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A lot of hyperbole and poison in your post without a single fact to back up your statements. I would love to know exactly what Ken did that was illegal. The park was built with the full consent and agreement of local governments as an economic investment in the area. I seriously doubt you would have any problem if this was a free thinkers park or 100 foot statue of Darwin.
Taxpayer money is not your money. It's the government's money. The government pays for stuff all the time that I don't like. I didn't like that they bailed out banks and private companies ten years ago. According to your post, that was illegal. Besides, the park was largely funded by private donations and investors. The governments gave Ken tax incentives and breaks which is not the same as saying your money went directly to pay for a Christian theme park. I bet those tax payers are not grumbling about these changes that Ken brought to their area:
you are missing out the point just as BF did. It is public money and the Government should not hand it out for religion.
But that's not the point here. I would roll with the idea that the county was investing in a commercial project, and supported it, but certain legalities should be involved. land handed over for a dollar? 19 million? I trust at least that this does not pay tax exemption as a religious charity.
But the point is - are the people who gave public money getting a return? I read that the Ark generated $2 million for Kentucky, getting a million back in tax breaks. twenty years and i suppose they would have got their money back, but how about the free land?
later...
There has been a fair amount of controversy about the methods, financing land transfer and supposed benefits of the Ark encounter. I read quite a bit about the legal shifting between the Ark and a company with regard to tax incentives, and there was a ruling on there is no reason why companies shouldn't hire on the basis of religion. Now i know that religion is not a reason in law to discriminate, but clearly it's just been bucked here, in recruiting only people who said they were creationists.
There was a threatened lawsuit by the county but that didn't seem to happen. I could post a lot of the financial and legal wrangles here, and I will if you want, but would you not just dismiss them? After all the Ark went ahead.
Apparently some hotels have been started to collar to tourist trade from the Ark. Whether they have or will get benefit isn't clear. I recall that you posted a claim that one coffee shop said they were doing well out of it. I just watched a short video saying that for small Williamstown business, it isn't happening.
Also had a look at trip Advisor. Whether you approve or not seems to depend on whether you are religious or not. If you are, value for money doesn't matter, it is an act of worship. If you are not, it is not worth the money. [/quote]
Still going to claim that the Ark was awful for the area?
"It isn't good. "the city of Williamstown, which desperately wanted to be the home of the Ark, offered Ham’s team $62 million in junk bonds if they build the ship in their backyard. Grant County (which Williamstown is in) gave Ham’s team 98 acres of land for $1. (That’s not a typo. Just a single dollar.) And 2% of all employees’ paychecks were going back to Ark Encounter to help them pay off the loans, so neither the government nor the employees were getting everything they deserved.
Why would a city and county do all this? Because they hoped that the attraction would be so popular, it would increase tourism, liven up what was in many ways a dying town, create well-paying jobs, and be good for all surrounding businesses." (The friendly atheist).
The reports range from some saying it is bringing little or no benefit to the locality, and those saying how it is turning Kentucky into a boom - state. Discount those coming from the Creation museum website.
Sure you will wave the Bias -card, but the glowing claims for benefitting the area comes from a Cincinnatti paper with a known right wing republican bias. And if you don't know that the GOP and creationism are in bed together, learn it now.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 09-26-2018 at 02:30 PM..
Oh, so you're a sociopath? You enjoy watching people be upset?
I really didn't say that, did I? You seem to like putting words in people's mouths. I said it was interesting. That's it.
Quote:
You Christians can't even handle it when an atheist puts up a billboard or rents a few sign slots on the side of a few busses. When that happens, it makes national news and you people come out in droves to whine, moan, and complain because, you know, only YOUR opinion is allowed to be heard.
I'm intrigued more than anything. I just don't understand you.
Quote:
Yet when we get upset about an entire destination attraction predicated on lying to the visitors and misrepresenting science while pushing Biblical literalism and young earth creationism, we're just supposed to not care. Right?
There ya go. Self-righteousness smug arrogance. You know better than us, and you just want to tell us about it. Surprised you don't go door to door to do it.
Quote:
Wow, the hypocrisy is positively disgusting. Just imagine how MAD you and your fundevangelist pals would be if atheists built a billion dollar theme park that pushes atheism and attacks Christianity everywhere and every way it can. Don't tell me you would just shrug your shoulders. In fact, the place would almost certainly be vandalized, sabotaged, protested with large groups disrupting the flow of traffic and bashing people's cars in the hopes of intimidating them not to enter the park ... and all the rest of it. The most we've done to the Ark is make videos of it and have a good laugh on YouTube.
