Theme Park Proposal - Faith Land

     

      The theme of my park is faith and belief. It is a place where the cultural aspects of all beliefs and religions can exist in the same area, free of political or social judgment. The concept statement behind the park and the experience is that all belief systems are of equal value.

The entire park will be dedicated to exploring religion not as a structure of faith, but as a cultural experience, where all religions can co-exist and visitors can learn and experience the cultural component of all religions and beliefs (or lack there of) via shared attractions and interactions with each other.

In Faith Land, guests can choose their attire upon entrance to the park - whether they want to stay in their own clothes, or wear traditional religious attire from any belief system they choose. They can also mix and match parts from different belief systems.

Restaurants and food services are themed around cultural foods that are based on either holidays or traditions from different faiths. In addition to exploration through food, each faith system will have its own area of exploration, through immersive projection rides (similar to Harry Potter World’s Hogwarts ride) about the history and traditions of each religion, holiday themed rides, or through visiting mockups of the holy places or temples from each religion (like the Western Wall, The Kaaba, or the River Jordan). One of the immersive projection rides will be the “Similarities” ride, which will survey the major religions from a historic point of view, show the similarities and historically compare the development of different belief systems. The ride will include a moving seat and immersive effects such as wind, water, smells and temperature changes to take the guests on a journey through time.

Belief in a higher power, or the universe will also represented in the park. In this area (Higher Power Square), guests can walk into a completely dark room, without knowing what the ride entails. They are giving themselves to the experience - it is a changing ride that is once a roller coaster, once a drop ride, once a silent sit in the dark, once a water ride - it is a metaphor for believing in something, but not putting a face or name to it.

Atheism will also have its own area for experiencing the idea of no deities or higher forces. The ride will be an educational one, comparing common beliefs with scientific theories that claim to counter it. The ride supports the overall idea of the park - experiencing religion or its substitutes from a place of learning and coming together, rather than dividing into camps.

To provide a fresh and ever-changing experience and encourage repeating visits, the park will change themes according to the time of year, based on the main holidays of each major religion. The science-based belief systems will also have seasonal themes, which will be designed by the visitors through surveys and questionnaires.  

The entire experience will be based on interactions between visitors from different point of views. To support that idea, each ride would have parallel queues where guests from different backgrounds can share their belief systems and traditions, so that repeating visits expand visitors’ circle of Faithers (returning guests).

In addition, there will be a main marketplace in the middle of the park that will allow purchasing different traditional snacks and street foods from major holidays. The marketplace will also include a craft area where guests could make and purchase different accessories that are associated with different belief systems: yarmulkes, turbans, buddhist robes - the spiritual meaning of these objects is stripped from them, and they become ways to assimilate and immerse in a foreign culture.

Entrance with weapons to the park is strictly prohibited, and all rides will be wheelchair accessible. The security guards and Faithineers (park employees) all around the park will be dressed in traditional garments from different religions, often with garments from multiple religions in one outfit, as a cultural way of bringing the faiths together, rather than divide people.


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