Creation Museum “Educational Injustice”

Yesterday, I reported on an article in the Courier-Journal newspaper (of Louisville, Kentucky) about an “evolutionary evangelist” who visited the Creation Museum. The reporter wrote a quality article reporting on this visit and what the museum teaches etc.

Today, I want to share—from the same Kentucky newspaper (the largest in the state)—a different sort of piece. This is an opinion piece written about the museum by a former science teacher, now a laboratory director who resides in England. I have reprinted sections below and made some comments:

“There is a great educational injustice being inflicted upon thousands of children in this country, a large percentage of whom come from the Kentucky, Ohio and, Indiana areas. The source of this injustice is a sophisticated Christian ministry that uses the hook of dinosaurs, the guarantee of an afterlife, and the horrors of hell to convince children and their families to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. The tax-exempt ministry, Answers in Genesis, and its new $28 million creation museum in Boone County has become the de facto source of science information to thousands of Christians who are throwing away reason and 500 years of scientific inquiry and replacing it with ignorant dogma.”

This is the usual emotional vitriolic attack we see from those opposed to biblical Christianity. As is done in this commentary, the author tries to denigrate the Creation Museum and its message by the use of emotive language and unsubstantiated accusations. For this person, secular evolutionists can take millions of children and teach them they are just animals resulting from natural processes (i.e., teach them atheism), but Christians are not allowed to tell children the truth concerning their origins—that they were created and have meaning and purpose.

“If adults want to believe in a 6,000-year-old Earth, that dinosaurs and humans lived together in harmony (all dinosaurs were vegetarians, you see) and that Noah saved all of the Earth's animal species by placing them on his ark, then they have the right to do so.”

He needs to read the Bible. Noah did not save “all of the Earth’s animals species.” God sent TO Noah representatives of each LAND ANIMAL KIND. When one sees such incorrect information in a piece by a scientist, one has to worry whether the same lack of attention to accuracy is exhibited in his own research, or the research he supervises!

“What I object to is that thousands of children, particularly the growing number of Christian home-schooled children in this country, are visiting the museum in droves, much to the delight of the museum's founder, Ken Hamm.”

Whatever happened to freedom of speech? And what right does this man have to tell parents what they can and can’t allow their children to hear concerning this matter of origins? And by the way, my last name is spelled with one m—“Ham.”

“These kids are learning that despite a fossil record that clearly shows a progression of simple life forms becoming more complex life forms over billions of years . . .”

The fossil record does not clearly show this—evolutionists interpret the fossil record this way based on the beliefs they have to start with.

“(the first bacteria are believed to have established themselves approximately 3.8 billion years ago) . . .”

At least he said “believed.”

“. . .they are taught that the first man was made from clay and that the first woman was made from the man's rib. Instead of learning that the process of natural selection,”

Here again he hasn’t done his homework—very poor research. Just go to AiG’s website and do a search for natural selection. One will find creationists believe in “natural selection.” Also, “natural selection” is taught throughout the Creation Museum. However, “natural selection” (which can be observed) is NOT evolution in the Darwinian sense—it only operates within the existing gene pools.

“. . . over 3,800 millions of years, has changed populations of organisms into the approximately 10 million species (conservative estimate) that inhabit the Earth today, they are taught the "poof" theory of creationism.”

[Again—emotive language meant to mock.]

“What is particularly sad about this ministry is that because they are so fervent in their mission to get people to believe (or rather make believe) in their simplistic world view, many Christian scientists and secular scientists are playing catch-up to counter the damage they are doing.”

Obviously the ministry is having an impact and people are taking notice! That’s a praise point.

“The obstruction of scientific information is nothing new in the history of fundamentalist theology.”

“Obstruction of scientific information”? What nonsense. Some of the greatest scientists ever (e.g., Sir Isaac Newton) were creationists. Modern science (empiricism) that built our technology, came out of a Christian basis! This man needs to do his homework in regard to the rise of modern science.

“What is new is the way this organization is using the power of radio (AIG is broadcast over 850 radio stations), the Internet and, now, a pseudo-natural history museum to convince well-meaning, hard-working people that science is not to be trusted . . .”

“Science is not to be trusted”?? AiG employs scientists like Dr. Gerogia Purdom and Dr. Jason Lisle. Besides, the root meaning of the word science is knowledge. Is he saying knowledge is not to be trusted? Certainly in that sense, AiG is warning people that the supposed knowledge of molecules-to-man evolution (based on blind faith) is not to be trusted and that real observational science actually confirms the Bible’s history.

“. . .that the theory of evolution is evil and that belief in scientific theories of our creation leads to barbaric behaviors.”

Again, the typical misrepresentation of what we say in regard to the consequences of atheistic evolution. Evolution is not the cause of evil things that people do—sin is the cause. But the more people believe they are just animals, then the more they will act in accord with this, as the student in Finland recently did. Because he believed he was just an evolved animal, he decided to shoot and kill people.

“As Mark Twain once said, ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’ Last month in England, I toured the Natural History Museum in London. (It’s free by the way.) They too have animatronic dinosaurs. However, that’s where the similarity between this ‘real’ museum and the AIG’s creation museum ends. The NHM of London has 55 million preserved animal specimens, nine million fossils, six million plant specimens and more than 500,000 rocks and minerals.

