"Answers in Genesis" not getting their funds

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

Our good friends at "Answers in Genesis" have a dream. The next part of their dream, after setting up their creation museum in Kentucky, was to build a full-scale ark to decorate the countryside. To do that, they need millions in funding, and they thought for sure they could get it done, what with Christians around the country being EVER so eager to support them in their work of making all scientists bend their knees to the writers of Genesis.

Only, it isn't working. The millions they expected to get to build their ark aren't rolling in. And (big surprise here) attendance at their creation museum has dropped off rather significantly from the year it opened. Apparently, no matter how slickly they present their idiocy, the only ones willing to listen to their crackpot story is their own choir.

Maybe there's some small hint of a hope for the country's future after all...

Nah, probably not.

[Liv]

We had a similar talk about this on our trip. Those white crosses you see everywhere. You know, they're 3-5 stories tall and white. We asked, what goes through a person's head when they say "I've been working for 60 years, now I'm going to spend my life savings and build a cross near a interstate to tell everyone about Jesus." The thing is, if this is your life long dream, wouldn't it be special, would you not want it to be unique? Like candy-cane, or glow in the dark? No they're all white. I just don't get it. You could use that cross money to feed hundreds of people, but you built a cross on the interstate.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

FWIW, I know many Christians who see things the same way. They take it seriously when the read that Jesus said to love all people as much as they love themselves, and to feed the poor; building expensive monuments by the roadside is rather low on their priority list. Trying to convince everyone that Genesis is scientifically true isn't even ON their radar.

[shannon]

I also noticed on our trip through middle America, in towns where the people had vanished, the schools and businesses were dilapidated and boarded up, the churches were still large and pristine. We got off on a side road in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas and the little town looked like a movie set for a zombie flick. In this place, there were no people, no cars, but 3 different Baptist churches which seemed untouched by time. Even when towns are caving in, and citizens are having to evacuate for opportunity elsewhere, the churches still had rose gardens. By golly, people can't feed themselves but they'll still tithe. This was the pattern across much of the land we traveled. I thought it was very interesting. I also found it very interesting that there seemed to be a lack of variety in religious denomination in these communities. Once in a long while I would see a Catholic or Methodist congregation, but hands down, the Baptists rule the majority. I actually counted seven different Baptist churches in one tiny town. Truth be told, my old pastor in California, was originally from Arkansas and he was Baptist.

[Liv]

Prayer is this towns only business.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

I'm reminded of a story I read once some years ago about an early Danish settlement on the shores of Greenland. When they first started building there, the weather was bearable, but it became far colder rather quickly. Instead of packing up and cutting their losses, the community stayed put and prayed for God to save their new land. God didn't answer their pleas, of course, and the community died out.

[Liv]

Considering how many people believe in prayer, and often good things do happen though, to reinforce their commitment to the practice, is prayer = luck?

Or are people more likely to succeed when they're actively meditating about their problems?

[Art]

A friend on mine traveled a lot in the decades before online maps and city guides. He would roll into town at night and he wanted two thing: to find a commercial district near a working class neighborhood, and to know where the rough areas were. The first meant he could likely find a cheap room being rented out and a nearby restaurant that served good food for locals at inexpensive prices. The second helped keep him out of noisy and dangerous neighborhoods.

He figured out that most local maps, available at any convenience store, had the churches marked. He also noted that the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods had the highest concentrations of churches. So he would put a red circle around the clusters of churches and a blue circle around the downtown. Somewhere between the two was where he wanted to stay.

If the Creation Museum wants to bring people in they could open an adults-only Sodom and Gomorrah section. Nothing like a little strange and kinky to bring in the sexually repressed. The main problem stopping this sort of thing making a lot of money is that no baptist will go in if they think another baptist will see them.

It's like the old joke about bringing baptists on a fishing trip. If you bring only one he drinks all your beer. If you bring two neither one will touch a drop.

Perhaps you could give them masks ...