If you're driving by Williamstown, Northern Kentucky, and you happen to pass by a huge ark being built, we'll break it to you now: that's not the set of "Evan Almighty" on display. The Answers in Genesis Christian Organization is currently constructing a religious theme park in the form of the 510-foot replica of Noah's Ark, and it is targeting July 2016 as their opening date.
The theme park that Answers in Genesis calls "Ark Encounter" is a form of the organization's evangelistic outreach as an answer to the idea of evolution.
"We want to equip Christians and non-Christians to understand that God's Word is true, that Noah really did build a huge Ark, that the animals really could have fit on board, and that the global Flood really happened as an outpouring of God's judgment on a wicked generation," Ken Ham, President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Answers in Genesis wrote in a blog.
On Nov. 12, Ham announced standing on the deck of the ark and front of media that Ark Encounter will open on Jul. 7 and that the date was specifically chosen with Genesis 7:7 in mind because it is the verse which shows Noah and his family entering the ark prior to The Great Flood.
"To us, it's fitting then that on 7/7 of 2016, we open the life-size Ark for the public to enter," Ham said.
The project was already controversial since its announcement in 2010 but even more so in 2014 when it was awarded around $18 million in state tax incentives in February but was revoked in December when the developers revealed that only workers who share the same beliefs would be hired. The organization then went on to the federal court and sued the state officials in order to restore the incentives.
Answers in Genesis estimates that the park will welcome around 1.4 million visitors on the first year and, in order to prevent exceeding capacity, tickets for first 40 days and 40 nights from the park's opening day will be sold in advance online.
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