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And he saw that it was good.

The ark opened last summer and is on target, Ham says, to attract more than a million visitors in the first year.

But Ham did not rest.

The 65-year-old Australian and his partners, Mike Zovath and Mark Looy, have launched an ambitious 10-to-12-year plan to re-create a walled city from the time of Noah and a first-century village from the time of Jesus.

Also, a Tower of Babel, concept snack shacks, a 3,200-seat amphitheater and a 10-plagues-of-Egypt thrill ride. Frogs! Fiery hail! Locusts!

Instead of building a church, Answers in Genesis is sharing its teachings through a controversial biblical theme park designed to attract believers and nonbelievers alike.

Why not attractions that people will come to the way they go to Disney or Universal or the Smithsonian?

“How do you reach the general public in a bigger way?” muses Ham rhetorically, sitting in his expansive corner office at the Creation Museum, his first, more sober foray into the family entertainment business, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Memorial Day. “Why not attractions that people will come to the way they go to Disney or Universal or the Smithsonian?”

Why not, indeed?

Answers in Genesis is certainly adopting a different approach from the Museum of the Bible, which is scheduled to open in November in Washington, D.C., and aims to attract all religions. AiG wants to attract all tourists and introduce them to its specific brand of faith.

Ham and his brethren are creationists and Christian apologists who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. (Contrary to scientists who say that it’s more like 4.5 billion years — or older.) Apologetics is a branch of Christianity whose adherents actively defend their faith, and Ham is a robust debater.