Categories: christianity, life, germany
Date: 04 June 2008 20:23:15
the Genesis Park - near Heidelberg in Germany. Yes, gentle readers, a group of Swiss evangelicals* wants to construct a biblically-themed park to be opened in 2012. (Will this be in direct competition with the Olympics to be held on this fair isle?)
There are plans for a life-size Noah's Ark surrounded by water (I suppose you'll have to swim to it to look round as everything else will be under water...assuming they're sticking to the script), a rollercoaster to evoke impressions of the Great Flood and another to give an idea of Heaven and Hell**, a Roman amphitheatre, a mini version of Israel in biblical times and a shopping mall based on a forum.
The must-see must be the "Tower of Babel Restaurant" - Kerensa wonders if it is where everyone starves because no-one can understand what anyone else is saying... Can you imagine it? Perhaps it will be located in the Hell part of the park...
The idea is to convey the message of love in the Bible to the park's visitors. Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't. I have no idea. The question in my mind is: will there be a Garden of Eden before the Fall? Germans are not like the modest Brits and find it quite bewildering that we do not strip off at any given opportunity - it is quite common to see people sunbathing in their birthday suits in public parks. Their word for this is: Freikörperkultur (lit: free body culture) and have had FKK beaches for decades - compared to our own timid emergence from under the beach towel relatively recently on designated nudist beaches. Or will the evangelicals* be presenting everything from a post-Fall perspective?
The firm is apparently still looking for investors to raise the rest of the 185 million US dollars it needs and hopes to have the money by the end of this year. So, if you've got a few spare million or so, don't give it to the poor and needy - invest it wisely in Genesis Park.
*I'm not sure now if this is "evangelicals" or "protestants". The German for protestant is "evangelisch", evangelical is "evangelikalisch". I can't find the article again to check.
** A rollercoaster is already part of my idea of Hell... I don't need to go on one to have any more vivid an idea.