page_title: Answers in Genesis
section_title: Ark Encounter
hierarchical_section_title: Answers in Genesis / Views and activities / Ark Encounter
caption_attribution_description: English: Noah's Ark - a life-sized reconstruction of Noah's Ark, built according to the dimensions given in the Bible. Williamstown, KY - July 2016
context_page_description: Answers in Genesis is an American fundamentalist Christian apologetics parachurch organization. It advocates Young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis. Out of belief in biblical inerrancy, it rejects the results of those scientific investigations that contradict their view of the Genesis creation narrative and instead supports pseudoscientific creation science. The organization sees evolution as incompatible with the Bible and believes anything other than the young Earth view is a compromise on the principle of biblical inerrancy.
  AiG began as the Creation Science Foundation in 1980, following the merger of two Australian creationist groups. Its name changed to Answers in Genesis in 1994, when Ken Ham founded the organization's United States branch. In 2006, the branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa split from the US and UK to form Creation Ministries International. In 2007, AiG opened the Creation Museum, a facility that promotes young Earth creationism, and in 2016 the organization opened the Ark Encounter, a Noah's Ark–themed amusement park.
context_section_description: Answers in Genesis opened Ark Encounter, a theme-park, in Grant County, Kentucky on July 7, 2016. The centerpiece of the park is a full-scale model of Noah's Ark at 510 feet (160 m) long and 81 feet (25 m) high. After a visit to Ark Encounter, Bill Nye, who had previously debated Ham, described his experience as "much more troubling or disturbing than [he] thought it would be" and stated that "on the Ark's third deck, every single science exhibit is absolutely wrong". In December 2016, for the holiday season, AiG lit the Ark with rainbow colors, aiming to "reclaim the symbol from the gay rights movement" and to remind viewers of the Noahic covenant.
  By late October 2016, over 400,000 people had visited the attraction. This contrasts a state study that projected the attraction would receive 325,000 to under 500,000 visitors in the first year.  AiG reported that the Ark Encounter in its first year of operation attracted over 1 million visitors and aggregated 1.5 million total visitors for both the Ark and the Creation Museum.
caption: Noah's Ark at Ark Encounter
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