Kentucky Announces Creationism Theme Park

riverat1 writes "On December first, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced that a creationism theme park is expected to open in 2014. Park developers are seeking state tourism development incentives and could receive up to $37.5 million over a 10-year period. Gov. Steve Beshear said he does not believe the incentives would violate the principle of church-state separation because the 14-year-old tax incentives law wasn’t approved for the purpose of benefiting the Ark Encounter. The park will have a 500 foot replica of the Ark with live animals on it and a Tower of Babel explaining how races and languages developed. The park will be turned over to Answers in Genesis after it is built. They are a non-profit organization which may allow them to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion."

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Hell, no

[chrb]

From TFA: "Under the tourism law, developers can recover up to 25 percent of the cost of a project. The state returns to developers the sales tax paid by visitors on admission tickets, food, gift sales and lodging costs. Developers have 10 years to reach the 25 percent threshold."

So, it looks like this is a tax refund for tourism projects on the tax the final attraction actually pays. It's difficult to tell whether it's a loophole or legitimate when the tourism project is religious in nature. Assuming the legislation does not mention religion at all, then this may well not be a violation of the Constitution. Analogy: city gives tax breaks for building projects on recovered swampland, someone builds a mosque, claims tax break. Obviously if the city only gave tax breaks to mosque builders, then this would be dubious, but if the tax break is for any building, regardless of religious orientation, then is it really a Constitutional violation?

Re:do it the right way

[SuricouRaven]

I've seen creationists deal with this exact problem. Their solution is the meat-plant - a plant which they claim is composed of animal proteins, allowing even purely carnivorous animals to survive for decades while the prey species breed to a sustainable population and with such a huge energy density that even the amount stored on the ark could last as long as it needed. Naturally none of this meat-plant survives today, because the flood killed most of it and the animals from the ark ate the rest. But it must have existed, because otherwise the genesis account doesn't make sense. Besides, the bible clearly describes meat-plants in Genesis 1:30: "Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so." As for all those carnivorous animals with huge teeth, sharp claws and such when they were made to eat only plants, that's because the presence of sin in the world caused their DNA to mutate and express those sinful features.

I'm not making that up. That insanity really is the Creationist explanation. Including the bit about sin being a targetted mutagen.

Re:do it the right way

[GameboyRMH]

And to think they went for a complex system of this batshit insanity over "Many of the stories in the old testament are metaphorical, and not literal accounts of history."