The Need to Believe

Sharon and I recently made the six and a half hour journey to Williamstown, Kentucky to take in the Ark Encounter. The magnificent structure is an intriguing mix of Bible fact and artistic license. The builders call it “ark-tistic license”.

You know the story. God told Noah to build the giant boat to the size of just under two football fields. Noah and his family, and thousands of animals, survived inside of it after forty days of rain washed out all life on the planet. The Bible supplies only limited detail about what the ship looked like and how it functioned. Because of this, many regard the story of Noah and the great flood as little more than legend.

To their credit, the builders of the Kentucky ark are very up front about having to fill in the gaps. The first thing you see when you board is a series of plaques explaining how much of it is based on Scripture, and how much needed to be guessed at, based on the resources available at the time.

I had no problem with this. After all, the mission of the Ark Encounter is not so much to convince you that the story of Noah is true. It is to convince you that it can be true, that you don’t have to suspend all rational thinking to accept it as fact. As such, the builders make a reality-grounded case that Noah and his clan, given enough time, could indeed have built it, gathered the animals, and navigated the flood, as per the biblical account. The exhibit also provides ample geologic evidence that such a flood did actually take place.

Of course, there had to be a few nods and winks to modern convenience to make the structure viable as a tourist attraction. I’m pretty sure Noah didn’t have ceiling fans, elevators and Coke vending machines, not to mention Uncle Leroy’s Candy Kitchen on the second deck. No matter. The large collection of visitors had little problem separating the meaningful from the marketing.

Speaking of the crowd, I probably did as much people watching as ark observing. I was fascinated by the diversity of the visitors, in age, gender, ethnicity, everything. At various times I heard folks around me speaking languages that sounded like German, French and Spanish. We met nice travelers from New York and Illinois. There were people from every stage of life. Seniors like me, young adults bringing their small children, teenagers in groups. I saw long hair, pink hair, nose rings and full body tattoos.

There’s a punch line in there about God sending two of every kind of human to the ark, but I’ll refrain.

I saw very little boredom. There was a palpable air of excitement. Everyone wandered the decks, read the plaques, watched the videos, stared wide-eyed at the displays. There were smiles. There was reverence. There was…..something else. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Was it vindication? Or just plain relief?

Most Christians want to believe the Bible, but it’s hard to keep doubt from creeping in because of some of the fantastical improbabilities. Adam and Eve, the parting of the sea, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions den. Does accepting the credibility of accounts such as these require some brand of blind faith that often must ignore what appear to be scientific facts?

Maybe not. Along comes the Ark Encounter. Here we see a logical, believable, realistic, step-by-step depiction of how the story of Noah and the flood can not only be true, but likely is so.

Perhaps that was it. That’s what I saw in the faces of so many visitors. The joy one feels when you discover solid evidence that supports what you so desperately want to place your faith in.

People today hear a lot of voices coming from a lot of different directions. We all have a need to believe in something, to invest our faith in a consistent source. If you find yourself twisting in the wind of troubled waters, take a trip to the ark. It just might help you drop anchor.