company over rain damage. It didn’t happen on Mount Ararat, but in Kentucky, off Interstate 75, on State Route 36 in Williamstown.

Ark Encounter, a Bible-themed tourist attraction, was partially funded by state economic development dollars because, First Amendment be damned, Biblical Literalism is the state religion of Kentucky. It took 2 years of heavy rain, not forty days and forty nights, to damage a publicly-funded access road, and the park’s insurance provider says that’s not covered. As election time nears, we predict political, not divine, intervention.

Note to nonbelievers: Kentucky’s major tourism attractions are horses, bourbon, music, arts, the outdoors and food, not big Biblical boats with dinosaurs.

More:

“Ark Encounter: State-Subsidized Religious Tourism in Kentucky,” NotionsCapital.com

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Image (“Ark Encounter, after Edward Hicks”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Ark Encounter: State-Subsidized Religious Tourism in Kentucky

Noah’s Ark may have landed on Mount Ararat, but you can see it in Kentucky off Interstate 75, on State Route 36 in Williamstown. Answers In Genesis, the outfit behind the Creation(ism) Museum, has built a 510-foot-long biblical boat as a tourist attraction, Ark Encounter ($40 admission, $10 parking).  The wooden hull is stocked with pairs of animals said to be on the Ark, including dinosaurs (from the Book of Flintstones?). There’s also a zoo, but don’t expect any dinosaurs there.

Ark Encounter opened on July 7th and was built at a cost $102 million. Of that, $62 million was raised from Industrial Development Bonds issued by the City of Williamstown. The Kentucky state government granted Ark Encounter $18 million in tax incentives and is building a new $10 million highway interchange for the new Christian theme park.

The rationale for granting this public largesse for religious evangelism is that the big boat will stimulate the tourist economy and create jobs. Want to apply for those jobs? You’ll have to sign a statement of faith in Genesis and Jesus Christ, disavowing homosexuality, same-sex marriage and premarital sex. Somehow, Federal Judge Greg Van Tatenhove (alumnus of Christian Asbury University) has ruled that this is all constitutional and isn’t state sponsorship of religion. It seems Ark Encounter is a secular outfit when it gets public funding and tax breaks, but a religious organization when it hires employees. Glory be, it’s a miracle!

Stop Putting ‘Science’ in ‘Science Education’!

U.S. students lag behind those of many other countries in science and engineering proficiency, so naturally the American education system is compensating by denying established modern science. Professional educators have developed and agreed on standards of science education, but the fundamentalist Tea Party parents running school boards denounce them as anti-Christian Big Gummint brainwashing of innocent American kids.

“Creationists Once Again Threaten to Make a Mockery of Texas Science Education,” Phil Plait, Slate

“Official Texas Review: “Creation Science” Should Be Incorporated Into Every Biology Textbook,” Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones

“Creationists Portray New Science Standards As ‘Big Government,'” Michael Schulson, Religion Dispatches

 Think “Creationism” makes God happy? Consider this:

“Creationism museum employee struck by lightning on the job,” By Caroline Lee, UPI.com Blog

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Image: Anti-Evolution League, at the Scopes Trial, Dayton Tennessee, from Literary Digest, July 25, 1925

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Creationists Find Cave Painting of Dinosaur

Creationists now claim a cave painting at Utah’s Kachina Bridge formation in south-eastern Utah proves that dinosaurs and humans co-existed. They are probably relying on the famed Biblical commentary “Alley Oop of Moo” rather than the conventional paleontological record.

More:

“Creationists Find Cave Painting of Dinosaur,” Maureen O’Connor, Gawker

 “Debunking the ‘Dinosaurs’ of Kachina Bridge,” Brian Switek, Dinosaur Tracking, Smithsonian blog

 “‘Proof of Creation’ Dino Drawing Just a Mud Stain,” Eric Niiler, Discovery News

 

Image (“New Discoveries at Lascaux”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Fear of Darwin

The film that opened the 2009 Toronto Film Festival is too controversial to show in the USA. No distributor will touch it. Why? It’s about Charles Darwin.

Based on Anna’s Box, a book by Darwin great-great-grandson Randal Keynes, the film Creation deals with Darwin’s crisis of faith after the death of his young daughter.