I would love to visit his "ark" just to check out the construction methods.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would love to visit his "ark" just to check out
> the construction methods.

I'm pretty sure they're not.... kosher.

Really? I figured that would have them flocking in.

Maybe if they sold tickets in larger quantities than pairs.

I've heard that Pokemon Go is banned at this theme park, because they evolve.

called "Jaredite and Nephite Barges". "Tight like unto a dish" season passes available at Deseret Book for ten percent of your annual income.

It's a poor business model. Yes, some hardcore Christians will shell out the bucks for the trip & admission, but probably only once. It's located in Kentucky for crissakes. I don't see people from either coast packing up the kids to trek to Kentucky. Plus, once the word gets around, in a few months, that it's a big dud, people won't make the effort. Ham overestimated his target audience, so did the state in it's tax incentives & investment. I predict they will be bankrupt in less than 3 years.

Solvency is based on sufficient income to meet expenses, which includes retiring debt. City Creek remains solvent (which doesn't have to equal profitable) because there is no debt.

If Ark Park can't cover the monthly nut, it either closes at the end of that month or someone covers the short fall.

I hope it shutters forever at the end of summer vacation.

They will probably figure out a way to get donations through churches to support the Bible crap - and it will be tax deductible.

I heard they were going to open a chic-fil-a inside of it.

City Creek will remain open, despite low traffic & poor sales, because a 100 billion dollar real estate company, masquerading as a church is backing it. The fact is that church finances are shrouded in secrecy, and no one knows how much it's propping up their mall. I've heard some tenants have free rent & also some murmurings that church money pays some labor costs.
Unless the Ark receives some Christian "go fund me" donations, I don't see it lasting very long. When it shutters, instead of taking it as a sign that God didn't want it to succeed, they'll spin it off as evil forces are suppressing religious freedom. When in reality, most people don't want to see this horseshit.

Exactly. Make it a $100,000,000 once season attraction.

Kentucky is gorgeous, especially in the fall. With so many other fun things to do there, like camping, hiking, caving, going to horse races, touring historic locations and battlefields, and sightseeing, why would anybody go to this silly Bible park? He picked the wrong location, for sure.

"It's located in Kentucky for crissakes."

The place is about 30 miles south of Cincinnati, and has two interstate highways passing near it. It will get plenty of traffic from Christians all over the country.

Oh yeah! Cincinnati, that huge hot spot in southwest Ohio. I'll bet that all the religious fanatics at the GOP convention don't even make it down there.

"Oh yeah! Cincinnati, that huge hot spot in southwest Ohio."

Cincinnati's metro population is 2.1 million, and there are lots of other large cities within half a day's drive of the Ark Park (I just made that up, BTW.)

I'd speculate that a large part of the park's revenue will come from busloads of church groups and/or private Christian school groups.

Yep. Church youth groups LOVE crap like that.


I would not be surprised if some public schools actually send kids there on field trips- the ones that can get away with it. I suspect "charter" schools, Christian schools and some home schoolers (you know the types), might present information from Ham as history and science. This is how religion inhibits critical thinking and inhibits scientific progress in young people.

You getting your numbers from the LDS PR department? Cincinnati has a population of 300K. Nowhere near 1 million, much less 2.1 million. The Ark Park will be in foreclosure in less than 3 years. And rightly so.

"You getting your numbers from the LDS PR department? Cincinnati has a population of 300K. Nowhere near 1 million, much less 2.1 million."

Do you understand the concept of "metro population"?

"The Cincinnati metropolitan area, informally known as Greater Cincinnati, is a metropolitan area that includes counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana around the Ohio city of Cincinnati. The United States Census Bureau's formal name for the area is the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, this MSA had a population of 2,114,580, the largest metropolitan area involving Ohio and 27th largest in the United States."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_metropolitan_area

And that's just the Cincinnati metro area. As I wrote earlier, the attraction will probably bring in busloads of church groups from hundreds of miles around.

"The Ark Park will be in foreclosure in less than 3 years. And rightly so."

Maybe so, but I think you're severely underestimating the number of Evangelical Christians in the USA, and particularly within a half-day or a day's drive of the attraction, who will visit it.

randyj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Oh yeah! Cincinnati, that huge hot spot in
> southwest Ohio."
>
> Cincinnati's metro population is 2.1 million, and
> there are lots of other large cities within half a
> day's drive of the Ark Park (I just made that up,
> BTW.)
>

My attorneys are even now thinking about how much to charge me for the flurry of correspondence they will draft tomorrow regarding your spurious claim to the name *I* made up hours earlier this very day. (7:15am to your 10:19am)

See you in court!

