Ham, Höss, and Noah
I have not seen the movie The Zone of Interest, though I have read a bit about it (not to mention more Holocaust books and articles than Carter’s has pills. See, for example, the review by Manohla Dargis).
What interested me about the movie was William Trollinger’s take on it. For those, like me, who have not seen the movie, it is based on the true story of Rudolf Höss , the Commandant of Auschwitz, and his family, who lived an idyllic existence on the very edge of the concentration camp.
Professor Trollinger likens the Höss family to the imagined family presented by Ken Ham and his minions in the Ark Park (see photographs by Dan Phelps here). The Ark Park celebrates what they claim is the destruction of 20 billion people in the Flood. Mr. Ham and his staff have made up a long story about the family of Noah, and given them names, jobs, and so on. As Prof Trollinger puts it,
Taking “artistic license” to a whole new level (as very, very little of this in the Bible), placards accompanying the dioramas of [Noah's family] invent personalities and skills for the three sons, and names, personalities, and skills for the sons’ wives. Most striking is the plushness of the living quarters, which include a library, large kitchen, and lots and lots of delicious-looking food.
Life for these eight individuals is very good indeed – a paradise, as it were. And while the Noah family is blissfully reading, making music, creating artwork, eating, and so forth, what is going on outside the boat? Well, according to Ark Encounter, up to twenty billion (!) people were drowning. This includes folks with various disabilities as well as toddlers, infants, newborns, and the unborn.…
He concludes by pointing out,
In contrast with The Zone of Interest, Ark Encounter is quite blatant in encouraging visitors to identify with the comfortably content, albeit morally vacuous (to understate the case), Noah family.
I have always wondered why anyone would want to worship such a murderous God. I would say that Prof. Trollinger does not; Mr. Ham does.