This week the long-awaited and extremely controversial Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, Kentucky. The museum was created and founded by the group Answers in Genesis, which seeks to show that Creationism is not opposed to science, but is in fact science properly understood. The museum’s aim is to show how all answers to scientific questions can be found in an ultimate authority: the Bible. The museum is aimed at families, heavily geared toward particularly evangelical and home-schooled children, and says in the forward to its mission statement that, “Throughout this family-friendly experience, guests will learn how to answer the attacks on the Bible’s authority in geology, biology, anthropology, cosmology, etc., and they will discover how science actually confirms biblical history.”

Its most talked about exhibits, which include one of Adam and Eve next to roaring, realistic dinosaurs, has angered scientists because of the perceived confusing (at best) effect the museum’s claims of scientific fact will have on children. The museum has been accused of misrepresenting science and injecting religious belief into science education. Nearly 3000 educators have signed petitions protesting the museum’s “scientifically inaccurate exhibits.”

Well, look, I’m no fan of creationism, even less so of efforts to include it in science classes under the dubious title “Intelligent Design,” but I’m not sure what effect the protesters realistically hope to have. I certainly wouldn’t visit the museum to teach my children anything, and it’s certainly important that scientific inaccuracy is called out at all times. But first of all, Americans (and everyone else) are going to believe what they want to believe, no matter what science tells them, and secondly, you can’t exactly close the museum or force it to put up some silly notice like “these claims have not been scientifically proven.” After all, thousands of people go to Graceland every year and wait for Elvis’s ghost to appear.

Besides which, the museum very handily erases any doubts about its claims to scientific veracity in its Mission Statement:

“Museum mission statement

* Exalt Jesus Christ as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer through a safe, wholesome, family-friendly center for learning and discovery that clearly presents major biblical themes from Genesis to Revelation.

* This center will equip Christians to better evangelize the lost with a sense of urgency, through a combination of exhibits, research and educational presentations that uphold the inerrancy of the Bible.

* This center will also challenge visitors to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and to accept the authority of the Bible by providing culturally relevant biblical and scientific answers from a biblical worldview.

Main theme

The Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation!”

Enough said, I think. Anyone planning on trotting on over? (Reading the article mentioned below, it actually sounds like a pretty cool setup — nobody can say Answers in Genesis does things by halves.)

UPDATE: Gordy Slack at Salon.com went to the Creation Museum and got a personal tour with the co-founder of Answers in Genesis. You can read his excellent and interesting travel article here.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Antonia projects, US travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.