LEXINGTON, Ky. — A group of atheists based in Northern Kentucky raised $10,000 for a billboard protesting the soon-to-open Ark Encounter amusement park, a place where Christian scripture is taken so literally that a Noah’s Ark replica is being built using ancient measurements called “cubits.”

But two billboard companies have rejected the Tri-State Freethinkers’ interpretation of the story of Noah’s Ark as one of “genocide and incest.”

An artist's rendering of a Noah's Ark display being built by Ark Encounter amusement park in Williamstown, Ky. Courtesy of Ark Encounter

The proposed billboard design shows a Noah’s Ark with people drowning around it and the words “Genocide and Incest Park: Celebrating 2,000 years of myths.”

The advertisement has been turned down by Lamar, a national billboard company, and Event Advertising and Promotions LLC, a mobile billboard company.

“We default to accepting most all copy, but if there’s something we deem not appropriate then we don’t run it,” said Tom Fahey, manager of the Cincinnati office of Lamar. “It seemed more inflammatory in nature than anything else.”

Event Advertising and Promotions told the Tri-State Freethinkers that the company was worried about its drivers’ personal safety, said Jim Helton, president of Tri-State Freethinkers.

Conceived by the same folks who started the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, the Ark Encounter in Williamstown presents a creationist viewpoint in which the Earth is only 6,000 years old, a place where men lived peacefully alongside dinosaurs.

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