The northern Kentucky city of Williamstown plans to build a 510-foot (155.4-meter) wooden ship, the centerpiece of a planned biblical theme park called “Ark Encounter”, planned to attract 1.2 million visitors a year. To pay for this Creation Museum “Answers in Genesis” a Christian non-profit, intends to issue $62 million of bonds.

Investors who buy $100,000 of the taxable securities will get a lifetime family pass, bond documents show. Yet they may not get their money back, given the track record of unrated municipal bonds. Of the 438 issuers currently in default, 93 percent initially offered bonds without a credit grade, according to Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Advisors. (adapted from an article in Business Week. Nov 15 2013).

If people are silly enough to put up money for a replica of Noah’s Ark, then they deserve to lose their money. It appears that there was probably some flooding in many parts of world as the climate changed after the ice age. But, folks, Noah’s story is a metaphor, a way of explaining how the world and its creatures survived during a natural disaster. Don’t take it literally! Epicureans understand this. They are impressed that the ancient writings in the bible have survived, and agree that some of the writing is evocative and beautiful, if violent. But factually accurate?

Give us a rational education system that allows people to distinguish between fact and fiction!