“They have a staff of over 300 scientists working on various projects to gain a better understanding of the Earth and the creatures that inhabit (or did inhabit) our planet. Is there not something wrong when thousands of people are flocking to Northern Kentucky and paying $20 a pop to see a Flintstones-like interpretation of pre-history, and yet anyone who lives in or visits London can see one of the world’s greatest real science centers for free?”

I have been to the Natural History Museum in London many times. And yes—it is free! And the reason it is free is because it is mostly subsidized (with millions of dollars) from the UK Government. Imagine what the Creation Museum could do with millions of dollars of tax-payer money! The Creation Museum was totally privately funded, and relies on the extremely reasonable entrance fees to cover the running costs!

And this writer is correct—the Natural History Museum in London is much bigger than the Creation Museum—they have many more specimens—far greater collections. He can mock the Creation Museum regarding its size—but he also said in this article that it is being noticed, and he says secular scientists are trying to do “catch-up to counter the damage they are doing.” So, if it is such a small insignificant museum, why are the secular scientists worried about it? Why does this writer spend so much time mocking the museum and giving it even more notoriety? Apparently, for a small museum the Creation Museum is making shock waves around the world! Not bad for a privately funded Christian ministry!!

“It seems fraudulent to me that the hard work and knowledge of generations of truth-seeking scientists from Galileo to Sagan . . .”

Sagan was an atheist! Can such a person be “truth seeking” when he had already decided there was no God and that the Bible was not relevant!

“. . . from Darwin to Dawkins, is now being hijacked and twisted to teach our children that the sciences of paleontology, evolutionary biology, astronomy, geology, physics, etc., are not to be trusted . . .”

This is simply not true. AiG employs a PhD geneticist, geologist, and astrophysicist (Drs. Purdom, Snelling, and Lisle) and works closely with many other scientists, including a creation paleontologist who received his PhD from Harvard University (Dr. Kurt Wise). What this writer doesn’t understand is the difference between observational science in these disciplines (which we all agree with) and historical science (when one is talking about origins—where the disagreement lies).

“. . . and that unquestioning faith in ancient texts is the only way to know truth. The Christian community, especially, needs to speak out against this injustice, and speak out loudly.”

If the written Word of God cannot be trusted, then there would be no Christian community!

“There are several scientific/faith-based organizations that are doing just that. One in particular, the American Scientific Affiliation (www.asa3.org) is a group of Christians who have reconciled science with their faith in ways that allows the pursuit of knowledge to move forward unencumbered, unlike ministries such as AIG.”

Sadly, there are such organizations with Christians who have compromised the Word of God with secular ideas—this has contributed to the loss of biblical authority of the nation and thus the secularization of the culture.

“Christian home-school organizations should follow the lead of this organization when suggesting science curricula to its members, and discontinue using the creation museum as a source of any scientific information.”

The opposite is actually happening—which we praise the Lord for.

“One other change needs to occur to keep home-schooled children from being misled by creationists. The Kentucky home-school statutes are terribly vague. In fact, science education is not even mentioned in the regulations. If a student is never taught the scientific method and how science is the best method we humans have of collecting unbiased, factual information about the natural world, and instead taught that blind obedience to an ancient text is all that is needed to lead a happy, meaningful life, how can this child ever expect to make informed, science-based decisions as an adult? These statues should be changed so that science education, real science education, is a requirement in all home schools.”

Watch out, Home Schoolers in Kentucky! Such people want to take away your freedoms and try to force on you their secular beliefs and control what you are allowed to teach students—they want your children indoctrinated in secular evolutionary humanism and to be “educated” to throw out the Bible!

“If the beginning of the 21st Century is any indication of how the rest of the century unfolds, we must prepare future generations of Americans for a bumpy ride. We need citizens who understand that human activity does have an impact on the environment so that methods can be developed (largely by scientists and other creative thinkers) to reduce our footprints. We need artists, scientists, politicians, teachers, etc., who seek to understand (not necessarily change) people from different cultures, so that avenues of peaceful cooperation and dialogue always remain open.”

He wants dialogue to “always remain open” as long as dialogue about the biblical creationist position is totally closed!!!

“We do not need citizens who are closed-minded, anti-knowledge fundamentalists who want to see the world move closer to the Biblical prophecies of an Armageddon. (AIG also believes in a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation.)”

Actually, AiG doesn’t have an official position on a particular eschatological position except accepting there will be a bodily return of Christ. AiG/Creation Museum doesn’t even talk about “Armageddon.”

“Unfortunately, the creation museum in Northern Kentucky has been very successful at encouraging their non-thinking, anti-reasoning philosophy, especially among young, dinosaur-loving children. Inaction in this matter may come back to haunt us in the future.”

If we are so small compared to great museums like the one in London, how could we possibly be “very successful”? And to say that the Creation Museum (and its PhD scientists) are “non-thinking” and “anti-reasoning”—an insult meant to intimidate! Does the reader really think there was a lot of logical reasoning in this Courier-Journal op-ed piece?

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071202/OPINION04/712020428

Well—thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying.

Ken