Jurrassic Park Author Michael Crichton Dies, 66

Crichton, a Harvard-educated medical doctor, passed away in Los Angeles after battling cancer. Born in Chicago during World War 2, Crichton’s first best seller, The Andromeda Strain, was written while he was still in medical school.

Considered wildly successful, Crichton at one point in the 1990s had the United States’ number one film (Jurassic Park), number one television show (ER), and number one book (Disclosure) concurrently. More than a dozen of his novels (in addition to several screenplays) were adapted for the big screen, including The Lost world (sequel to Jurassic Park).

In a way, Crichton had a small hand in inspiring even our own Creation Museum, as Ken Ham explained in his blog Thursday morning:

There is no doubt that Michael Crichton’s book Jurassic Park, and the movie of the same name, catapulted “dinosaur fever” among kids of all ages to a whole new level. When I was interviewed by the secular media at the opening of the Creation Museum, I was often asked why we had such an emphasis on dinosaurs in various parts of the museum. I often responded saying that kids were fascinated by dinosaurs and usually referred to the Jurassic Park movie as having greatly contributed to dinosaur popularity in our modern world. Of course the big difference with what AiG says about dinosaurs and what Michael Crichton portrayed is that we believe they were created on Day Six of the creation week just a few thousand years ago—that they didn’t evolve into birds over millions of years.

Crichton at one point in the 1990s had the United States’ number one film (Jurassic Park), number one television show (ER), and number one book (Disclosure) concurrently.

Interestingly, we may have been closer to agreement with Crichton in his views on global warming. His 2004 novel State of Fear “caused controversy when it cast doubt on the dangers of global warming,” reports the BBC. They also report that the book “suggested that global warming was a fallacy dreamt up by environmental activists” and that Crichton’s “reputation suffered in 2005 when he was chided by members of the US Congress for his scepticism over climate change.”

Crichton also criticized rampant speculation in untestable scientific hypotheses. In fact, he sounded at times quite similar to us. For instance, in a 2005 speech, he said:

A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. . . . The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds . . . . You can argue it interminably. And it can’t be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics-and probably, nobody ever will.

Then there is the speculative work of anthropologists like Helen Fisher, who claim to tell us about the origins of love or of infidelity or cooperation by reference to other societies, animal behavior, and the fossil record. How can she be wrong? These are untestable, unprovable, just so stories.

Sadly, while Crichton apparently realized the unscientific nature of, e.g., some evolutionary explanations of the origin of life and culture, his comments also seem to indicate he was skeptical of the Bible’s answers for where life came from.

We certainly extend our prayerful condolences to Crichton’s family during this difficult time.