Thursday, June 15, 2017

Ken Ham claims news reports that his "Ark Encounter" has not stimulated the local economy are based on "urban legends." Just let that sink in for a minute.

Courtesy of Answers in Genesis:  

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.

In one sense, such negative, misleading, and outright false reporting doesn’t worry me. As Christians, we know we will receive opposition like this—and after 40 years in Bible-upholding ministry, I have become used to such antics by those who oppose us. Nowadays, it seems very few reporters in the secular media actually want to report facts regarding what they cover as news. When it comes to reporting on theologically conservative Christians like those of us at AiG, whose ideology they strongly oppose, many writers have an agenda to undermine Christianity as they file their stories. 

I’ve found that not only do these kinds of reporters generally do very poor or lazy research, they will actually make things up for their agenda purposes. They often just quote others, who themselves have quoted yet others, who have quoted even yet others. Urban legends have now been created around our life-size Noah’s Ark, mixing misleading and untrue statements gathered from a variety of sources, often not using primary sources but hearsay.

"They often just quote others, who themselves have quoted yet others, who have quoted even yet others." Isn't that essentially how the Bible came to be?

That's right moron the reason that your exhibition, based on iron age children's stories, has not made money hand over fist is because the secular media is relying on "urban legends."

Apparently the article that got under Ham's thin skin was this one from the Richmond Register: 

It has been almost a year since Ark Encounter opened near the northern Kentucky city of Williamstown, and Ark co-founder Mike Zovath said the attraction will have its millionth visitor by July. 

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.

The article then provides quotes from local businesses complaining about the lack of a windfall promised to them by the Ham and his partners.

And keep this in mind as well:  

Answers in Genesis received a generous combination of state and local incentives, acknowledging in numerous documents that without them, the $100 million attraction would not be built in Grant County.

The idea was that the exhibit would attract tourists from all over the world and that some of those dollars would find their way into the pockets of local merchants ensuring a return on the city and state's investments.

However since most of the visitors are super religious people who only have eyes, and money, for the Ark they learned about in Sunday school class, that has simply not been the case.

So the state gets ripped off for millions of dollars in incentives, the people get nothing in return, and the Christians in charge of the scam make out like bandits.

Yep, sounds like religion to me.

24 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:28 AM

    Isn't this scam artist from Australia? The Aussie's refused to pay for his grift, so he (naturally) came to the US southern bible belt region. I wonder how much of that $$$ went into his personal accounts? He went into the wrong profession, politics is where the REAL money is.

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  2. Anonymous4:31 AM

    Why does there always have to be an excuse, Ham? People flat out aren't interested, plus why pay a $40 admission ($28 for children) to see someone's imaginary depiction? Ridiculous.

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    1. Anonymous5:19 AM

      I'd rather visit the 9/11 memorial museum. Cheaper prices and REAL artifacts.

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    2. Or the Vietnam Memorial -- it will break your heart. Just stand there for half an hour and watch. War -- what is it good for?

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    3. Being there, esp at night, has always been the most moving experience of my life. So many tears.

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    4. Paul in Minnesota9:22 AM

      Thanks for mentioning the Vietnam Memorial. I'll do it the next time I'm in DC, though it might not be until Trump or Pence or GOP aren't in control.

      I'd also like to see the WWII Memorial since my Father carried shrapnel in his body from the Battle of the Bulge. That's what irks me about so many in the GOP.

      They're military pretends; they never went to war when they could have done so or did military service in peacetime, yet they'll offer other people's children or grandchildren for the slaughter, easily.

      The GOP is afraid of the draft as it'll involve their children and also make the USA more cautious about entering wars again, especially unnecessary wars.

      Anyway, I'll go to DC so I can visit the Memorials. Ah, heck, I'll even go while Trump or someone else in the GOP is POTUS. They probably won't go to the Memorials, so I'll go. Thanks again for the inspiration.

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    5. Leland10:34 AM

      Barbara, I haven't visited the Vietnam Memorial and probably never will. I know for a fact I would totally lose it once there. My brother's name is there and while it has been MANY years I still am not capable of handling the grief.

      So MANY young lives lost - and for NOTHING!

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  3. Anonymous5:05 AM

    It is no wonder why the numbers are beginning to shrink in organized religion. The brainwashing is amazing. There is nothing wrong with worshiping something, book study, faith, hope, believing in miracles all good for the soul. But cults? brainwashing? con jobs? money laundering, no.