The right wing Christian nut jobs will be flooding in to see this great wonder just as soon as their pastors tell them to.

Candidate for condo conversion in a couple years...

Let's look on the bright side, shall we?

From the pictures it's clear it could be a great homeless shelter. (You'd want to install showers, smoke detectors, and a good sprinkler system, of course.)

Alternately, it would make a great slave ship. If I'm a Chinese honcho and need folks to work in an iPhone factory or for organ "donations" I could pack that baby full in no time. Or Boko Haram could fill it with kidnapped chicks and turn it into a floating brothel for Allah's faithful. Or maybe the human traffickers bringing desperate Syrians and others to Europe could use it on the Mediterranean.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ham's bean counters and creditors took a look at the opening numbers and are already discussing such possibilities. All you naysayers just need to use your imaginations!

Oh, gosh golly, you all!

Can't you see Ham's, er, god's plan at all?

Either this will become the bonanza by 1) being the next bestest Kingdom Island, or, 2) an act of Zeus will bring the blessed rain of insurance claims to drive the teeming herds of taxpayers back to their lands-o-plenty.

KY is a "welfare state." All of the US gets to fund the boondoggles.

KY is the king of boondoggle states:

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/06/25/indianas-big-dig-raises-bar-on-absurdly-wasteful-highway-boondoggles/

The tunnel (alone) is already at $500m +. And you own a piece of it, just like Ham's ark.

"KY is the king of boondoggle states"

"The tunnel (alone) is already at $500m+."

Speaking of boondoogles, isn't $500 million the amount that American taxpayers put out for Solyndra?

I don't know - hard to tell.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/13/3592107/doe-loan-program-profit/


*goes off in search of crystal ball, spreadsheet and clear definition of "Enron accounting."

I wonder if Ken Ham has ever really wondered why he has hair on his body. Of course I doubt Ken Ham thinks much.

I suspect that Ken thinks a lot. He probably thinks constantly about how he can live a life of comfort and ease by bilking credulous people and institutions and governmental agencies of every penny he can get.

He reminds me of an old friend. This person tried several schemes (many of which sounded like perfectly good ideas to me) to make money without having to get a real job. For one reason or another, none worked out.

So then, Flash of Insight! How about suddenly becoming a born-again Christian and creating books and pamphlets that pander to the young-earth creationists?! Use a perfectly good science background, exceptional speaking ability, and a gift for writing as an apologist to twist the truth into a home-based goldmine.

I read some of the stuff, before we stopped communicating with each other. It was stunningly, but cleverly, slanted and contorted "logical" explanations of how the whole fundamentalist rationale is the only possible truth. My former friend made,and I imagine is still making, a very comfortable living from the get-go. Quickly and easily.

I suppose that it's still a nice, steady income. But I got tired of listening to what I knew for a fact was a long string of lies which my friend did not believe in the slightest. So I withdrew from the friendship.

I would guess that our boy Ken is cut from much the same cloth.

peculiargifts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I suspect that Ken thinks a lot. He probably
> thinks constantly about how he can live a life of
> comfort and ease by bilking credulous people and
> institutions and governmental agencies of every
> penny he can get.
>
> He reminds me of an old friend. This person tried
> several schemes (many of which sounded like
> perfectly good ideas to me) to make money without
> having to get a real job. For one reason or
> another, none worked out.
>
> So then, Flash of Insight! How about suddenly
> becoming a born-again Christian and creating books
> and pamphlets that pander to the young-earth
> creationists?! Use a perfectly good science
> background, exceptional speaking ability, and a
> gift for writing as an apologist to twist the
> truth into a home-based goldmine.


I occasionally think this would be such an easy way to make lots of money, but I have a conscience so would never do it. I guess I'm no Joseph Smith...

Close Noah's Ark, and open a Cutty Sark.

Lexingtonian here: Heaven Hill could add it as a satellite site on the Bourbon Trail.

Jamie

That just warms the cockles of my black little reprobate heart!!

RB

A friend and wife just went there the other day. He said that they present a "balanced view," showing both the creationist and scientific stories. I rather doubt it's balanced, he's kind of a loose Baptist from Tennessee. He also commented that it's worth it just to see the "amazing craftsmanship." He claims that the Amish were largely involved in the construction of the "ark." Personally I wouldn't go because I don't want to pay money to an organization that spreads disinformation and lies to children. The same rationale I employed when I stopped paying tithing to the Morg.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2016 05:39AM by rationalist01.