Ken Ham's Opening Day at the Ark. #FAIL only 4000 show up. (origin, difference)

[Norne]

Originally Posted by Norne

So many ways these "Christians" could have invested their $100 million, which would actually relieve the suffering of their fellow man. Isn't the main teaching of their Christ to love your neighbor and do good to those that are in need? But instead they spent the money on an overpriced pointless display and a gigantic parking lot. That thing does not even have any artistic value. And then they wonder why people worldwide consider Americans to be overindulged, fat hedonists.

Today I have seen some of the same attitude at my local Baptist church, the one where I got baptized back in my Christian past, a long time ago. It is largely sponsored by American Baptist organizations, by the way. As I was walking past the church, I noticed they had installed sprinklers for watering their large front lawn. Sprinklers, for goodness' sake!

Now, that may not seem all that much. But in a country that has poor people (not American kind of poor with cars and large-screen TVs, but the real poor who often cannot afford their next meal) the last thing a church should be spending its congregation's money on is a pointless decoration like that. The cost of those sprinklers could have bought food for several dozen people and maybe helped some of them on the way to Christ. But no, let's spend it on watering the lawn!

[OpanaPointer]

Originally Posted by Old Town FFX

8 People to repopulate the Earth, that seems to be a pretty shallow gene pool. I wonder how Ken Ham addresses that. Did they do the math?

Especially as there are people on Earth who show no genetic connection to the people in the Middle East, for the last ten thousand years or so.

[_redbird_]

Originally Posted by Eusebius

I appreciate the fact that the above is almost about Ken Ham's Opening Day at the Ark and truly, at least in spirit, tries to follow the request of Mensaguy to stay on topic (spoken tongue in cheek). I am a Creationist and an OLD EARTHER. Yet, when I give my reasons for why the earth could be billions of years old, I am put down by you folks. You see, you just can't win with you folks. I don't agree at all with Ken Ham's ideas of a young universe or young earth and don't think he should be teaching things like that as it hurts his other, better points. But this is how it is. We are all human and prone to err until Christ returns and sets everything straight again.

Please critically define what you mean by "you folks". That would help the thread from getting side tracked.

We had a Baptist tell us there would be no Catholics in heaven. Only Baptists. And not all Baptists, just Free Will Baptists. I just can't fathom anyone going around saying who will be in heaven. I just don't get it.

[cupper3]

Originally Posted by mensaguy

The Ark Encounter is 40 miles (about an hour) from the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. That means it is also within the vicinity of the Cincinnati Zoo and everything else in that city's downtown area. (Cincinnati is a big city. They have a lot of stuff. The music hall is great!) King's Island amusement park is another hour North.

Meh, I've been to a Red's game in Cincinnati. Can't say I was very impressed by the city. Although it appears I should have seen their zoo. I wonder how it compares to San Diego, Duisburg or Calgary?

[Griffis]

Originally Posted by Norne

The only reason biblical stories seem more believable than the ancient Norse or Hopi myths is that there has been an army of professional theologians and priests that have been busy all through the ages explaining, reinventing, interpreting and teaching the "correct" understanding of these stories. Some of these teachings, for example the one about Satan being a fallen angel, really hang on one or two verses, out of which they have developed an entire doctrine.

Well, if everything about Christianity were true and real and not just philosophical, would there be 150,000 different, often competing, often combating denominations?

Even those claiming an inerrant, 100% literally true Bible disagree on all kinds of things which should be self-evident and pretty clear cut given the idea these scriptures are touted as "The One And Only Truth, And The Whole Truth" etc.

It's just another thing underscoring the fact that gods and religions are all--every one--man made. If there is a god or gods, we don't know whether they exist or not, and you certainly can't read their actual biography in the sacred texts of this or that culture. That's nonsense.

Again--there is no reason whatsoever to assert that Yahweh is real and the Judeo-Christian scriptures are factual and all other gods and religious writings are simply made up. That's utterly baseless, groundless, infantile BS.

I believe, if so many people in the course of centuries spent their time poring over the Norse myths, interpreting, spiritualizing them and smoothing out inconsistencies as much as possible, there would appear Norse literalists as well. Not that it would be a desirable outcome, of course.

Oh, agreed. It's just like the fact that, had your average American fundamentalist been born in another culture immersed in a different religion, they'd be following that one.

