Here Are Aerial Images of Ken Ham’s Ark Under Construction. Notice Anything Un-Biblical?

You’ve probably seen the artist’s rendering of Ark Encounter, Ken Ham‘s Biblical theme park that focuses on Noah and the Great Flood. I’m posting it here to refresh your memory — followed by three stills from a drone-mounted video camera. The images, from November, show how the construction is progressing in the real world. Notice any differences?

Clad in high-density polyethylene Tyvek, supported by rebar-reinforced concrete, and assembled with the help of at least half a dozen hydraulic cranes, the actual replica ark (and the process of building it) doesn’t much resemble the artist’s illustration. More to the point, it’s pretty out-there to think that Noah could have built his boat in more or less this fashion — or perhaps at all.

But what do I know? I don’t have faith.

Ken Ham does. Faced with criticism that there’s nothing Biblically accurate about his faux-wooden ship that won’t even float, Ham uses the stock challenge that Creationists like himself like to lob at evolutionists. How do you know? Were you there?

Where are we ever told what tools Noah used? There is no mention in the Bible or even any hint as to what specific tools Noah used. So the answer is, we don’t know what the tools were. … Genesis 4:21 tells us that within a few generations [of Adam and Eve] people were making musical instruments. By the time of Noah, and with people living for hundreds of years before the Flood, who knows what sort of knowledge was accumulated and the kind of sophisticated technology that was developed? Noah may have had tools and other impressive technology that we would be jealous of!

Noah could too have had diesel-powered cranes! And cement mixers! And welding equipment! We just don’t know!

Yesterday, satirist Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian, was critical of Ham’s decision not to use tools and materials from circa 2000 BC.

“If the Creation Science Museum folks really believed the Word of God, they would have built the Ark by hand, with eight people, using only materials/methods available thousands of years ago. Apparently, the people who run the Creation Science Museum do not think this is possible. So, they have only given ammunition to unsaved trash who claim the Bible is fiction. I rebuke them for unwittingly falling into this wholly unnecessary, and expensive, trap.”

The comedienne added that the $18 million boondoggle the Ark Encounter stands to receive from “often-secular taxpayers” is well deserved; the money is

“… a bargain to commemorate the totally true story of the Bronze-Age Jew who went to Australia and China to ensure that Real American® children can now delight in the frolicsome charms of koala and panda bears! Glory!“

But God’s bounty doesn’t stop there. As I wrote three days ago, there may soon be two giant Noah’s arks you can visit in the United States. The other one was built by a Dutch carpenter who has promised to put his rudderless, un-seaworthy vessel on a barge and “sail” it to the Americas sometime in the next few months.

It’s going to be an interesting summer.