The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, is truly a haven of learning. It teaches such facts that the Universe is just over 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs lived side-by-side with humans a la The Flintstones. Basically, it's one of the most anti-scientific -- or maybe pro-pseudo scientific -- places in the country. So when a group of paleontologists visited, wackiness was bound to ensue:
The worlds of academic paleontology and creationism rarely collide, but the former paid a visit to the latter last Wednesday. The University of Cincinnati was hosting the North American Paleontological Convention, where scientists presented their latest research at the frontiers of the ancient past. In a break from the lectures, about 70 of the attendees boarded school buses for a field trip to the Creation Museum, on the other side of the Ohio River.And sadly, there are lots of people who agree with Dr. Mortenson:
. . .
Terry Mortenson, a lecturer and researcher for Answers in Genesis, the ministry that built and runs the Creation Museum, said he did not expect the visit to change many minds. “I’m sure for the most part they’ll be of a different view from what’s presented here,” Dr. Mortenson said. “We’ll just give the freedom to see what they want to see.”
Near the entrance to the exhibits is an animatronic display that includes a girl feeding a carrot to a squirrel as two dinosaurs stand nearby, a stark departure from natural history museums that say the first humans lived 65 million years after the last dinosaurs.
“I’m speechless,” said Derek E.G. Briggs, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, who walked around with crossed arms and a grimace. “It’s rather scary.”
Dr. Mortenson and others at the museum say they look at the same rocks and fossils as the visiting scientists, but because of different starting assumptions they arrive at different answers. For example, they say the biblical flood set off huge turmoil inside the Earth that broke apart the continents and pushed them to their current locations, not that the continents have moved over a few billion years.
“Everyone has presuppositions what they will consider, what questions they will ask,” said Dr. Mortenson, who holds a doctorate in the history of geology from Coventry University in England. “The very first two rooms of our museum talk about this issue of starting points and assumptions. We will very strongly contest an evolutionist position that they are letting facts speak for themselves.”
The museum’s presentation appeals to visitors like Steven Leinberger and his wife, Deborah, who came with a group from the Church of the Lutheran Confession in Eau Claire, Wis. “This is what should be taught even in science,” Mr. Leinberger said.But the scientists make a rather odd observation: the Creation Museum actually admits that evolution is real!
Dr. Bengtson noted that to explain how the few species aboard the ark could have diversified to the multitude of animals alive today in only a few thousand years, the museum said simply, “God provided organisms with special tools to change rapidly.”I'm fully with Hemant on Friendly Atheist, who says "Either the Creation Museum supports evolution… or they don’t understand their own beliefs."
“Thus in one sentence they admit that evolution is real,” Dr. Bengtson said, “and that they have to invoke magic to explain how it works.”
3 comments:
C. David Parsons, Author of The Quest for Right, a 7-book series on physical science verses Darwinism. Are the histories portrayed in the Bible little more than fairy tales passed along the caravan routes, with each reciter adding to and taking away from said histories, or do they represent the infallible Word of God recorded with fear and trembling on instrumentation by the holy men of old? The investigation will answer the question to the complete satisfaction of the reader.
If biblical history is deemed legitimate—you decide—there will be three major bonuses. Firstly, the historian of the most ancient of all writings, the Book of Genesis, will be searched out. Hint: It was not Moses. To many, the identity of the author and the subsequent impact of the news on modern society may outweigh the binding thread of the investigation: Whatever happened to the dinosaurs? Secondly, and of equal importance, will be an exciting and gratifying expose on the origin of races. Where did the skin tones and other characteristics of the races originate? The origin question will be settled as the investigation explores the histories preserved in the ultimate book of "roots," the Bible. Lastly, and pertaining to the roots question, one of the greatest mysteries of all time will be solved, the case of uncovering the identity of Noah's wife. The role of the mysterious woman may accurately be assessed as that of a second Eve; for she was "a mother of nations": every race, tribe, and tongue may trace their heritage directly to her. Interestingly, the identity of Noah's wife has been completely and unexplainably ignored by the Church. The quest for the truth in these matters promises both excitement and intellectual enrichment. Read more: http://QuestForRight.com
You know, I just don't believe anything that was written in the previous comment.
Noah's wife = most important mysteries? I'll pass - the Higgs boson, for one, is higher on my list.
But that's just me and my interest in new-fangled science, which hasn't brought us anything anyway, except maybe this computer, oh, and my iPod.
I've been too busy over the holiday weekend to read these comments until now. I learned only one thing about Mr. Parsons: he knows how to cut and paste.
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