Originally Posted by Norne

Today I have seen some of the same attitude at my local Baptist church, the one where I got baptized back in my Christian past, a long time ago. It is largely sponsored by American Baptist organizations, by the way. As I was walking past the church, I noticed they had installed sprinklers for watering their large front lawn. Sprinklers, for goodness' sake!

Now, that may not seem all that much. But in a country that has poor people (not American kind of poor with cars and large-screen TVs, but the real poor who often cannot afford their next meal) the last thing a church should be spending its congregation's money on is a pointless decoration like that. The cost of those sprinklers could have bought food for several dozen people and maybe helped some of them on the way to Christ. But no, let's spend it on watering the lawn!

I realize a lot of churches do good, charitable work (as do many secular organizations.) But if churches really put their money where there mouths are, outside of regular services, they'd all be open 24/7 as a homeless shelter and food mission.

Originally Posted by _redbird_

We had a Baptist tell us there would be no Catholics in heaven. Only Baptists. And not all Baptists, just Free Will Baptists. I just can't fathom anyone going around saying who will be in heaven. I just don't get it.

I was visiting my maternal grandmother over Christmas time one year back when I was 9 or so. It was a small town in central Oklahoma. She managed to drag me to her Baptist church service one Sunday. Actually, I didn't put up much of a fuss because I was curious and pretty open minded about religion and thought I might learn something or find it interesting. (Burgeoning armchair social anthropologist, me!)

Well, it wasn't five minutes into the sermon when the pastor (or preacher or minister or whatever he was) started talking about Jews, Catholics and other non-Baptist types burning in Hell. I got up and went outside and sat on the steps, enjoying the day and the trees in the park across the street (which was, truthfully, a far richer spiritual experience for me anyway.)

Even then I understood that intolerance, judgement, bigotry, hate, fear, guilt, arrogance, the denigration of entire groups of people as "lesser" or "not saved, not special" etc., etc. was a huge, steaming, stinking pile of horse poop.

This is one of the main issues with religion for me. I'll stick to the three Abrahamic religions by way of illustration, but believers claim to believe in a god that is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving. A god who really surpasses human understanding in many ways, etc.

And then they proceed immediately to hobble that god and stick him in a tiny, restrictive box, applying all kinds of human ideologies and opinions and personality traits to god (which always, of course, match their own personal ideologies, opinions, etc.) : "Well, god rewards this and punishes that. God is fine with this, but you can't do that. God likes and accepts these people, but not those folks over there...we can't allow this because god doesn't like it" and on and on. Not to mention what god demands or rejects is constantly changing over time and in various regions, churches, etc. These people can't even see the way they limit this supposedly omniscient being. This is clearly another example of how we can know that gods and religions are man-made.

[Vizio]

The fact that this thread whining about a Christian museum and park has gone on for 45 pages is a testament to the fact that the topic of God is offensive to some people. I have no idea why they hang out here, but some folks do enjoy whining.

[_redbird_]

Originally Posted by Vizio

The fact that this thread whining about a Christian museum and park has gone on for 45 pages is a testament to the fact that the topic of God is offensive to some people. I have no idea why they hang out here, but some folks do enjoy whining.

Got any green vomit to hurl with that? I don't see it as whining. I see people sharing why they believe the Ark story is fictitious based on various scientific evidence.

Which is then met with:

[Griffis]

Originally Posted by Vizio

The fact that this thread whining about a Christian museum and park has gone on for 45 pages is a testament to the fact that the topic of God is offensive to some people. I have no idea why they hang out here, but some folks do enjoy whining.

Yup. Apparently plenty of folks--believers and non-believers alike--have found this thread interesting or entertaining enough (even though it has often strayed from the topic) to keep it going this long. Plenty of "whining" as you call it, from both sides.

Or--oh. Did you think you were making a point of some kind? That's sort of adorable.

[cupper3]

Originally Posted by Vizio

The fact that this thread whining about a Christian museum and park has gone on for 45 pages is a testament to the fact that the topic of God is offensive to some people. I have no idea why they hang out here, but some folks do enjoy whining.

Or maybe the actual offense is taken that the beliefs of a superstitious sect is presented as reality, while using public money.

[Vizio]

Originally Posted by cupper3

Or maybe the actual offense is taken that the beliefs of a superstitious sect is presented as reality, while using public money.

There you go. You can't tolerate something that you disagree with.

I'm sorry for your bigoted statements.