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Date: February 21, 2020 12:23AM
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/religion/2020/02/17/kentucky-ark-encounter-documentary-what-you-need-know/4773758002/The Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky has both amazed and angered boatloads of people over the years.
"We Believe in Dinosaurs," a documentary airing at 10 p.m. Monday on PBS, aims to capture — from the first days of construction in 2014 to the opening in 2016 — the polarizing nature of the theme park in Williamstown that features a 510-foot replica of Noah's Ark.
We already spoke last week with the filmmakers behind the documentary, but without giving too much away, here are a few takeaways from "We Believe in Dinosaurs."
Creationism vs. evolution
If you're unfamiliar with creationism, then "We Believe in Dinosaurs" will expose you to plenty of new information.
Creationists reject evolution and believe that, based on the Bible, the Earth was created in a few days about 6,000 years ago.
The founder of the ark is Ken Ham, an Australian creationist who is the CEO of Answers in Genesis. His Christian ministry also operates the Creation Museum in Petersburg, which is about 45 miles north of the Ark Encounter.
Both attractions are part of the "Christian evangelistic outreach of Answers in Genesis," as the Creation Museum's website says.
Previously: Hear from the filmmakers of documentary on Kentucky's Ark Encounter
As the roughly 90-minute documentary shows, the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter both show dinosaurs and humans living alongside each other.
Doug Henderson, the lead exhibit designer for the attractions, references the documentary's title early on when explaining the Ark Encounter's features.
"We believe in dinosaurs," Henderson says. "We believe that dinosaurs and man lived at the same time. The Bible does talk about creation week and all the mammals and humans were created on day six."
His statement, however, is where some critics of the Ark Encounter, and of creationists in general, would raise a red flag. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, dinosaurs went extinct nearly 65 million years before people appeared on Earth.
But rather than pulling from outside sources, the documentary lets people actually involved in the Ark Encounter explain their views and opposition to evolutionism.
As Georgia Purdom, a molecular geneticist who serves as the director of educational content for Answers in Genesis, puts it when describing the Ark Encounter: "We want to be able to bring that same level that you see at the Smithsonian but without the evolutionary indoctrination, the evolutionary fairytale so to speak."