Creationist Ken Ham gets busted lying about his Ark exhibit’s abysmal opening day turnout

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Up until July 7, the day of young earth creationist Ken Ham’s $100 million “Ark Encounter” grand opening, the coming crowds were expected to be at biblical proportions. But thanks to the watchful eye of The Friendly Atheist’s Tracy Moody, we have a first hand look at how that may not be the case.

Red flags started to go up when Ham posted a photo to his Twitter account this Friday, boasting of a sizable crowd on at the “opening” of the attraction while comparing it to a photo depicting a less impressive turnout for an atheist protest. The only problem is that the photo was actually taken two days before the grand opening when Ham allowed the media, local politicians, and even some public high school students to take a preview tour.

Besides the fact that comparing the number of protesters (at some unknown random time of day) to the number of visitors at a $100 million attraction makes no sense at all, he’s using the same picture he already admitted was taken days before the Park’s opening.

The photo of the crowd was even posted to Ham’s website the day before the official opening:

As stated above, Ham used the photo again on July 15, claiming on Twitter that the turnout was immense for the grand opening:

Crowd at opening of @ArkEncounter –compared to photo of atheist protestors–yes, they're a small minority pic.twitter.com/u7aQBiQ4Sh

— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) July 15, 2016

Harken back to July 7 on opening day, and a video uploaded by Tracy Moody to the Friendly Atheist’s Facebook page shows the Ark Encounter lobby to be virtually empty in the middle of the afternoon. Below are some screen grabs from the video:

David Silverman, who goes by the Twitter handle @MrAtheistPants, also documented the lackluster turnout:

This is getting sad #OhNoahHeDidnt pic.twitter.com/88b6cgtizk

— David Silverman (@MrAtheistPants) July 7, 2016

Please everyone! No trampling! You'll all get to see! #OhNoahHeDidnt pic.twitter.com/XEskocgEqV

— David Silverman (@MrAtheistPants) July 7, 2016

Here's a 5 level ramp to hold a long queue of people. #OhNoahHeDidnt pic.twitter.com/JwnazFnVzM

— David Silverman (@MrAtheistPants) July 7, 2016

Although the official attendance numbers aren’t in yet, the pictures don’t leave room for much hope.

Featured image via Twitter