@aigkenham If someone kills 99 people but lets one go because he decided they weren't so bad he's not a saviour, he's a serial killer
— Scott Johnson (@scottiej24) April 25, 2016
After premiering one of the first commercials promoting his Ark Encounter theme park, creationist Ken Ham took to Twitter to rage at the secularists whom he thinks “want to suppress the wickedness of man” by making fun of his tax-funded religious entertainment center. Ham, who heads up Answers in Genesis — a Christian ministry dedicated to disproving evolution by using the Bible to explain that Earth is only 6,000 years old — went off in a Twitter rant Monday morning complaining about non-believers making “moral judgments” that he believes mocks God’s words. On Twitter, Ham wrote: “Secularists accuse God of being immoral as He judged at the Flood but ignore the fact they’ve no absolute basis to make any moral judgment,” before later tweeting, “Secularists mock at @ArkEncounter because they want to suppress the wickedness of man and that we’re all under judgment by a Holy God.”
I’m willing to recognize the right of creationists like Ken Ham to believe what they will. It’s a free country, and if they insist on planting their flag in bullshit and unsuportable magical thinking…well, welcome to free speech and freedom of religion, eh?
It’s not unreasonable to expect that I’d respect the right of creationists to their beliefs, but there’s nothing to stop me from calling “bullshit” on Ken Ham’s claim to being all manner of butthurt because “secularists” are making “moral judgments” and “mocking God’s words.” Sorry, but you don’t get to put ideas out into the universe and then take offense when the universe ridicules and rejects those ideas as absurd. Freedom of speech and expression goes both ways, knowhutimean?
Speaking as a committed, card-carrying “secularist,” in order for me to mock “God’s words,” I’d have to accept the proposition that God in fact exists. I don’t, and I reject the idea that questioning “God’s words” (Ham’s code for “I don’t have an actual argument”) is even a real thing. Of course, I could flip the script and accuse Ham of disrespecting the rights of “secularists” to voice their opinions. After all, Ham’s religiously-oriented project did receive public funding from the state of Kentucky, so taxpayers absolutely have a right to make themselves heard.
Beyond that, if Ham is going to insult “secularists” by calling us “stupid,” he should expect to be roasted, if for no other reason than he can’t exactly lay claim to being the sharpest tool in the shed, knowhutimean?
@aigkenham @ArkEncounter Secularists mock the ark encounter because it's stupid and deserves mocking.
— ædǝm (@adamk2012) April 25, 2016
Nope. Lots of people, including Christians, mock @aigkenham and @ArkEncounter because they see right through your cynical money making scam.
— Sionnach (@sionnachfionn) April 25, 2016
@aigkenham @ArkEncounter does wickedness include wasting money on a stupid boat rather than feeding the poor?
— greeniemax (@greeniemax) April 25, 2016
@aigkenham As an #atheist, I love @ArkEncounter. It shows the ark is far too small for its job! #atheism #atheists
— Percy Noot (@Perdnoot) April 25, 2016
@aigkenham @ArkEncounter - so the price of salvation is $40, or $60 if you buy the combo ticket. Very reasonable outlay for eternal bliss.
— Darren Adams (@darrenjadams) April 25, 2016
@aigkenham @ArkEncounter we don't need to pay to go on your silly boat to stop God from killing us Ken
— BrendaDidn'tSeeJesus (@BrendaMadeItUp) April 25, 2016
No we think it's ridiculous because you e built a huge boat to honour a story about a flood cause by a sky wizard. @aigkenham @ArkEncounter
— The One True Sceptic (@OneTrueSceptic) April 25, 2016
Ham dove off the deep end when he claimed “Secularists mock @ArkEncounter as they don’t want to acknowledge they are in need of the Ark of salvation-Noah’s Ark is a picture of Jesus.” There’s no rational argument to be made that connects the Ark to Jesus; the story of the Ark is from the Old Testament, well before Jesus’ time. To call the Ark a “picture of Jesus” is as absurd as it is completely theologically unsound and unsupportable. Here in the reality-based world, you don’t get to connect the dots when there’s no connection to be made…or dots to make it with.
I understand Ham’s emotional (and financial) investment in Ark Encounter, but he’s selling a myth. Not only that, he’s conned Kentucky’s taxpayers into getting on board to the tune of $18 million, a fair chunk of change in a very poor state. Ham’s public funding violates the separation of Church and State- not something that’s ever really concerned the good, God-fearing Christian patriots of the Commonwealth…though it really should. Taxpayers are being fleeced by an incompetent Governor and a scam artist wrapping himself in the Old Testament.
Ken Ham has put himself in a very public position and by doing so has made himself a target, as much for his Ark Encounter project as for his self-righteous objection to being called out for his creative theological interpretations. He might want to keep in mind rule #1 of complaining about Twitter: There’s no way you will prevail. Twitter ALWAYS wins, and it will almost certainly make you look very, very silly in the process.
When you pick a fight with Twitter, you WILL lose…and you WILL lose badly.
