Sad monkey: Creationist Ken Ham blames atheists and the secular media for reports on the extremely low attendance numbers at his Ark Encounter theme park.

Recent reports indicate that Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter, the life-sized Noah’s Ark attraction near Northern Kentucky, is failing because attendance numbers show that park attendance is way below what was expected.

The Louisville Courier Journal reports:

The Ark Encounter sold a little more than 860,000 tickets between July 2017 and June 2018, according to open records obtained by The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state. When the park opened in 2016, park officials anticipated 1.4 million to 2.4 million yearly visitors.

Media reports that the park’s attendance numbers are way below what was expected sent Ham into an angry Twitter rant where he blamed atheists and the secular media for reporting on the dismal attendance records:

Another record broken @ArkEncounter as 8500+ poured in Sat as numbers continue to climb despite Fake News from atheists & secular media & @courierjournal @heraldleader @Enquirer & irresponsible journalism @FortuneMagazine – journalists are clueless & seem to hate the Ark success pic.twitter.com/pBEtgS83Gm — Ken Ham (@aigkenham) August 5, 2018

Another record broken @ArkEncounter as 8500+ poured in Sat as numbers continue to climb despite Fake News from atheists & secular media & @courierjournal @heraldleader @Enquirer & irresponsible journalism @FortuneMagazine – journalists are clueless & seem to hate the Ark success

Note: Ham is calling the real attendance numbers submitted by Ark Encounter and obtained by The Freedom From Religion Foundation via an open records request “Fake News,” a tactic often deployed by Trump, who regularly labels legitimate news that makes him look bad “Fake News.”

However, the fact that Ham is being deceitful and deceptive should come as no surprise. His entire career as a Christian Creationist is built upon deception and willful ignorance.

Indeed, Ham’s Ark Encounter is a Christian fundamentalist project based on discredited science and a literal interpretation of Genesis. The Bible-based theme park is designed to be an exercise in Christian propaganda: a deplorable attempt to deceive children and others by denying the scientific reality of biological evolution and promoting Christian mythology as scientific fact.

In essence, the conservative Christian theme park is dedicated to indoctrinating children with ridiculous and discredited claims from the dubious field of “creation science,” claims such as the earth is only 6,000-years-old, that human beings and dinosaurs lived on the earth at the same time, and that the story of Noah’s Ark is true.

Blaming atheist and the secular media for his failure is nothing new. Last year Ham made a similar claim after reports circulated that Ark Encounter was experiencing a severe financial crisis.

Bottom line: Attendance numbers show that Ken Ham’s Ark Park is failing, and an angry Ken Ham is blaming atheists and the secular media for the story.