Ok then schools should no longer be allowed to teach Abiogenesis to students. It is a myth that is being portrayed as truth.
It's not right for anti-Christian atheists to get to determine what is myth or offensive. You can not factually back up the claim that the Ark story never happened.
Abiogenesis is a hypothesis, not a theory. However, the science is rapidly advancing to the point it may well become a full fledged theory.
Do you not remember me posting about self-replicating RNA made in the lab?
Please answer that before I make any other points.
Whoopdy-doo. So what if some location or site connected with the Bible slacks off in attendance. And this is in some obscure town, in a relatively poor state near the bottom for tourism anyway (Kentucky).
For comparison sake, the steakhouse down the street also might start seeing less business. It doesn't mean steak and steakhouses are worthless and meaningless. It might just mean that that particular entity isn't up to par, and/or isn't meeting expectations. And that can happen even in a high-volume area.
Religion-haters here are obviously so desperate that they are reduced to this pettiness; grasping at straws. You guys are only making yourselves look bad; pathetic and desperate.
Last edited by Thoreau424; 09-26-2018 at 02:18 PM..
Whoopdy-doo. So what if some location or site connected with the Bible slacks off in attendance. And this is in some obscure town, in a relatively poor state near the bottom for tourism anyway (Kentucky).
The steakhouse down the street also might start seeing less business. It doesn't mean steak and steakhouses are worthless and meaningless. It might just mean that that particular entity isn't up to par, and/or isn't meeting expectations. And that can happen even in a high-volume area.
Religion-haters here are obviously so desperate that they are reduced to this pettiness; grasping at straws. You guys are only making yourselves look bad; pathetic and desperate.
Rather than believing, would you rather not know that actual truth?
"It isn't good. "the city of Williamstown, which desperately wanted to be the home of the Ark, offered Ham’s team $62 million in junk bonds if they build the ship in their backyard. Grant County (which Williamstown is in) gave Ham’s team 98 acres of land for $1. (That’s not a typo. Just a single dollar.) And 2% of all employees’ paychecks were going back to Ark Encounter to help them pay off the loans, so neither the government nor the employees were getting everything they deserved.
Why would a city and county do all this? Because they hoped that the attraction would be so popular, it would increase tourism, liven up what was in many ways a dying town, create well-paying jobs, and be good for all surrounding businesses." (The friendly atheist).
The reports range from some saying it is bringing little or no benefit to the locality, and those saying how it is turning Kentucky into a boom - state. Discount those coming from the Creation museum website.
Sure you will wave the Bias -card, but the glowing claims for benefitting the area comes from a Cincinnatti paper with a known right wing republican bias. And if you don't know that the GOP and creationism are in bed together, learn it now.
Yeah ok, so we should only trust atheist sources like the friendly atheist? lol I would be shocked if any atheist can surrender their pride and admit that this attraction actually was a great investment for the region. It could generate a billion dollars in the local economy and your side would still trash it.
Even if you can demonstrate that my source is being biased on this topic, it is unlikely that they would make such bold easily refutable claims in their bullet points. There is no muddling the waters here with hyperbole. Either the area is clearly benefiting from job and economic growth or not. One only has to drive down there and talk to the locals. If you can factually prove my article wrong then do it.
.
The question I have is...why are you guy so hell-bent on seeing the ark fail? Why does it irritate you so much?
Others have already answered, but we may each have our own set of reasons, so....
First, I can't say the Ark Encounter "irritates" me, but I do consider it an effing travesty. (now that I say that, it sounds more than irritation, I suppose!?)
Why? Because it perpetuates an anti-science, anti-knowledge viewpoint that is already too pervasive in our scientifically-illiterate country. It presents things that we know are factually incorrect, and factually impossible, as real. There is zero evidence for a global flood, or an ark, or any part of the Noah story. It is a myth, borrowed from other sources and expanded.
And yes, it makes me cringe that taxpayer dollars were used to support this make-believe theme park masquerading as reality... but that just adds insult to injury. The First Amendment ensures freedom of religion, but it also says that government shall not favor or promote or impose one religion over another (or none at all). That's what is happening here.
Last edited by HeelaMonster; 09-26-2018 at 02:45 PM..
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