World famous
young earth creationist,
Ken Ham -- of
Answers In Genesis fame -- has stepped up and asked for donations of $24.5 million dollars to make an amusement park out of Noah's Ark. Said distraction is, thus far, banally labelled, "
Ark Encounter".
Yes, that's right, Mr. Ham is set to dazzle the world by recreating a big boat. And he wants everyone else to pay for it. Isn't that nice of him?
Well, in the spirit of charity, I decided to pop over to his blog and feed him a reflection. However, because my response there was not immediately supportive but more probative, I have been placed in 'moderation' while others after me (because they're enthusiasts) have been permitted their breezy remarks. Here is what I wrote:
If people are willing to donate multiple thousands of dollars to contribute a peg, plank, or beam would they also be willing to contribute the same kind of money to something more practical, like hosting a dinner for homeless people? Or, perhaps, renting an apartment for a struggling university student?
Why not do something more useful for God’s people? If the biblical stories are true, then we’ve already had an ark. Why do we need another one; especially one that’s just meant to impress viewers and serves essentially as vainglory?
And has anyone realised the contribution to deforestation this project entails?
I think my comments and questions are fair. Why
do we need what would essentially amount to a theme park attraction imaginatively abstracted from the pages of a 5000 year-old book? And while the U.S. economy rides the waves of recession and depression, is it really essential to anchor otherwise useful funds into a boat-shaped playground?
And why build the bloody thing inland? What kind of a stupid waste is it to have a giant, brand new boat sitting inland? At least make the damn thing funtional! Ooo! I know: load on board the young earth creationists two-by-two and let them float away somewhere where we don't have to listen to their illiterate twaddle about the earth being 6000 years old.
And on that point (about the earth being 6000 years old), I think
Sam Harris summed it up best when he wrote in
Letter To A Christian Nation, "This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue" (Vintage, paperback ed., p. x - xi). But, if you're going to beat a dead horse, you may as well have glue as an end-goal. Then maybe the young-earthers will have a little something-something to seal their planks and beams against the unfloods and inland breakers.
And why build the bloody thing inland? What kind of a stupid waste is it to have a giant, brand new boat sitting inland? At least make the damn thing funtional! Ooo! I know: load on board the young earth creationists two-by-two and let them float away somewhere where we don't have to listen to their illiterate twaddle about the earth being 6000 years old.
And on that point (about the earth being 6000 years old), I think Sam Harris summed it up best when he wrote in Letter To A Christian Nation, "This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue" (Vintage, paperback ed., p. x - xi). But, if you're going to beat a dead horse, you may as well have glue as an end-goal. Then maybe the young-earthers will have a little something-something to seal their planks and beams against the unfloods and inland breakers.