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"Ark Encounter" Opens Today

Started by stromboli, July 07, 2016, 09:21:08 AM

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stromboli

http://freethinker.co.uk/2016/07/07/secularists-are-today-targeting-ken-hams-ark-encounter/
Quote
Today, July 7, sees the official opening of creationist Ken Ham’s wacky Ark Encounter in Williamsburg, Kentucky â€" and a protest by a group called the Tri-State Freethinkers, which is raising funds for the billboard pictured above.
The group said on its website:

Join us to protest the grand opening of the Ark Encounter! Their mission is anti-science, the Noah’s Ark story is immoral, and they maintain discriminatory hiring practices while receiving up to $18 M in state tax incentives. We are making a stand for science, equal rights and the separation of church and state. Join us at the protest to show your support!


Ark Encounter employees, according to Ham’s hiring guidelines, must oppose abortion, euthanasia, gay rights, and trans rights.
Among those who will be present at the opening are David Silverman, President of American Atheists and Dan Barker, Co-President of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is advising public schools in more than 1,000 school districts against visiting the religious theme park.

According to FFRF’s website:
The Ark Encounter is a Christian ministry run by the creationist Ken Ham, who also built the notorious Creation Museum. Ham has been clear about the proselytising nature of this park from the beginning. In a recent letter entitled, ‘Our Real Motive for Building Ark Encounter,’ he states it plainly: ‘Our motive is to do the King’s business until He comes. And that means preaching the gospel and defending the faith, so that we can reach as many souls as we can.’


FFRF is already receiving inquiries from concerned parents that overzealous teachers or principals may mistakenly believe it appropriate to schedule school outings to the Ark Encounter, as has happened with the Creation Museum.
In order to allay such concerns and to remind public schools of their constitutional obligations, it is sending a memo to every school district in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, West Virginia and Ohio.
FFRF said:
Ham is free to erect monuments to the Bible, but public schools are not permitted to expose the children in their charge to religious myths and proselytising. So, public schools cannot organise trips for students to either the Creation Museum or the Ark Park. Doing so would violate the students’ rights of conscience and the US Constitution.


FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor said in the memo:
Public schools may not advance or promote religion. The obligation to remain neutral on religion includes not teaching creationism, intelligent design, or any of their creatively named religious offspring to public school students. Taking public school students to a site whose self-professed goal is to convert children to a particular religion and undermine what is taught in public school science and history classrooms would be inappropriate.

And that any such field trip might be deemed ‘voluntary’ (ie, students may opt out of the trip) is irrelevant.
Courts have summarily rejected arguments that voluntariness excuses a constitutional violation.
FFRF is also enclosing with the memo its “Top 10” brochure, which explains the most common state-church violations in public schools and why schools must avoid them. In the past two years, FFRF has addressed more than 1,300 violations in public schools and offers this constitutional guide with the hope to see fewer violations in coming years.


Gawdzilla Sama

I wonder if King's Island is expecting any drop in revenues...
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

stromboli

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on July 07, 2016, 09:40:44 AM
I wonder if King's Island is expecting any drop in revenues...

Last I heard Ham was charging like $40 a ticket. Apparently he is going after church groups or other discount strategies to get people in the park. Even with an 18 million tax break, it will take a bunch of visitors to pay off. I have already seen some critique of his ship in terms of design. It started out controversial and will remain so.

Gawdzilla Sama

"..it started out stupid and will remain so."
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

stromboli

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on July 07, 2016, 10:04:27 AM
"..it started out stupid and will remain so."

Lol. As far as I'm concerned this is dead proof of how gullible the religious are.

Solomon Zorn

$18,000,000 in tax incentives. Makes me sick.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

doorknob

when religion dies we should keep it in remembrance of how stupid people spend money.

PickelledEggs

I've been watching the live streams via the Friendly Atheist facebook. It would be pretty funny if it wasn't so sad.

I really wish Kentucky would stop funding this bullshit with tax dollars...

21CIconoclast



Ham's discussion on animals is laughable as he tries in vain to hide from the fact that all animals that exist today, have had to been on the mythical Ark! LOL

HAM QUOTE: "The biblical concept of created “kind” probably most closely corresponds to the family level in current taxonomy. A good rule of thumb is that if two things can breed together, then they are of the same created kind. It is a bit more complicated, but this is a good quick measure of a “kind.”

One can see how this fool tries in vain to acquiesce out of the predicament of not only the kinds of animals, but how many were on the Ark to begin with.



Why hasn't this pseudo-christian fool told the masses that there were 8 PAIRS OF EACH "KIND" PLACED UPON NOAH'S ARK? HUH?

"Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate," (Gensis 7:2)

The simple math states that 7 pairs = 14, plus 1 pair = 2. 14+2=16 OF EACH "KIND".  Now, thus far, there’re 1.2 million different species on earth, then x 16 pairs = 19.2 million "kinds" that had to be on Noah’s Ark!

