ADDITIONAL STORIES ON THE CREATION MUSEUM
Fellow Christians Aggreived by the Business Practices of Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis
The Marketing of Bedrock
The Creation Museum at the Crossroads of Faith and Science
The Trouble with Fred and Wilma: Why the Creation Museum is Bad for Christians
Aljazeera, International Islamic Television Network, Covers Grand Opening of Creation Museum
"Rally for Reason" Prepares for Protest
When Atheists and Muslims act more like Christians than Christians
Bill Maher Uses Deception to Secure Interview for "Hit Piece" on Creation Museum
Prepare to be Disappointed: Creation Museum Fails to Live up to Entertainment Value Hype
Creation Museum at the Crossroads of Faith and Science
by Michael Wright
Continued from the cover page
From left to right, Answers in Genesis leaders Mark Looy, Ken Ham, and Dan Lisle at the May 26, 2007 press conference announcing the grand opening of the Creation Musuem in Kentucky.
Mark Looy, the Chief Communications Officer of Answers in Genesis, said that the Creation Museum was “an evangelistic opportunity as no other in the world.” Ken Ham, the Chief Executive Officer of Answers in Genesis and visionary behind the museum, said that the opening of the museum was “an historic event in Christendom” and discussed the importance of the creationism movement, receiving many “Amen’s” from the crowd in response.
A tour of the museum begins with a walk through individual rooms that slowly build the case for the literal interpretation of Genesis, starting with a room discussing the difference of a Christian paleontologist and a secular paleontologist as they date the origins of humanity: “same facts, different starting points.” Starting with this underlying assumption that Natural Science must yield to literal views of Scripture, the visitors move to rooms discussing the inerrancy of the Bible in the face of human reason: “the elevation of human reason above God’s word is the essence of every attack on God’s word.”
Different Starting Points at the Creation Museum
Next, visitors move through an apocalyptic alleyway complete with graffiti scrawled on the wall: “Modern World Abandons The Bible.”
The Graffiti Room at the Creation Museum
This room touches on many conservative hot topics of today, including teen pregnancy, absolute truth, abortion, and pornography. After showing the problems, they show the answer: the Seven C’s of History (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation). The rest of the museum follows the Creation story from Adam to Babel to Jesus himself, a final answer to the pain and suffering caused by Adam and his descendants. The visitors end their tour through the bookstore called “Dragon Hall.” And so after all the special effects, after the animatronic dinosaurs, and replica of Noah’s Ark, after the planetarium, after the video presentations, the question still remains:
Why?
Why put $27 million dollars into a science museum based on specific and narrow theological doctrine? What about Christians who don’t ascribe to a literal view of the Genesis account? Why proclaim Creationism as strong as proclaiming Christ? These were questions that didn’t have ready answers.
When asked about reconciliation with Christians who understand the Creation story differently, Ken Ham said “without a literal Genesis you have no foundation for the gospel.” In fact, he says on the Answers in Genesis website that he has spent 27 years in “full-time creation ministry,” and God has “mightily blessed the proclamation of the creation/gospel message.” Behind the slick design and technology of the museum and behind the influence of the Answers in Genesis ministry is the fundamental issue of defining the gospel. Is the gospel Jesus as the son of God, or is the gospel God creating the world in six 24-hour days with Jesus as an eventual byproduct ?
A very buff Adam and Eve portrayed before "the fall" at the Creation Museum
It is this entanglement of the tenets of Creationism with the Gospel that can quickly push away thoughtful seekers, Christians, and atheists alike. The museum presents two inevitable conclusions: either the visitor accepts the literal Genesis and Jesus as Savior, or the visitor denies the literal Genesis and Jesus as Savior. There are no other alternatives presented in Creation Museum.
Addia K. Wuchner, a member of the Kentucky House of Representative from Boone County, and a guest at the event, said in an exclusive interview with Christian Faith and Reason Magazine that “the beauty of this country [is] that we are free to believe.”
Indeed, we are free to believe anything we want. But instead of believing that God came to earth in human form through Jesus of Nazareth, Answers in Genesis persuades visitors to believe in the power of the museum to fight the Christian culture wars, to believe in a brittle view of Holy Scripture, to accept literal Creationism with a Creator.
Many will come for curiosity, some might come to faith, but many Christians will be tempted to put their faith in the Creation Museum instead of the Creator Himself.
Prepare to believe, but believe in what?
This is the question answered by a lifetime personal journey of faith that no museum can resolve—Creationism or not.
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