Kentucky's plan to grant a $40 million tax break to a Noah's Ark theme park is roiling waters as far away as Los Angeles. The $150 million "Ark Encounter" park, featuring a three-story-high ship, is being conceived by a Christian ministry that believes humans co-existed with dinosaurs and that the earth was created in six days by God a mere 6,000 years ago. Legal experts say Kentucky's tax break would contravene the constitutionally required separation of church and state—so how much better it would be to spend those tax funds "improving science education to mitigate the simple-mindedness this inflicts on Kentucky children," zings Los Angeles Times columnist Paul Thornton.
But if Kentucky can get away with it, what about California, which also desperately needs new business? The Left Coast version of a biblical theme park would more likely be Scientology-based, quips Thornton. He points out the cult's founding myth of Galactic emperor Xenu flying "billions of his people in a spacecraft to our planet and blowing them up in volcanoes lends itself nicely to flashy amusement park entertainment."
(More Steve Beshear stories.)
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