Creation Museum
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== Creation Museum "science" == | == Creation Museum "science" == | ||
| − | Lawrence Krauss, director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University ([[Ohio]]) has stated publicly that the museum is both a "fraud" and "hypocritical" because: | + | Lawrence Krauss, director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University ([[Ohio]]) (note: currently of Arizona State University) has stated publicly that the museum is both a "fraud" and "hypocritical" because: |
{{cquote|It repeatedly misrepresents the process and results of science and distorts the scientific record. Yet in every case it takes advantage of the technical wizardry of science to get its point across, with a series of dazzling animatronic displays and explanations" <ref> Kraus, L, 2007 quoted in "Museum of Misinformation", New Scientist, May 26th 2007, p24 </ref>}} | {{cquote|It repeatedly misrepresents the process and results of science and distorts the scientific record. Yet in every case it takes advantage of the technical wizardry of science to get its point across, with a series of dazzling animatronic displays and explanations" <ref> Kraus, L, 2007 quoted in "Museum of Misinformation", New Scientist, May 26th 2007, p24 </ref>}} | ||
Revision as of 08:12, 18 February 2012
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“”I went to the Creation Museum and all I got was stupider
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| —Bumper sticker slogan[1] |
The Creation Museum (if you can call it a "museum") is a $27 million project amusement park located in Kentucky just a few miles from Cincinnati.[2] It was founded by Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis.[3] It is devoted to the young earth creationist idea that "The Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation!"[3][4] — that is, in complete opposition to the scientific consensus.[5]
The "museum" promotes the idea that "the Bible is the history book of the universe". This is somehow supposed to be in line with their idea that "facts don't speak for themselves" and that the Bible contains the "correct" way to interpret any and all evidence available in the physical world.
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Creation Museum "science"
Lawrence Krauss, director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) (note: currently of Arizona State University) has stated publicly that the museum is both a "fraud" and "hypocritical" because:
“”It repeatedly misrepresents the process and results of science and distorts the scientific record. Yet in every case it takes advantage of the technical wizardry of science to get its point across, with a series of dazzling animatronic displays and explanations" [6]
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Krauss debated AiG president Ken Ham in May 2007 on Fox News Channel’s popular propaganda program The O’Reilly Factor.[7]
On the BBC Radio programme Today (May 31st 2007), Ken Ham was interviewed about the museum. He provided an example of the "scientific evidence" that dinosaurs and humans had at one time lived together — it was a drawing on a cave wall which showed humans hunting what appeared to be dinosaurs. Apparently, humans in the past were incapable of making stuff up so the cave paintings had to be accurate.
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are common in the Creation Museum: it contains numerous displays of dinosaurs coexisting peacefully with humans[8] despite the overwhelming evidence that dinosaurs died out millions of years before the first humans.[9] The Creation Museum supports the view that all dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden were herbivores,[10] and when asked why T. rex had six inch long serrated teeth the guide will explain that those were for opening coconuts.[11]
The evidence that the Creation Museum presents for the co-existence of dinosaurs and humans is a verse in the book of Job mentioning a behemoth[12], whose description creationists claim fits that of a sauropod dinosaur. This has been demonstrated to be false, but they still insist on spreading the falsehood.[13] It does not bother them that the same book that talks about the behemoth also talks about dragons[14] and how the behemoth and the leviathan will fight a mighty battle at the end of the world.[15]
Creation Museum conspecifics
The Creation Museum is just the latest microevolutionary development in the creation museum kind. While no one has ever observed one creation museum kind giving birth to another creation museum kind, there is plenty of variation within the kind (micro only, of course). The closest extant relative of Ken Ham's creation is the Museum of Creation and Earth History, endemic to California, and created by the Institute for Creation Research.
| I think they should rename the museum — not the Creation Museum, but the Confusion Museum ... As a Christian, I was dismayed. — Lisa E. Park, Professor of paleontology[16] |
The 7 Wonders Creation Museum occupies a completely different ecological niche. Located as a missionary somewhere near Mt. St. Helens this spacious double-wide trailer offers guided tours of the monument to Creation by a loving God that all volcanoes represent, but particularly this one. For a mere $10 you can send your kids to a summer camp where they can learn all about how Noah's Ark dealt with lava.
Speaking of double-wide trailers, Patriot Bible University alumnus and federal prisoner Kent Hovind has been offering children of all ages an adventure of a lifetime at Dinosaur Adventure Land. This Florida landmark has fallen upon tough times; it seems to have been built without a permit. But it is still up and running, and for your tax deductible donation gift of $7 all the wonders of Dr. Dino can be yours.
While Ken Ham is getting all the big press, another major creation museum opened in 2008. Big Valley Creation Science Museum offers all the wonders one comes to expect from a converted garage.
As can be seen, there is a wide variety of trailers, garages, backyards, and abandoned warehouses vying for the money of Creation Science devotees. The question is whether Ken Ham's fully animated pumpkin-eating T. rex will be enough to overcome his competitors?
