Is Rebuilding Noah's Ark A Waste Of Money?

Whenever the young earth creationists of Answers in Genesis are mentioned these days, especially the organization's front-man, Ken Ham, it is quite easy to find a mud slinging event somewhere nearby. In fact, many so-called Christians have treated Ken Ham in quite un-Christian ways. While I definitely do not agree with everything Ken Ham says and while I purposefully distance myself from many of the interpretive moves that AIG espouses, I also purposefully distance myself from those who go out of their way to beat him down. As a resident of Kentucky and as someone who visited the AIG campus both prior to its opening and even afterwards, I can say that many of the rumors about the creation museum and its founder are slanted, biased and/or often unfounded.

So, it really is no surprise to me that with the announcement of Ham's latest project, the arrogance and pseudo-piety of many so-called Christians has once again surfaced. This new project titled "The Ark Encounter" is supposed to be a theme park / petting zoo based on the story of Noah's Ark. The Ark itself will be life-size (meeting the biblical dimensions) and many of the animals will, of course, be real (in addition to models). Interestingly, this Ark, as of now, is probably going to be built in my small hometown, Grant County, Kentucky. In some ways, I feel like this gives me a way to address the matter from a different angle.

As someone who grew up in this quite rural area--I can remember when the entire city had one stoplight!!!--I am very familiar with its people, culture and struggles. I know of this place's problems and am more than familiar with its lack of opportunity. I know the people of the trailer-parks and low-income houses. I know the people who have sold and done drugs and I know the people who have been spoiled by wealthy families. I know of the rigid conservatism that many practice and the hatred towards Christianity that many hold. When I was in high school, I had two friends who were locked up for burning down several churches! I know this place.

Because I know this place and because I know these people, I think I can speak more pointedly and accurately about the issue than many others. One of the major critiques that I want to address therefore, is the challenge from folks that this is a waste of money. Indeed, many have suggested that this money could go to help the poor or to fight poverty or to some other similar social justice activity or event. Such remarks are often only proof that within that person there is an inward Judas at work, not a Holy Spirit with real, sincere concern! But the truth is, this new theme park will, before it is ever completed, when it is completed and long after it is completed, fight poverty.

Indeed, it will pay thousands of construction workers who will build it, neighboring restaurants and hotels, etc. In turn, this will provide jobs for many locals. It will also stimulate the economy not only in KY but in Grant County also. Once it is completed, it will bring in millions of visitors every year. This will help keep jobs secured. In the long-run, many people will have stable incomes, lives, homes, etc. This job is, in many ways, a social justice project. No, it is not a temporary handout. No, it is not a donation. What it is, however, is a job creator, economy booster and discussion starter.

If "The Ark Encounter" can deliver what it promises in terms of jobs and economic boosts, then I am all for it. There is not going to be a form that one must assent to before entering, which says that they must agree with Answers in Genesis before they leave. No, folks are still welcome to disagree with AIG's views afterwards. However, if this theme park can bring the Bible directly into contact with our modern lives, can help its stories come to life, can get people thinking and talking about the Bible and can advance outreach, then it is a good thing. I find it such a shame that being only a stone's throw away from the Ohio River, which houses gambling boats, that many Christians would be fine with those types of theme parks / events and then turn around and be highly critical of this one. Whereas gambling boats tend to rip people off and destroy lives, this one seeks to do quite the opposite. Anyway, I think that on many levels, this project is a good idea.

For those living in Kentucky and especially Grant County, this could be a great economic reviver. So, if you are a Christian, before you go slinging mud, I would highly encourage you to watch the press conference below (in 3 parts) and to make an informed judgment based on what I've said above and what is said in those videos. If you have any thoughts, comments or ideas, please, feel free to get the discussion going here on Pisteuomen.

Ken Ham's National Address (Tonight)

Tonight, it's not the nation's president that will be giving the "State of the Nation" address, nope, that job is reserved for none other than the creation museum's president: Ken Ham. The message is titled "The Collapse of Christian America" (no presuppositions there, eh?). Anyway, click the banner to find out how to watch the broadcast:

Do Evolutionists Have Souls? Creationists Brains?

Check out this quote by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield (from an NPR Interview); it is quite profound!

"Most creationists relate to evolutionists as if they have no soul, and most evolutionists relate to the creationists as if they have no brain. Since according to Jewish tradition we all possess both, this is where our discussion should begin—no small feat in a culture in which the absolute obliteration of the other side’s views is often the only basis for thinking that one’s own position is correct."

Thinking About Genesis 1 and 2: Genesis & Parody

I should admit, from the start of this post that I am neither a Darwinian or Evolutionary advocate. I should also admit that, while I do not subscribe to everything that Creationists teach, I do believe that God created the earth in six, 24-hour days. That said, my view of Genesis, particularly chapters 1 and 2, is that is not simply a scientific treatise, a geological thesis or merely a theological document. I do think that Genesis 1 contains elements of both poetry and narrative, which are rooted in what the ancient Hebrews considered historical events.

At this point in time, however, my view of Genesis 1 and 2 is that it is (and I honestly don’t know if this argument has ever been made!) a type of parasodic text. To put it differently, I think the creation narrative (I don’t subscribe to the documentary hypothesis or source critical theories either) was, to the ancient Hebrews, a sort of comical document, something like a parody. While I am aware that the argument that Genesis 1 and 2 are an apology against the Marduk narrative and while I am an advocate of that view, I also want to contend that the commencing chapters of Genesis would have been seen as subversive humor.

The sociologist, Murray Davis has said: “Comics try to discover whether it provokes a laugh to contradict what they hypothesize to be an essential characteristic of a typical social unit. Specifically, they replace this hypothesized essential characteristic with another feature (from a different social unit) they believe so uncharacteristic that imagining it together with the first unit’s other features will be laughable” (Davis, 1993, p. 217). In my estimation, something similar to this is taking place in Genesis 1 and 2. Moses (again, I am not into the DH!), in reaction to the Marduk myth (I do not care which one came first, the oral account of the Israelites or the written/oral accounts of the Mardukians J), composed the creation story in such a way that it made the Marduk account laughable.

Unlike Marduk, who represented chaos and formed the cosmos out of the body parts of other kin gods and goddesses, YHWH created out of “chaos” (e.g. showing His sovereignty over Marduk) and easily spoke things into existence, without war or even His hands. Just as well, whereas Marduk had to earn both his status and his keep, YHWH was already chief and ruler. There are many more things, I am sure, that I could highlight here. In fact, I would love to write a journal article on this very subject sometime. Perhaps I will start (a bit of encouragement could possibly get the motors running!). The point I want to make here, however, is that the humorous elements of the creation account are so often overlooked because the text is approached with modern-day, scientific, religio-political lenses on.

In the end, there are, I think, two main points that Genesis 1 and 2 are attempting to make: 1) God created the world in six days, and 2) YHWH’s orderly creation was a victory over the chaotic monster Marduk. To the author of Genesis and to the audiences, this story would have been viewed as positively parasodic as it made the Mardukian myth seem laughable. Perhaps it is high time to unearth the comical elements of the ancient combat myths, Canaanite chronicles and creation accounts. Just as well, maybe it’s time