Ark Encounter: Get a first look inside Northern Kentucky's newest attraction

[yortsed snacilbuper]

[Raster]

1. Where's Mickey, Minny and Goofy?

[democratisphere]

2. Looks like alot of rain in the forecast.

Hope they remembered the lifejackets.

[Richard D]

5. And fire sprinklers!

[spin]

3. It has always amazed me how many ancient civilizations had an flood myth. ...

Flood myth

A flood myth or deluge myth is a narrative in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters found in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who "represents the human craving for life".[1]

The flood myth motif is found among many cultures as seen in the Mesopotamian flood stories, Deucalion in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, the Hindu texts from India, Bergelmir in Norse Mythology, in the lore of the K'iche' and Maya peoples in Mesoamerica, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa tribe of Native Americans in North America, the Muisca, and Cañari Confederation, in South America.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

[edhopper]

10. Most early civilizations formed around

river valleys, where there is.....flooding! Is it really that surprising that flood myths would appear?

And the story of Noah was just co-opted from an earlier Babylonian myth.

[spin]

12. I agree that most civilizations were located near water. ...

Of course there was also the end of the ice age.

Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They're Absolutely Enormous
Geologists long rejected the notion that cataclysmic flood had ever occurred—until one of them found proof of a Noah-like catastrophe in the wildly eroded river valleys of Washington State.

By David R. Montgomery|Wednesday, August 29, 2012

***snip***

Recognition of the Missoula flood helped other geologists identify similar landforms in Asia, Europe, Alaska, and the American Midwest, as well as on Mars. There is now compelling evidence for many gigantic ancient floods where glacial ice dams failed time and again: At the end of the last glaciation, some 10,000 years ago, giant ice-dammed lakes in Eurasia and North America repeatedly produced huge floods. In Siberia, rivers spilled over drainage divides and changed their courses. England’s fate as an island was sealed by erosion from glacial floods that carved the English Channel. These were not global deluges as described in the Genesis story of Noah, but were more focused catastrophic floods taking place throughout the world. They likely inspired stories like Noah’s in many cultures, passed down through generations.

Since devastating floods were a fact of life on the margins of the world’s great ice sheets, people in those areas probably witnessed them. Early missionaries in eastern Washington reported stories of a great flood among Yakima and Spokane tribes, who could identify locations where survivors sought refuge. An Ojibwa Indian legend from around Lake Superior tells of a great snow that fell one September at the beginning of time: A bag contained the sun’s heat until a mouse nibbled a hole in it. The warmth spilled over, melting the snow and producing a flood that rose above the tops of the highest pines. Everyone drowned except for an old man who drifted about in his canoe rescuing animals. The native inhabitants of the Willamette Valley told stories of a time the valley filled with water, forcing everyone to flee up a mountain before the waters receded.

***snip***

Black Sea Flood

The Legend: In the story of Noah’s Ark, the book of Genesis says Noah lived during a time when all other people on Earth were evil. God became angry and decided to create a giant flood to kill everyone except Noah and his family. God told Noah to build a boat called an ark, big enough for himself, his wife, his sons, their wives, and at least two of every animal. Once the ark was built, God sent a rainstorm that lasted 40 days. The deluge rose higher than the tallest mountain. When the waters receded, Noah’s family and animals left the ark and repopulated the Earth.

The Evidence: After refuting the possibility of a global flood, geologists dismissed suggestions that the story of Noah’s Flood might be rooted in some sort of fact. Then, in 1993, oceanographers Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University used sonar to survey the floor of the Black Sea—and found evidence supporting the story after all. Submerged beneath the surface were ancient streambeds, river-cut canyons, and shorelines. High-resolution seismic reflection profiles showed a former land surface buried in the seafloor sediments. Drill cores from the seafloor contained roots of shrubs covered by marine mud. Ryan and Pitman argued that over 7,000 years ago, the Mediterranean began to rise, breaching rocks along the Istanbul Strait, a waterway that helps form the boundary between Europe and Asia today. The event caused the Mediterranean to spill into the Black Sea, triggering a catastrophic flood.

Were early farmers in the area forced to flee as their world disappeared underwater? Archaeologists found the rising waters coincided with the onset of the initial migration of farming cultures into Europe and the floodplains of Mesopotamia. Wherever they came from, the first farmers arrived in southern Mesopotamia shortly after the filling of the Black Sea. Did they bring the story of a great flood that destroyed their world?
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-biblical-type-floods-real-absolutely-enormous

[edhopper]

16. No geologist did not dismiss the idea of catastrophic floods

There has long been evidence for them (and quoting some one from a hundred years ago is plain silly)

I don't know why this magazine would publish such sensational tripe.

There is no evidence that the story of Ut-Napishtim (the original Babylonian story) is anything but just that, a myth.

The early Bible, straight through to Moses are fictional tales taken from other sources, none of it happened.

[spin]

19. A good story deserves retelling even today. ...

In an age without electronic devices for entertainment traveling storytellers were popular.

There was a major once in one thousand years flood and some guy loaded his family on a boat along with some animals. He survives and tells his story.

