RE: [HAPS-L] The world's first creationist museum

["Paul Jackson" <pjackson@xxxxxxxx>]

Dr. Rosenthal:

This reminded me of an alarming event that occurred to me recently.  I changed status this semester from adjunct to contracted faculty member and had to go to our college's occupational medicine provider for a post-offer physical.  I won't mention the clinic as it is a very large one here in Wichita, but upon meeting the doctor and informing him of my position with the college (anatomy instructor) he proceeded to spend the entire exam challenging me on evolutionary theories.  His first question to me upon learning my profession as a science teacher was: "Do you believe in evolution".  THAT should have sent off major warning bells.  I am still in shock that the entire physical was spent with me defending such things as the cascade of blood clotting, and theories of the evolution of the eyeball.  This from an MD!  I tried to be gentle in reminding him that I deal with hundreds of students from a variety of faith backgrounds, but this fell on unhearing ears.  Talk about an abuse of a power situation--This was the man who could refuse me a job if he felt so inclined.  I passed the physical, got the job, but am still at a loss as to what to do.  I have sent out feelers with my peers to see if they encountered a similar situation, but I am hesitant to file a formal complaint.  I mean, he was just asking questions, right? 

Bewildered in Kansas,

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:HAPS-L-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rosenthal, Dr. Martha
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 12:11 PM
To: HAPS-L@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [HAPS-L] The world's first creationist museum

The world's first Creationist museum - dedicated to the idea that the
creation of the world, as told in Genesis, is factually correct - will
soon open. Stephen Bates is given a sneak preview and asks: was there
really a tyrannosaurus in the Bible?

Monday November 13, 2006
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1946370,00.html <https://fgcu-piranha.fgcu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1946370,00.html> 


The Creation Museum's motto: Prepare to Believe.

Just off the interstate, a couple of junctions down from Cincinnati's
international airport, over the state line in rural Kentucky, the
finishing touches are being put to an impressive-looking building. When it
is finished and open to the public next summer, it may, quite possibly, be
one of the weirdest museums in the world.

The Creation Museum - motto: "Prepare to Believe!" - will be the first
institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few
turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake. It is dedicated
to the proposition that the account of the creation of the world in the
Book of Genesis is completely correct, and its mission is to convince
visitors through a mixture of animatronic models, tableaux and a strangely
Disneyfied version of the Bible story.

Article continues
Its designer, Patrick Marsh, used to work at Universal Studios in Los
Angeles and then in Japan before he saw the light, opened his soul to
Jesus, and was born anew. "The Bible is the only thing that gives you the
full picture," he says. "Other religions don't have that, and, as for
scientists, so much of what they believe is pretty fuzzy about life and
its origins ... oh, this is a great place to work, I will tell you that."

So this is the Bible story, as truth. Apart from the dinosaurs, that is.
As you stand in the museum's lobby - the only part of the building
approaching completion - you are surrounded by life-size dinosaur models,
some moving and occasionally grunting as they chew the cud.Beside the
turtle pool, two animatronic, brown-complexioned children, demurely
dressed in Hiawatha-like buckskin, gravely flutter with movement. Behind
them lurk two small Tyrannosaurus Rexes. This scene is meant to date from
before the Fall of Man and, apparently, dinosaurs.

Theological scholars may have noticed that there are, in fact, no
dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible - and here lies the Creationists' first
problem. Since there are undoubtedly dinosaur bones and since, according
to the Creationists, the world is only 6,000 years old - a calculation
devised by the 17th-century Bishop Ussher, counting back through the Bible
to the Creation, a formula more or less accepted by the museum - dinosaurs
must be shoehorned in somewhere, along with the Babylonians, Egyptians and
the other ancient civilisations. As for the Grand Canyon - no problem:
that was, of course, created in a few months by Noah's Flood.

But what, I ask wonderingly, about those fossilised remains of early
man-like creatures? Marsh knows all about that: "There are no such things.
Humans are basically as you see them today. Those skeletons they've found,
what's the word? ... they could have been deformed, diseased or something.
I've seen people like that running round the streets of New York."

Nothing can dent the designer's zeal as he leads us gingerly through the
labyrinth of rooms still under construction, with bits of wood, and the
odd dinosaur head occasionally blocking our path. The light of keenness
shines from the faces of the workers, too, as they chisel out mountain
sides and work out where to put the Tree of Life. They greet us cheerily
as we pass.

