The park’s centerpiece features three decks of exhibits explaining Answers in Genesis’ views of the biblical flood account..[It] also features a two-story restaurant, aerial zipline cables and the Ararat Ridge Zoo...
“...in a world that we see becoming very secularized before our eyes, it’s really time for Christians to do something of this size, of this quality, that competes with the Disneys and the Universals to get a message to the world.”
— The Charlotte Observer
This might be worth a pitstop for anyone planning a U.S. summer road trip. Envisioned by the Creationist apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, a replica of Noah's Ark — measuring 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high — opened last week as the centerpiece of the Ark Encounter theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky. As it goes, the theme park [which apparently has a total construction cost of more than $150 million] is “more than just entertainment” and aims to promote the ministry's views on evolution. As it goes, criticism ensues.
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103 Comments
Maybe too much coffee this morning:)
I'm not AT ALL saying that religion can't or doesn't play a supportive role in creating cultural connection and community.
Donna, thanks for confirming what I suspected was your viewpoint. I wanted to make sure though before dropping the subject.
Faith is a difficult concept to grasp particularly by those that have always believed the world is wholly shaped by reason.
won, that is an interesting statement. I've always had the view of faith that it is a belief in things that are true, but cannot be explained by our current reasoning or understood by our current (limited) knowledge. To that end, my concept of faith is not challenged by a world shaped by reason ... but I acknowledge my inability to comprehend that world the way that an omniscient being would.
Note that believing in things that are false is not faith. So at this point, being able to distinguish between things that are true and false is the issue. I think that is really what drives most religious divergence in this world (Where can I find the truth? How does one recognize the truth? Who is able to tell me what the truth is and who gave them the authority to do so?). It would appear that the group, Answers in Genesis, holds a belief that the literal words written in the Bible are true. This is their attempt to show that belief through actions and pseudo-scientific explanations.
Faith, under the concept I'm attempting to explain above, would not be proven wrong by science or reasoning. Instead, science would confirm the true beliefs (faith) of the faithful and challenge their false beliefs. So then it is a question of where do the false beliefs come from. Are they coming from God, or man? Does the ability of the scientific community to display the absurdity of the claims of Answers in Genesis mean that God does not exist and the Bible is just a book full of fictional stories?
Perhaps. Perhaps it also means that the account written in the Bible is flawed because the original words written by Noah have been rewritten, reinterpreted, changed, misunderstood, taken out of context, incorrectly translated into various languages by many people (most of which were most likely not divinely appointed) throughout history. Perhaps, Noah's understanding of the situation was incorrect and so any account made would be ultimately flawed. Or perhaps it was never intended to be taken literally as a historical account and was instead a metaphor. Until God can clear up some of these variables and potential confusion, we may never know.
Is my way of rationalizing the account in the Bible any better than theirs is? Well, at least mine doesn't make me to reject science to maintain my faith in God. I also don't think my viewpoint would be detrimental to society as it still maintains a healthy dose of skepticism and scientific inquiry, and encourages an enlightened citizenry ... those that also want to believe in God, or reject that concept as fanciful, are welcome to do so. Above all, we can do it in a civilized manner.
enlightenment is not faith. if you enter a dark room and add light, you are enlightening that room. if you have a dark mind and add light, you are enlightening your mind.
if god is truth, then your path towards god is the path towards enlightenment. in the context of buddhism, it's my understanding that someone once found enlightenment, meaning they found truth, and then they thought it would be nice to teach others how they got there. they call that dharma.
the christian churches i have been involved in don't seem to encourage an individual path of discovery or enlightenment. it's more like collective repetition of liturgy.
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