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Justin Scott
Happy 2017! I’m the Iowa Atheist, an atheist activist smack dab in the middle of “god’s country”.

Atheists Proudly and Unapologetically “Change the Story” of the Ark Encounter

An activist snags a poster made available by American Atheists.

More than 100 atheists and activists from all over the country, including myself, joined forces to protest the grand opening of the “Genocide and Incest Park” (aka the Ark Encounter), the biblical attraction in northern Kentucky that has been wrapped in controversy for months as it has questionably secured hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money and government support to help make Ken Ham’s fantasyland a reality. It has also set a scary precedent for what Kentucky’s government (and any others that follow suit) will tolerate and support when it comes to religious based ventures and how they go about navigating the many tax incentives and funding options for their projects.

We came out to show support for the secular community of Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana specifically (who are also embraced by the very impressive Tri-State Freethinkers group) and the movement here in the US and , to stand up for church/state separation as well as to protest the immoral and anti-science teachings of both the park and Christianity as a whole.

Activists came out in full force to show their opposition to the “Genocide and Incest Park” and how it came to be.

You might have heard of this tragic display of Christian privilege and manipulative business practices thanks to the unrelenting coverage and criticism by the unapologetic atheist blogger Dan Arel, who I finally had the opportunity to meet at the rally. Arel has a series of posts on why everyone, not just atheists, should be pissed about how the G&I Park came to be but the best one might be one of his recent posts where he explains why he took the long trip from California to Kentucky.

Atheist blogger/author/speaker Dan Arel speaks to the media about the highly immoral “Genocide and Incest Park”.

Here’s a list of some of the guests that were present at the protest and helped make it such a runaway success (this is to the best of my knowledge so my apologies in advance if I’ve forgotten somebody):

  • American Atheist President David Silverman,
  • Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Dan Barker,
  • Popular atheist vlogger/blogger/public speaker and activist AronRa,
  • Secular Coalition for America Executive Director Larry Decker,
  • David Smalley of Dogma Debate,
  • Popular LGBTQ/atheist activist and host of the Gaytheist Manifesto Callie Wright,
  • Atheist blogger, author and activist Dan Arel,
  • Young Skeptics Executive Director Kevin Davis.

**UPDATE: I’d also like to point out that many individuals and groups contributed to the success of this effort through donations, fundraising and by spreading the word about the event. One group of note is the United Coalition of Reason, one of the largest nontheist groups in North America, a coordinating place for hundreds of independently run local groups, according to its website. Not only did the UnitedCoR contribute money into the Tri-State Freethinker billboard to protest the park but it also helped the GoFundMe campaign according to a spokesperson for the organization.**

In addition, there were countless media members that seemed to be more interested in our side of the conversation than the actual grand opening of the taxpayer backed disaster up the street. It’s like once one media outlet would leave there’d be three more that’d show up looking for a story.

The media couldn’t get enough of our protest.

As Helton said later during the after hours event, as well as Arel echoed later in a blog post about the day, atheists proudly and unapologetically changed the story about the ark. We weren’t there to protest Ken Ham’s right to build the ark, we weren’t there to protest people’s rights to attend and “enjoy” the park (however in the hell one does that), we were there to protest the ways by which Ham and his cronies sold the park to the state, finagled the system to receive benefits of being both a non-profit and for-profit entity, and in the end accounted for more than $100 million in money being taken away from the state and local area for more legitimate, secular and moral ventures.

Sorry but not sorry Ken.

It had to have been an act of god (or many gods) to provide us atheists with such a beautiful day to protest such a holy park. It just had to be dammit!

Our protest was covered by a variety of media outlets both locally, nationally and around the globe:

Freedom From Religion Foundation members pose for a group photo in front of the local chapter’s tent.
Members of local group LouAville Atheists & Freethinkers pose for a photo with American Atheists President David Silverman and Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Dan Barker.

All I can say is this movement is hardly on its last leg and if anything after this protest, it feels like it’s just getting started! I was so impressed by the organization and professionalism of the Tri-State Freethinkers who helped host the event. Jim and his crew were incredibly prepared for this event and really “brought it” when the media showed up. My hats off to what they have going down there in “Ken Ham Land”.

One of the best and most colorful posters of the protest.

There were young and old, those that had been atheists their entire lives and those that had just come out. It was an exciting but very welcoming feeling being at this protest. We enjoyed a beautiful day as well as pizza from a pizza place that would actually agree to deliver us pizzas. (According to Jim with TSF, not only was there a pizza place that refused to deliver pizza to us once they found out the destination of the delivery and why were located there, there was also a port-a-potty company that backed out providing their services once they realized what the port-a-potties were needed for.)

Most importantly we were treated like family. There was a water/medicine tent that provided bottles of water/Gatorade, band-aids and medicine and shade from the unrelenting sunshine and heat that day.

Pizza time! Thankfully we were able to find at least one place that would deliver to us. These pizzas were as great as they were big. Measuring in at about 3', our group devoured ten of these bad boys!

As for the big name speakers, KUDOS! In a lot of movements you’ll see the movers and shakers be listed on the guest/appearance list, you might see them take a mic and talk for long enough for a photo op and then you never seen them the rest of the time. Ladies and gentlemen of the atheist community, WE ARE LUCKY. I saw none of this the entire time.

American Atheists David Silverman arrived and almost immediately jumped into doing interviews with media. Not only that but he mingled with protesters and protested alongside them and then took a moment to challenge Asshole Creationist. If you haven’t seen a video of that floating around the interwebz, please find it, it’s well worth checking out!

American Atheists President David Silverman doing what he does best!
Atheist activist AronRa proudly displays what could be argued was the most colorful and kid friendly poster of the protest.
Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Dan Barker speaks to a member of the media with the “Genocide and Incest Park” in the background.

What really, I mean REALLY impressed the hell out of me was that they all owned the moment and weren’t above getting into it with counter protesters and those that came to try and ruin our day.

Specifically, Asshole Creationist Eric Hovind. (This is the last time I’ll mention his name on here. He shall forever be referred to by me as Asshole Creationist for the bullshit he pulled on us…I’d like to refer to him as “AC” but that’d be offensive to Mario Lopez…but that’s for another post as this is to celebrate OUR accomplishments, not his assholeness). Silverman, AronRa and Barker (from what I recollect) all rose to the challenge of standing up to the loudmouth Asshole Creationist and did so in their own unique and enjoyable ways.

All-in-all it was a great day to be an atheist. It was a great day to be an atheist activist. It was a great day to be part of this movement.

We ALL contributed.

We ALL had our voices heard, even if you weren’t there.

We ALL have a new wave of momentum going into our next protest/event/rally.

It’s a great time to be an atheist!

#OhNoahHeDidnt