They, too, know they are doing the Lord's Work, and each has signed a
contract saying they believe in the Seven Days of Creation theory.
Mornings on this construction site start with prayer meetings. Don't think
for a minute that this is some sort of crazy little hole-in-the-corner
project. The museum is costing $25m (£13m) and all but $3m has already
been raised from private donations. It is strategically placed, too - not
in the middle of nowhere, but within six hours' drive of two-thirds of the
entire population of the US. And, as we know, up to 50 million of them do
believe that the Bible's account of Creation is literally true.

We pass the site where one day an animatronic Adam will squat beside the
Tree. With this commitment to authenticity, I find myself asking what they
are doing about the fig leaf. Marsh considers this gravely and replies:
"He is appropriately positioned, so he can be modest. There will be a lamb
or something there next to him. We are very careful about that: some of
our donors are scared to death about nudity."

The same will go for the scene where Eve is created out of Adam's rib,
apparently, and parents will be warned that little children may be scared
by the authenticity of some of the scenes. "Absolutely, because we are in
there, being faithful to scripture."

A little licence is allowed, however, where the Bible falls down on the
details. The depiction of a wall-sized section of Noah's Ark is based, not
on the traditional picture of a flat-decked boat, but one designed by navy
engineers with a keel and bows, which might, at least, have floated. "You
can surmise," says Marsh. When you get inside, there's nifty computer
software telling you how they fitted all the animals in, too.

The museum's research scientist, Dr Jason Lisle, has a PhD in astrophysics
from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He realised he was a Christian
while he was an undergraduate, but didn't spread it around: "People get
very emotional about the issue. I don't believe we should ever be
obnoxious about our faith. I just kept quiet." And how did he pass the
exams? "I never lied, but if I was asked a question about the age of the
universe, I answered from my knowledge of the topic, not my beliefs."

The museum's planetarium is his pride and joy. Lisle writes the
commentary. "Amazing! God has a name for each star," it says, and: "The
sun's distance from earth did not happen by chance." There is much more in
this vein, but not what God thought he was doing when he made Pluto, or
why.

Now, we are taken to meet Ken Ham, the museum's director and its
inspiration. Ham is an Australian, a former science teacher - though not,
he is at pains to say, a scientist - and he has been working on the
project for much of the past 20 years since moving to the US. "You'd never
find something like this in Australia," he says. "If you want to get the
message out, it has to be here."

Reassuringly, on the wall outside his office, are three framed photographs
of the former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh - "cricket's never
really caught on over here" - and inside, on his bookshelves, is a wooden
model of a platypus. On top of the shelves is an array of fluffy poodle
toys, as well as cuddly dinosaurs. "Poodles are degenerate mutants of
dogs. I say that in my lectures and people present them to me as gifts."

Ham is a large man with a chin-hugging beard like an Old Testament prophet
or an old-fashioned preacher, both of which he is, in a way. He lectures
all over the world and spent a month in Britain earlier in the summer
spreading the message to the faithful in parish halls from Cornwall to
Scotland. "We want to try to convince people using observational science,"
he says. "It's done very gently but forthrightly. We give both sides,
which is more than the Science Museum in London does."

This is true in that the Creation museum does include an animatronic
evolutionist archaeologist, sitting beside a creationist, at one point.
But there's no space for an animatronic Charles Darwin to fit alongside
King David and his harp.

On the shelf behind Ham's desk lie several surprising books, including
Richard Dawkins' latest. "I've skipped through it. The thing is, Dawkins
does not have infinite knowledge or understanding himself. He's got a
position, too, it's just a different one from ours. The Bible makes sense
and is overwhelmingly confirmed by observable science. It does not confirm
the belief in evolution."

But if you believe in the Bible, why do you need to seek scientific
credibility, and why are Creationists so reluctant to put their theories
to peer review, I ask?

"I would give the same answer as Dawkins. He believes there is no God and
nothing you could say would convince him otherwise. You are dealing with
an origins issue. If you don't have the information, you cannot be sure.
Nothing contradicts the Bible's account of the origins."

We wander across to the bookshop, which, far from being another biblical
epic, is done up like a medieval castle, framed with heraldic shields and
filled with images of dragons - dragons, you see, being what dinosaurs
became. It is full of books with titles such as Infallible Proofs, The
Lie, The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved and even a DVD entitled Arguments
Creationists Should Not Use. As we finish the tour, Ham tells us about the
museum's website, http://www.AnswersInGenesis.org <https://fgcu-piranha.fgcu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.AnswersInGenesis.org> . They are expecting
300,000 visitors a year. "You've not seen anything yet," he says with a
smile.


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