It's a damn good story so it gets picked up by traveling storytellers who of course add a little bit here and there to make the tale more exciting. The hero becomes a legend and over time he gets adopted by the other civilizations that the storyteller visited as their own hero.

Myths are often the smoke of history.

[edhopper]

20. I'll go with that

sorry for my intensity. I am just weary of religious fundies pushing these stories as real, as if ancient flooding proves the Bible.

You were not doing this, I just got my hackles up.

[spin]

21. No problem. (n/t)

[Richard D]

4. I wonder . . .

If they made it as it was made in the bible. Hand tools, one person. Built in 7 days.

Somehow I doubt that.

[Thor_MN]

23. It has tons of structural steei inside to support it.

It is as much a boat as Disney has a mountain. Nothing more than than amusement park for slack jawed yokels.

[tclambert]

30. The children's story says it took a hundred years to build.

At 0:10 and at 1:30 you can see some steel braces and bolts supporting the beams. (And at 1:39 you can see dinosaurs!)

Besides cheating on the materials, I wonder what they did for ventilation. One of the objections I heard to the Biblical big zoo boat was the technology available wouldn't allow them to properly ventilate the spaces inside and most of the animals would suffocate. Plus, you know, there's the whole poop disposal problem. (Noah's sons must have spent all their time shoveling.)

[kimbutgar]

6. I saw a video of these people touring it that I suspect were gay

There reactions were so hilarious and they did a good job highlighting the stupid exhibits. They questioned why they put the dinosaurs on the top floors and not the bottom ones!

[Vogon_Glory]

7. I once told a creationist that I'd believe in Creationism

If someone turned up fossil remains of velociraptors intermixed with the finely-chewed bones of Biblical patriarchs and their sheep.

They did not take it well.

[Runningdawg]

8. The video is more than 6 months old

and if memory serves me, the ark was already damage by a flood earlier this year. Let them carve it up and eat it when Trump takes away their food stamps.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

9. The ideas and observations expressed in the video are still relevant today.

[forgotmylogin]

11. That's ironic.

An ark damaged by a flood?

Dont'cha think?

[TlalocW]

13. Apparently it's not the economic boon they were hoping for

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/12/28/the-noahs-ark-theme-park-has-not-led-to-an-economic-boom-in-grant-county-kentucky/

Ham's Creation Museum was already starting the slow decline to going out of business (it opened a zipline attraction because all museums have those) when they started planning on the Ark Encounter. The problem for Ken with his two attractions is that they're static. Real science museums change - first because science is always making new discoveries and second by working with other museums to loan out exhibitions between each other. Creation science does not have any new discoveries since it's not a science, and while there are other creation-based museums - mostly in sheet-metal buildings in podunk towns in the South - none of them won't have high quality exhibits to lend. Without change, even the most fervent evangelical won't want to keep coming back and shelling out $16-$30 a ticket for him and his family to see the same things over and over.

I wonder what project Ham will stick to taxpayers next in order to temporarily boost his coffers.

TlalocW

[Girard442]

14. I wonder if one of the attractions is a video showing how Ham's ark was built.

Early videos distributed by Ham's organization itself showed the interior structure being made of reinforced concrete supported by numerous concrete pillars. The wooden exterior is just a facade. If that's a boat, the Empire State Building is a boat.

[Plucketeer]

15. It was called an Ark

because it was assembled from stripped logs. Otherwise, it would've been called a Bark.

[tclambert]

31. If it had been made of dogs, would it be called an Arf?

[mdbl]

17. how utterly ridiculous

Thats all i have to say bout that.

[wolfie001]

18. Looks like a Promise Keepers convention.....

....and just as asinine!

[yortsed snacilbuper]

22. Kentucky is on the hook for $100.000.000,

good luck with that.

[dhol82]

27. It was only? an $18 million tax break

Don't know who the majority investors are but they will get some nice tax losses when the project goes belly up.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article73971147.html

[yortsed snacilbuper]

28. In May 2011,

the Ark Encounter had raised enough money to begin construction. AiG officials said the final cost of the park at its opening exceeded $100 million, including $62 million from the Williamstown bond offering and $36 million from individual donations.The second phase of the park construction is projected to commence in 2018 or 2019

the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority voted unanimously to grant incentives of up to $43.1 million to Ark Encounter, LLC. for the project, by then projected to cost $172 million.

In an editorial in late December 2010, The Courier-Journal questioned the potential cost to the state government of the project, including highway upgrades and the likelihood that increases to hospitality industry infrastructure would seek further subsidies.

[dhol82]

29. Then it looks like the people of Williamstown are the big losers in this

The private investors walk away with a tax loss.
Evidently the state only decided on the $18 million tax incentive and 11 million for interchange.

[FlaGranny]

24. Weird.

I started seeing TV ads for this place a month or two ago. They never said where this was. I wasn't interested enough to look it up. It's really huge and really stupid.

[BigDemVoter]

25. This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.

[guillaumeb]

26. When sea levels rise enough that ark will be seen as a great idea.

Louisville will be on the sea front at that time.

[jmowreader]

32. The best parts are the bulbous bow and the deckhouse

The biggest problem is the one facing the Dinosaur Museum: eventually, everyone who's ever wanted to go will have gone.