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  4. Anonymous5:16 AM

    I might be tempted to go just to laugh and exhibits and point & snicker at the other people eating all this bullshit up.

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  5. Leland5:30 AM

    One of the things that stopped me cold about the Noah story is the design of the thing. And, naturally, the idiot Hamm and his cohorts made it even worse by installing that flap on the stern, which was - supposedly - to help guide it into the wind. And that implies a rudder for steering. But even if a rudder wasn't there, the flap would be an added surface area on THAT end, which makes the bulbous protrusion totally useless since the flap end would be blown by the wind more than the other end. The thing was NOT an arrow requiring longitudinal stability!

    Now, I don't know about anyone else, but even when quite young (around 5, I think) I knew that if someone wanted to build something that could hold huge numbers of "travelers" and not have any motive power, stability would be a major factor in the design. And that would be better provided by something resembling a square BARGE! It would have been FAR easier to build, too! No curves. No long keel. Just a square box with vertical support columns inside to support the different decks needed.

    A BOAT? Oh, HELL NO! Anything resembling a boat's shape would be totally unsteady without some sort of motive power - which - again, supposedly - wasn't built. It would roll heavily and possibly capsize if the "travelers" were shifted toward one side in a decent wave. (Any merchant sailor can tell you about the threat of shifting cargo.)

    I'll be the first to admit I am not a marine engineer, but I said these were my thoughts as a young boy. And I may be way off when it comes to some of my descriptions here. My main point, though, is simple. The damned thing would have been deadly if it was built as Hamm claims it was.

    There have been numerous articles written about the idiocy of the design, many of them by engineers. Most of the ones I have read agree with my analysis at 5 years old: The entire thing is STUPID!

    And let's not even get into the TIME it would take for one small family to build something that size!

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    1. Anonymous7:50 AM

      Thank you!
      I'm lmao thinking of the large animals (pairs, possibly copulating) roaming and shifting weight and Noah trying to herd them into a boat balancing position.
      People are so fucking stupid.

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    2. Paul in Minnesota9:31 AM

      I wish I had been as smart as you at five. Though I did ask the Catholic nuns where the dinosaurs fit into the Adam and Eve story, evolution, et al. The nuns were not amused. Lol. I was six. 1962.

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    3. Leland10:36 AM

      Nice to know I wasn't the only one who had misgivings about it early on, even if only from a sailor's point of view!

      Delete
  6. "They often just quote others, who themselves have quoted yet others, who have quoted even yet others." Isn't that essentially how the Bible came to be?

    Oh burn!! LOL

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    1. Leland10:37 AM

      Yes, Barbara, it IS a burn. But only to those who have the brain capacity to recognize it as such.

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  7. Anonymous6:00 AM

    We drive by that monstrosity yearly on our way to visiting family in KY. For years it was just the timber shell. Finally it is complete. You can see it from the highway. There is not a lot in Grant County and the roads are tricky in bad weather.
    I just finished rereading a book about the bible and it is LITERALLY stories handed down and rewritten for whatever purpose was needed.
    What goes around comes around KY.

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    1. Anonymous6:32 AM

      So the roads are trick in bad weather? Well Mayne they should get funding from the state to improve the roads. What's that u say? There is no money a ailable because they gave it to a me charlatan for a fantasy park?

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  8. "I’ve found that not only do these kinds of reporters generally do very poor or lazy research, they will actually make things up for their agenda purposes. They often just quote others, who themselves have quoted yet others, who have quoted even yet others."

    Isn't that exactly what the Bible does?

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  9. Anonymous6:22 AM

    Pay NO TAXes, will get to file BANK -Rapture in the end>Then they will raise/burn it...All> praise Dog Ma.

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  10. Anonymous7:25 AM

    WATB

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  11. Not the Ken Ham Experience, but Matt Cale of Ruthless Reviews and his wife visited - and slays - a similar spot in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The Passion Play and 'the tallest statue of Christ in North America.' For your reading pleasure:

    http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/916/my-own-personal-jesus-the-eureka-springs-experience/

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  12. Paul in Minnesota9:28 AM

    Perhaps the local merchants should be grateful the religious people who attend this religious fantasy circus don't visit their businesses. The religious people might pay more often in faith scripts or religious tracts which are useless yet are what some wait staff get instead of an actual monetary tip in restaurants.

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  13. Anonymous12:19 PM

    You all mght find a book titled The Righting of America" interesting reading.

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