Mistakes
Apart from the obvious, there are several mistakes that have been made with the models. Example models include a Tyrannosaurus Rex dragging its tail on the floor in an upright position that would have broken its spine, an Iguanadon with skin completely different from fossilised imprints and a Utahraptor sporting anatomically incorrect forearms, its hands facing forwards instead of towards each other. The same Utahraptor model is also shown without any feathers, despite evidence that it had them.[17][18] It's possible that these mistakes derive from them watching a little too much Walking With Dinosaurs, which also depicted the Utahraptor with these same inaccuracies.[19] Not content with displaying ignorance of just dinosaurs, there are several incorrect reconstructions of Mesozoic flora, one example being a cycad plant reconstructed as little more than a giant pineapple.[17]
Absurdities
That the museum was financed by a mortgage on the real estate it sits on probably won't go down too well with the Lord either, considering his outright ban on usury amongst the faithful. It would seem strange that an organisation dedicated to the idea that the Bible contains the literal, inerrant word of God should go out of their way to test that assumption considering that in Deuteronomy, God commands that you do no such thing.[20] On a related note, the Creation Museum pulled a video of Adam and Eve after learning that the actor that plays Adam owns a free love website.[21]
Attendance
By August 1st 2008, a little more than 500 days after opening, the Creation Museum announced it had admitted 500,000 visitors.[22] In the same amount of time, Disneyland had almost 21 million (21,000,000) visitors, although this is in almost no way relevant.[23] One month away from its third anniversary, the Creation Museum had its 1,000,000th guest.[24] In response, President and Co-Founder of the museum, Ken Ham, stated, "We are excited to welcome our one millionth guest today, and we are grateful that God continues to bless this ministry with such strong attendance in a challenging economy."[24]
Intimidation
Blogger PZ Myers's described the museum as the "antithesis of open inquiry" and implied that the guards are used to intimidate visitors.
“”At the Creation "Museum", one of the jobs of the guards is to suppress criticism. They hover about in rather conspicuous uniforms, armed with tasers, and some use police dogs to check out the visitors. They don't want dissent expressed in their building, and they admit it themselves.[25]
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He also tells a story where an atheist was asked to stop engaging a creationist in conversation because they "had signed an agreement not to even discuss anything in the building where others could hear."
Ark Encounter
In 2010, Answers in Genesis started a new project about 40 miles from the Creation Museum called the "Ark Encounter" for which the plan is to build a life sized ark.[26] Another $150 million[27] dollars well spent! Plans dictate that the ark will be built precisely to the specifications described in the Bible, down to the cubit. The result of this is that Creationist families will marvel in awe at the size of the boat, before a sudden, startling realization that it couldn't fit two of every animal.
Set to open in 2014, the Ark Encounter will also feature a petting zoo, a replica Tower of Babel, and the "historical" biblical journey from Abraham to the parting of the Red Sea.[28] With its super accurate account of history, the project is aimed mainly at being an educational experience for its soon-to-be-enightened visitors (of which they expect 1.6 million a year).[29]
See also
- Young Earth Creationism
- The incontrovertible evidence of common descent
- The Bible
- Creation Museum Visitor's Guide
- Expelled: Leader's Guide
- Holy Land Experience
External links/blogsnark
The following are various reports on the Creation Museum, usually based on actual visits:
- John Scalzi at Whatever
- Panda's Thumb
- BlueGrassRoots
- A photo guide to the museum (by a blogger)
- Pharyngula — following PZ Myers and a group who toured it in August 2009.
- Secular Student Alliance visits the museum
- "Kentucky Fried Creation"
- Lawrence Krauss on the "museum of misinformation" (pdf).
- The Buffalo Beast visits the Creation Museum in "Let There Be Retards"
Footnotes
- ↑ Bumper sticker quoted by amunptah777 on 9/24/2007 8:52:22 PM at Belief.net
- ↑ MSNBC:High-tech museum brings creationism to life
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 CreationMuseaum:About
- ↑ "Police and Thieves", Murvin/Perry
- ↑ About.com:Geology
- ↑ Kraus, L, 2007 quoted in "Museum of Misinformation", New Scientist, May 26th 2007, p24
- ↑ Source:Answers in Genesis this has to be a first: accurate information at AiG!!!
- ↑ NYtimes:Adam and Eve in the Land of the Dinosaurs
- ↑ University of California
- ↑ Fish feet:T-Rex are coconuts
- ↑ Science blogs:Pharyngula
- ↑ http://www.telecomtally.com/blog/2007/05/this_is_not_about_dinosaurs.html Abnormal Interests
- ↑ The truth about behemoth
- ↑ Accuracy in genesis
- ↑ The Franz Neumann Project
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/science/30muse.html?_r=1
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 National Center for Science Education - Anti-Museum overview
- ↑ Gregory S. Paul, Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Utahraptor.
- ↑ Deuteronomy 6:16
- ↑ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/07/national/a175033D34.DTL
- ↑ http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2008/08/01/500000th-visitor-at-the-creation-museum/
- ↑ http://thedisneyblog.com/2008/03/14/disney-themepar/
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Millionth Guest Visits Creation Museum"
- ↑ The Creation “Museum” - PZ Myers, Pharyngula
- ↑ http://arkencounter.com/
- ↑ The Ark Encounter website's "Frequently" Asked Questions
- ↑ The Ark Encounter website's "Frequently" Asked Questions
- ↑ The Ark Encounter website's "Frequently" Asked Questions