God Told Kentucky To Build Them An Arky, Arky

Sadly I had finished my rabbinical education in Cincinnati long before the Creation Museum opened on the Kentucky side of that great metropolis.  Now there may be an extra incentive for me to go back.  They’re opening a big theme park built around a life-size Noah’s Ark and the Democratic governor of Kentucky announced the blessed news:

Gov. Steve Beshear said Wednesday that a creationism theme park, expected to open in Northern Kentucky in 2014, would have a $250 million annual impact on the state’s economy.

Ark Encounter, which will feature a 500-foot-long wooden replica of Noah’s Ark containing live animals such as juvenile giraffes, is projected to cost $150 million and create 900 jobs, Beshear announced at a Capitol press conference.

“Make no mistake about it, this is a huge deal,” he said.

The park, to be located on 800 acres in Grant County off Interstate 75, also will include a Walled City, live animal shows, a replica of the Tower of Babel, a 500-seat special-effects theater, an aviary and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

I wonder if the ark will float.  Maybe they should try that.  Personally I’m especially jazzed about the Tower of Babel.  Will it be as exciting as the Tower of Terror?  Or maybe it will be so tall that Yahweh will get all riled up again and come down and scatter the developers to foreign lands, making them speak all kinds of new languages.

Sarcasm aside, this place sounds like a perfect complement to the Creation Museum and also to that ridiculous Jesus amusement park in Orlando.  I guess we shouldn’t be surprised given that at least half of all Americans are young earth creationists.  The Louisville paper that reported it added this to the end of the story:

Creationism has been criticized by many scientists and science organizations. The National Center for Science Education asserts that “students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level.”

I guess in Kentucky you’ve got to keep repeating this until the locals start listening.