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001127

Furthermore, Noah and gang were on the waters in the Great Flood with 19.2 MILLION animal species for 371 days  (Genesis 8:15â€"19). It is so hard to accept that pseudo-christians can still believe in this myth as they want to be taken seriously!  We laugh at their expense and ignorance.






“When Christians understand why you dismiss all the other gods in the Before Common Era, then you will understand why I dismiss your serial killer god named Yahweh.”

FinalSomnia

Quote from: 21CIconoclast on July 10, 2016, 04:11:06 PM

Ham's discussion on animals is laughable as he tries in vain to hide from the fact that all animals that exist today, have had to been on the mythical Ark! LOL

HAM QUOTE: "The biblical concept of created “kind” probably most closely corresponds to the family level in current taxonomy. A good rule of thumb is that if two things can breed together, then they are of the same created kind. It is a bit more complicated, but this is a good quick measure of a “kind.”

One can see how this fool tries in vain to acquiesce out of the predicament of not only the kinds of animals, but how many were on the Ark to begin with.



Why hasn't this pseudo-christian fool told the masses that there were 8 PAIRS OF EACH "KIND" PLACED UPON NOAH'S ARK? HUH?

"Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate," (Gensis 7:2)

The simple math states that 7 pairs = 14, plus 1 pair = 2. 14+2=16 OF EACH "KIND".  Now, thus far, there’re 1.2 million different species on earth, then x 16 pairs = 19.2 million "kinds" that had to be on Noah’s Ark!

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001127

Furthermore, Noah and gang were on the waters in the Great Flood with 19.2 MILLION animal species for 371 days  (Genesis 8:15â€"19). It is so hard to accept that pseudo-christians can still believe in this myth as they want to be taken seriously!  We laugh at their expense and ignorance.
We can all agree that the Noah's Ark thing is bullshit at best, but this is the second time I've seen the "16 of each kind of animal" thing on the forums. It would either be 14 OR 2, not 16. Unclean animals are not the same species as the clean ones.
Heaven is no more than a carrot on a string at the end of a tunnel; Hell is no more than a gunbarrel at the back of your head.  When we are good people for the sake of being good people, we\'ll have no further use for religion.

Gawdzilla Sama

7 pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals do total up to 16 animals, but it's a pointless summing.

It should be (14 x nC*) + (2 x nU*) = total animals on the ark. And I suck at math, so somebody will be along to fix that.

*nC = Clean animals types.
*nU = Unclean animals types.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

21CIconoclast





FinalSomnia,


"Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate," (Gensis 7:2)

The key word in this verse is "and," where there're 7 pairs of clean animals for sacrificing, AND one pair for propagation, totaling 14 and 2 = 16 of each kind.

Since there're 1.2 million "animal kinds" on planet earth, then 16 x 1.2 million = 19.2 million animals that had to be on the Ark.

Bottom line?  Ken Ham's Ark isn't big enough and he is lying about it being a true representation.

“When Christians understand why you dismiss all the other gods in the Before Common Era, then you will understand why I dismiss your serial killer god named Yahweh.”

reasonist

It's a tax free scam. I bet that Ham guy doesn't even believe that crap. Any revenue from this farce is going straight to his pocket. Overhead is covered by tithing anyways.
I posted this before but it is too important to ignore. The whole story is just rehashed mythology from thousands of years earlier. Somebody should ask this guy if he knows anything at all about Sumerian/Babylonian mythology. If you want to know the origins of the flood, Noah and the ark, the animals etc. you just have to look into the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh" from 2,500 B.C. Also the same story is in the 'Deluge of Ziusudra' with Atram-Hasis as Noah and in the fable of 'Diodorus and the Flood of Deucalion'. It's all there, the flood, the measurements of the ark, the animals, Noah (Atram), even the dove. A first grader can see that this fable is a primitive copy of the original stories.
But then again his creation museum has Dinosaurs with saddles exhibited. So nothing surprising about the ark either. The guy is either a certified nutcase or a smart con artist.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities
Voltaire

reasonist

Quote from: 21CIconoclast on July 11, 2016, 10:57:47 AM



FinalSomnia,


"Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate," (Gensis 7:2)

The key word in this verse is "and," where there're 7 pairs of clean animals for sacrificing, AND one pair for propagation, totaling 14 and 2 = 16 of each kind.

Since there're 1.2 million "animal kinds" on planet earth, then 16 x 1.2 million = 19.2 million animals that had to be on the Ark.

Bottom line?  Ken Ham's Ark isn't big enough and he is lying about it being a true representation.



I had to look that up but it seems there are over 8 million species of animals on our planet.         Did Noah take any termites on board??
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities
Voltaire

Gawdzilla Sama

The number of insect species is greater than 8 million by quite a bit.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers