What Was the Professor Thinking?

I mentioned this item on my blog last Saturday, but I have more information to share with you about an interesting incident at the museum last Thursday.

Of course, most guests who visit our Creation Museum, including the secular media, do so in an orderly way—even for those visitors who might not believe in the historicity of the Bible (especially its accounts of the Creation and the Flood). One guest—an astrophysicist from a major Midwestern university—was found to be disrupting the visits of some of our guests last Thursday when he passed out pro-evolution materials inside the museum. One of our guests alerted our security staff to what was happening, and so, the professor was approached and asked to stop. Here is how he defended his actions:

• He declared that the museum was a public place, and thus, he had a right to distribute his evolutionary literature. Our security staff pointed out to him, however, that this is private property, and he had no right to. In addition, we noted that there are signs posted on the driveway indicating that this is private property.
• Then the man said that our museum should be presenting both views—creation and evolution. It’s kind of ironic that his university will not tolerate any mention of intelligent design or creation, and also a well-known natural history museum located a few miles from his university will not allow creation inside.

Furthermore, our museum does bring up the arguments for evolution—but we refute them. We are not afraid at all to share the major arguments that evolutionists use to defend their worldview (natural selection, the so-called missing link “Lucy,” etc.).

Eventually the scientist understood the situation and left quietly. Even though he holds a high degree in science, sometimes you scratch your head about what he must have been thinking when he decides to make a six-hour drive one way to a private museum in an attempt to pass out material and also complains (incorrectly) that one side of a controversial issue is not being presented . . . yet back home, he would not allow any hint of intelligent design or creation in his school.

MUSEUM AHEAD OF LAST YEAR

With over 400,000 visitors in the first year of operation, we were pleasantly surprised this week to find out that numbers of visitors to the Creation Museum are actually ahead for the same time last year. Now, whether or not this keeps up with the price of gas the way it is, we don’t know—but we do praise the Lord for the phenomenal interest in the Creation Museum. As of yesterday, we have had 421,480 visitors since opening in late May 2007.

SPECIAL MUSEUM VISITORS ON MONDAY

Some people might call Mondays “slower” days at the Creation Museum—though yesterday we had over 1,000 visitors, 881 the week before, and 1,475 three Mondays ago. We say “slower” because we have some days where 2,000-plus visitors are here; so, by comparison anything around 1,000 visitors is considered a somewhat modest day. But still, these Monday numbers are much higher numbers than what we projected when the museum opened over a year ago—so we rejoice.

The day was not slow in one aspect. Two international media reps were here to tour the museum and interview staff—a reporter writing for Britain’s largest circulating “reputable” newspaper, The Mail (you see, there is a sensationalistic tabloid that has more readers), and a professor from a university in South Africa who hosts a radio program in his country and who is writing an academic article on how religious groups are using today’s mass media to communicate their messages (he sees the high-tech museum as a medium, as well as this website, AiG’s radio program, our videos on TV, etc.).

During the day, we received an inquiry from BBC TV about sending another television crew to film the museum and interview some staff for a possible documentary about the tension between science and religion—dating back to Galileo and his battle with the Roman Catholic Church. Given the fact that the program’s host is a self-described atheist, this should be an interesting visit!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying.

Ken