WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) 鈥 As the colossal replica of the biblical Noah鈥檚 Ark rises incongruously from the countryside of northern Kentucky, Ken Ham gives the presentation he鈥檚 often repeated.
The ark stretches one and a half football fields long 鈥 鈥渢he biggest freestanding timber-frame structure in the world,鈥 Ham says. It holds three massive decks with wooden cages, food-storage urns, life-size animal models and other exhibits.
It鈥檚 all designed to argue that the biblical story was literally true 鈥 that an ancient Noah really could have built such a sophisticated ship. That Noah and a handful of family members really could have sustained thousands of animals for months, floating above a global flood that drowned everyone else in the wicked world.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we wanted to do through many of the exhibits, to show the feasibility of the ark,鈥 says Ham, the organizer behind the Ark Encounter theme park and related attractions.
And with that, he furthers his goal to assert the entire biblical Book of Genesis should be interpreted as written 鈥 that humans were created by God鈥檚 fiat on the sixth day of creation on an Earth that is only 6,000 years old.
All this of modern scientists 鈥 that the Earth developed over billions of years in 鈥渄eep time鈥 and that humans and other living things evolved over millions of years from earlier species.
But Ham wants to succeed where he believes William Jennings Bryan failed.
Bryan, a populist politician and fundamentalist champion, helped the prosecution in the famous , which took place 100 years ago this July in Dayton, Tennessee.
Bryan鈥檚 side won in court 鈥 gaining the conviction of public schoolteacher John Scopes for violating state law against teaching human evolution. But Bryan was widely seen as suffering a humiliating defeat in public opinion, with his sputtering attempts to explain the Bible鈥檚 spectacular miracles and enigmas.
The expert witness’ infamous missteps
For Ham, Bryan鈥檚 problem was not that he defended the Bible. It鈥檚 that he didn鈥檛 defend it well enough, interpreting parts of it metaphorically rather than literally.
鈥淚t showed people around the world that Christians don鈥檛 really believe the Bible 鈥 they can鈥檛 answer questions to defend the Christian faith,鈥 Ham says.
鈥淲e want you to know that we鈥檝e got answers,鈥 Ham adds, speaking in the accent of his native Australia.
Ham is founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which opened the Ark Encounter in 2016. The Christian theme park includes a zoo, zip lines and other attractions surrounding the ark.
Nearly a decade earlier, Answers in Genesis opened a Creation Museum in nearby Petersburg, Kentucky, where exhibits similarly argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden.
The group also produces books, podcasts, videos and homeschooling curricula.
鈥淭he main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,” Ham says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.鈥
Creationist belief still common
If Ham is the most prominent torchbearer for creationism today, he鈥檚 hardly alone.
Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. A 2024 found that 37% of U.S. adults agreed 鈥淕od created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.鈥
That percentage is down a little, but not dramatically, from its mid-40s level between the 1980s and 2012. Rates are higher among religious and politically conservative respondents.
鈥淪copes lost, but the public sense was that the fundamentalists lost鈥 and were dwindling away, says William Vance Trollinger Jr., a professor of history and religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio.
But the reach of Answers in Genesis demonstrates that 鈥渁 significant subset of Americans hold to young-Earth creationism,鈥 says Trollinger, co-author with his wife, English professor Susan Trollinger, of the 2016 book 鈥淩ighting America at the Creation Museum.鈥
Leading science organizations say it鈥檚 crucial to teach evolution and old-Earth geology. Evolution is 鈥渙ne of the most securely established of scientific facts,鈥 says the National Academy of Sciences. The Geological Society of America similarly states: 鈥淓volution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula.鈥
The issue has been repeatedly legislated and litigated since the Scopes trial. Tennessee repealed its anti-evolution law in 1967. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, and in 1987 it overturned a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court similarly forbade a Pennsylvania school district from presenting 鈥渋ntelligent design,鈥 a different approach to creationism that argues life is too complex to have evolved by chance.
Science educators alarmed
Some lawmakers have recently revived the issue. North Dakota鈥檚 Senate this year defeated a bill that would have allowed public school teaching on intelligent design. A new vaguely allows teachers to answer student questions about 鈥渟cientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.鈥
The Scopes trial set a template for today鈥檚 culture-war battles, with efforts to expand vouchers for attendees of private schools, including Christian ones teaching creationism, and to introduce and displays in public schools.
