Your tax dollars at work, Kentucky.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, has announced plans to build a creationist theme park in his state.

According to a news release, a joint project between Beshear and Answers in Genesis -- a Christian organization that also built a similar attraction, the Creation Museum -- the park will reportedly cost at least $150 million and create 900 jobs.

The developers are seeking incentives under the Kentucky Tourism Development Act, which allows up to 25 percent of the cost of a project to be recovered. This raises some troubling questions for those worrying about government subsidizing religion, and a separation of church and state. According to TPM,  Gil Lawson, of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet said the law that establishes this tax incentive is neutral. "It's not designed to favor or discriminate in any way," he said. "So we look at these applications without any regard to religious issues. They stand on their own, and it depends on if it's adequate financing and does all the things the applicant says it will do. Religion does not play a role in this."

From the Louisville Courier Journal:

Louisville attorney David Tachau, who successfully sued over a state appropriation for a religiously affiliated pharmacy school, said he would have to further research the issue. “It certainly sounds as if the mechanism for supporting a particular religious dogma would violate the establishment of religious prohibitions in the state and federal constitutions, but there may be slippery ways this could pass muster,” he said.

I visited the Answers in Genesis Website and was really impressed. Visitors to the museum learn from displays that, contrary to mainstream scientific thought, declare that science supports the biblical account of the Earth's creation in six days; that the Grand Canyon was created in Noah's flood; that dinosaurs and humans lived together; and that animal poison did not exist before Adam's original sin.

Besides building a life sized ark, the park will feature a Tower of Babel replica and a petting zoo. According to their website: Over 100 feet tall, this structure depicts how the tower may have looked after its completion. Guests enter a highly themed interior and weave along a path that introduces exhibits on the origination of languages and people groups (so-called “races”). The path ultimately leads to a 500-seat special effects theater. 

Guests will be able to tour the Ark and be immersed in the times of the Bible through highly themed scenes and presentations. This walk-through of the Ark will enable each guest to gain an understanding of how it could have been built, and how Noah, his family, and all of the representative kinds of land animals were cared for, and then survived on board for 370 days of the Flood and its aftermath. No word on if any light will be shown on Noah's enormous task in cleaning up after these animals' daily business. I am sure that he was thinking to himself, if I ever see one more hippo...There are no reports if any live dinosaurs will be included in the exhibit. An artist's impression of the proposed Ark is shown above.

The Ark Encounter website is also quite impressive. I read an article about Noah and the wickedness of humanity. The plans for the park include daily live mammal and bird shows, an extensive interactive children’s area, live entertainment, and many themed restaurants, creative food outposts, and shopping.

The Ark Encounter will be one of the largest “green” construction projects in the country, taking advantage of the latest environmental technologies to be good stewards of creation. The  all-wood ark based on the dimensions provided in the Bible (Genesis 6), using the long cubit, and in accordance with sound established nautical engineering practices of the era. It should become the largest timber-frame structure in the USA.


I don't quite understand all this but the website says that the Ark Encounter is both a for-profit and not-for-profit endeavor. The Ark Encounter is a for-profit operation but is managed by a non-profit subsidiary ministry of Answers in Genesis. The LLC and its members will be responsible for all of the normal taxes required for pass-through business entities. Which makes sense, because no church or religious organization would ever want to jeopardize its non-profit status.

Secession, anybody? Flyover country - you are on your own.