Everyonewants to blame their problems on anyone but themselves. And while some probably assume that attitude is only present in a small portion of society, the problem is actually much more prevalent than people realize. A great example recently got national attention thanks to Ken Ham, a leader in the creationist community.
Ken Ham recently underwent a project in Grant County, Kentucky, that was meant to attract tons of positive attention and tourism revenue for the area. The attraction in question was, of course, a recreation of Noah’s Ark, and it has been called both the Ark Park, and the Ark Encounter, which is the official name of the site. In a blog post that Ham recently posted on his website, Answers in Genesis, the creationist blames the secular media and atheists for both the real and perceived failure of the attraction.
In the post, Ham details how the mainstream media and other news sources used false rhetoric and propaganda to spread the idea that the Ark Encounter exhibit is a failure. The post goes on to say that the influence of such secular entities has prevented the attraction from bringing in investors or tourists. Ham even goes so far as to say that the area is in need of economic recovery that he expected to happen as a result of his new attraction, yet he feels the views of atheistic individuals are preventing that recovery.
It’s hard to see how that post could be anything other than blame placed on atheists for the failure of the Ark Park. Ham does not see how his own decisions or actions could possibly result in the failure of the park, so in his mind the fault must lie with someone else. He will not take responsibility for the numerous promises he has broken, and therefore he won’t apologize to those he wronged, namely the businesses and citizens of Grant County.
The reason behind Ham’s shifting the blame off of himself is quite easy to see. He made certain promises to the local community regarding the success of his Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum also on the site, including financial promises he made in an effort to secure tax breaks from the city during the construction of the attraction. Ham made promises to both the city and county officials in order to receive hefty tax breaks, and the county and city only honored those tax breaks because they believed Ham when he told them they would receive numerous benefits from the presence of the attraction. One judge in the county said that the deal was horrible for taxpayers, and that the details of the arrangement should have been more obvious to the public.
The mayor of Williamstown in Grant County, Rick Skinner, is also upset with the developments. He claimed that the Ark Park site underwent no commercial development, meaning it most likely does not have the infrastructure to support crowds of any feasible size. Despite the fairly obvious faults in the plan by Ham to set up a creationist-themed attraction, the man is still convinced the fault for its failure is not his own. Technically, he won’t even admit that the park is a failure yet. Instead, he makes it seem as if the reports from the ‘secular’ media are false in regards to the success of the park.