Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm: “The UK’s Premier Creationist Attraction”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.04.06 | 11:40 PM ET
That’s how James Russell describes the zoo farm in Somerset village that he visited with his son’s nursery group. The Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm was started in 1999 by Anthony and Christina Bush, farmers for 40 years, he writes. They wanted to demonstrate where food comes from and teach creation science.
Writing in The Guardian, Russell describes the zoo’s unorthodox approach:
When I visited Wraxall with my son’s nursery group, we went to the animal show and learned the difference between a cow’s horn and a deer’s antler. We learnt that ewes have udders, and we watched the presenter milk a ewe and drink the milk. Then events took a curious turn. A donkey was led in and the presenter traced a marking on its back. Did we know that the domesticated donkey has a dark cross marked on its back, he asked us casually, whereas the wild donkey doesn’t? Did the cross not remind us that the donkey carried Jesus?
In retrospect, I was intrigued by my shock at this mild evangelical interjection, a reaction that reflects a more general antipathy towards creationism. Anthony Bush hopes “to give people permission to believe in God”, by disputing the truth of Darwin’s theories. However, the prospect of a religious world-view having any authority fills non-believers with dread.
Russell reports that more than 100,000 people visited the zoo farm in 2005.
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Matt 01.11.06 | 6:07 AM ET
They have a website too with more: http://www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk