Early Modern Notes

You may have seen the story about a group of creationists who want to build a Christian theme park in Lancashire.

It was already one of those suspiciously detail-free stories - nothing concrete about locations or backers, a lot of aspiration and ’speculation’ - apart from the bit where the spokesperson admitted Wigan council has already refused them planning permission. So much hot air, then, I’ll believe it when I see it, etc. But a commenter at Pharyngula went and did a bit of digging, and found the charity’s annual report. And, oh dear, you’ve gotta laugh:

There’s a tiny graph on page seven showing, allegedly, the Appeal fund. They reckon they’ll need something over £3m, which is large by the standards of an individual but staggeringly low for serious TV production. They claim to have been promised £2m, although by who is not revealed - perhaps God promised them that much? - but they’ve received, at best, a quarter mil by the size of the “actual” bar. The real financial meat, however, is on page nine. They’ve received, by their own figures, a total of £2,310 over two years, £2,000 of which has come from the trustees of the fund. They’ve spent £1,999. They have £311 remaining. I have slightly more money than that in my current account at the moment.