Nihil Obstat

Creation Museum

I love dinosaurs.   I love the Bible.   Now, I can have them together at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.   Their   motto is: “Prepare to Believe.”

The museum was developed by the Christian evangelical group, Answers in Genesis Ministry. The organization was founded by the Australian-born Reverend Ken Ham.   He arrived in the U.S. in 1987.

The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life.   Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s rivers.

The scenes remind me a lot of “The Flintstones,” a cartoon series I used to love to watch when I was growing up.   Fred and Wilma Flintstone had a pet dinosaur named “Dino,” who barks and generally acts like a dog. A running gag involves Dino knocking down Fred out of excitement and licking him repeatedly.

If you were a kid during the 1960s and 70s, then you probably not only know the melody to the Flintstones song, but all the words as well.

Flintstones… Meet the Flintstones,
They’re a modern stoneage family.

From the town of Bedrock,
They’re a page right out of history.

Let’s ride with the family down the street.
Thru the courtesy of Fred’s two feet.

When you’re with the Flintstones,
have a yabba dabba doo time,

a dabba doo time,

we’ll have a gay old time.”

The museum, which is said to have cost $27 million, is privately funded through donations. The one-millionth visitor was announced on April 26, 2010, just over a month away from the museum’s three-year anniversary.

At Creation Museum, Earth and the universe are just over 6,000 years old, created in six days by God. The museum preaches “Same facts, different conclusions” and is unequivocal in viewing paleontological and geological data in light of a literal reading of the Bible.

In the creationist interpretation, the layers were laid down in one event — the worldwide flood when God wiped the land clean except for the creatures on Noah’s ark — and these dinosaurs died in 2348 B.C., the year of the flood.

“I like the fact the dinosaurs were in the ark,” Ham said.   About 50 kinds of dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, the museum explains, but later went extinct for unknown reasons.

According to Ham, almost every ill of modern society can be traced to the widespread acceptance of evolution.   In response, he started his Answers in Genesis (AIG) Ministry in 1994.   Soon after coming to Kentucky, he was promoting his plans to build a “creation museum” with numerous dinosaur models. Reverend Ham rechristened dinosaurs as “Missionary Lizards” and claimed to have recruited them to fight the demons of evolution and historical geology.

“For a person to make the claim that humans and dinosaurs did not coexist, they would have to be able to see all history at exactly the same time, which would make that person omniscient and omnipresent, qualities of God. So, when someone says emphatically that humans and dinosaurs did not exist together in the past, that person is claiming to be a god, while calling God Himself a liar, or, at best, deceptive.”

Many of the displays were designed by Patrick Marsh, who had formerly worked for Universal Studios designing attractions such as Jaws and King Kong before becoming a born-again Christian and young Earth creationist.

Among its exhibits, the museum features life-size dinosaur models, over 80 of them animatronic (animated and motion-sensitive). Model dinosaurs are depicted in the Garden of Eden, many of them side-by-side with human figures. In one exhibit, a Triceratops and a Stegosaurus are shown aboard a scale model of Noah’s ark.

Some of the exhibits show modern times and espouse the view that families and society are hurt by a world view which is not Biblically based.   In one video, a male teenager is shown sitting at a computer looking at internet pornography and a female teenager speaks with Planned Parenthood about having an abortion.

John Haught, a research professor at Georgetown University who is an expert on science and religion, said it’s “not terribly surprising” that a museum would be created to support creationists’ arguments about the origins of life.

“It’s important for them to deny evolution because…if evolution happened, then there was no original perfection,” said Haught, a Roman Catholic who believes in evolution.   “It’s absolutely essential for them that there be some fall. Otherwise the whole significance of Christianity gets lost.”

For his part, Haught doesn’t see much merit in the museum and expects it will cause an “impoverishment” of both theology and religion. “It’s hard for me to come up with a single reason why we should be doing this,” said Haught. “It’s theologically problematic for me, as well as scientifically problematic.”

Next up for Answers in Genesis – “Ark Encounters,” a $150 million Noah’s ark theme park.   Among other attractions the park will feature a 500-foot wooden ark complete with live animals.   The developers are Christian conservatives who want state government to help subsidize the ark park with as much as $37.5 million in tourism development incentives.

So far, Ark Encounters has the blessing of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who said he was elected to help create jobs, not debate religious beliefs. Some other residents, who don’t subscribe to the bumper sticker theology of “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” disagree, so the minute the tax subsidies are requested the court battle is expected to begin.

See Creation Museum here.

See Ark Encounter here. I hope no one looking for Ark Encounter accidentally types Ark Encounters.