Such efforts alarm science educators like , the television 鈥淪cience Guy,鈥 whose 2014 debate with Ham was billed as 鈥淪copes II鈥 and has generated millions of video views online.
鈥淲hat you get out of religion, as I understand it, is this wonderful sense of community,鈥 Nye says. 鈥淐ommunity is very much part of the human experience. But the Earth is not 4,000 years old. To teach that idea to children with any backing 鈥 be it religious or these remarkable ideas that humans are not related to, for example, chimpanzees or bonobos 鈥 is breathtaking. It鈥檚 silly. And so we fight this fight.鈥
Nye says evidence is overwhelming, ranging from fossils layers to the distribution of species. 鈥淭here are trees older than Mr. Ham thinks the world is,鈥 he adds.
Religious views on origins vary
One weekday in March, visitors milled about the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum, which draw an estimated 1.5 million visits per year (including duplicate visits).
鈥淲e are churchgoing, Bible-believing Christians,鈥 says Louise van Niekerk of Ontario, Canada, who traveled with her family to the Creation Museum. She鈥檚 concerned that her four children are faced with a public-school curriculum permeated with evolution.
The Creation Museum, van Niekerk says, 鈥渋s encouraging a robust alternate worldview from what they鈥檙e being taught,鈥 she says.
Many religious groups accommodate evolution, though.
Gallup鈥檚 survey found that of Americans who believe in evolution, more say it happened with God鈥檚 guidance (34%) than without it (24%). Catholic popes have shown openness to evolution while insisting the human soul is a divine creation. Many liberal Protestants and even some evangelicals have accepted at least parts of evolutionary theory.
But among many evangelicals, creationist belief is strong.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation鈥檚 largest evangelical body, has promoted creationist beliefs in its publications. The Assemblies of God asserts that Adam and Eve were historical people. Some evangelical schools, such as Bryan鈥檚 namesake college in Tennessee, affirm creationist beliefs in their doctrinal statements.
There’s a larger issue here, critics say
Just as Ham says the creation story is important to defend a larger truth about the Christian Gospel, critics say more is at stake than just the human origin story.
The Trollingers wrote that the Answers in Genesis enterprise is an 鈥渁rsenal in the culture war.鈥 They say it aligns with Christian nationalism, promoting conservative views in theology, family and gender roles, and casting doubt on other areas of scientific consensus, such as human-made climate change.
Nye, too, says the message fits into a more general and ominous anti-science movement. 鈥淣obody is talking about climate change right now,鈥 he laments.
Exhibits promote a 鈥渧engeful and violent鈥 God, says Susan Trollinger, noting the cross on the ark鈥檚 large door, which analogizes that just as the wicked perished in the flood, those without Christ face eternal hellfire.
And there are more parallels to 1925.
Bryan had declaimed, 鈥淗ow can teachers tell students that they came from monkeys and not expect them to act like monkeys?鈥 The Creation Museum, which depicts violence, drugs and other social ills as resulting from belief in evolution, is 鈥淏ryan鈥檚 social message on steroids,鈥 wrote Edward Larson in a 2020 afterword to 鈥淪ummer for the Gods,鈥 a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Scopes trial.
More attractions are planned
The protests that initially greeted the museum and ark projects, from secularist groups who considered them embarrassments to Kentucky, have ebbed.
When the state initially denied a tourism tax rebate for the Ark Encounter because of its religious nature, a federal court overturned that ruling. Representing Ham鈥檚 group was a Louisiana lawyer named Mike Johnson 鈥 now speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Despite those blips, Ham鈥檚 massive ministry charges forward. Expansion is next, with AIG attractions planned for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri 鈥 both tourist hubs offering more opportunities to promote creationism to the masses.
Todd Bigelow, visiting the Ark Encounter from Mesa, Arizona, says the exhibit vividly evoked the safety that Noah and his family must have felt. It helped him appreciate 鈥渢he opportunities God gives us to live the life we have, and hopefully make good choices and repent when we need to,鈥 he says.
鈥淚 think,鈥 Bigelow adds, 鈥淕od and science can go hand in hand.鈥
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Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
