Creation Museum
Encyclopedia
The Creation Museum is a museum near Petersburg, Kentucky that presents an account of the origins of the universe, life, mankind, and man's early history according to a literal reading
of the Book of Genesis. The museum has been criticized by scientific and academic communities as promoting "fallacy over fact" and attempting to advance the tenets of a particular religious view while rejecting, overlooking and misconstruing scientific knowledge. Its exhibits reject universal common descent and biological evolution, and assert that the Earth and all of its life forms were created 6,000 years ago over a six-day period. In contrast to the scientific consensus
, exhibits promote young earth creationist
claims, including the idea that humans and dinosaur
s once coexisted, and that dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark
. The scientific consensus is that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old
, and that the dinosaurs became extinct 65.5 million years before human beings
arose.
The museum has received criticism by the scientific community, several groups of educators, Christian
groups opposed to young earth creationism, and in the press. The museum, which is said to have cost $27 million, is privately funded through donations to the apologetics
ministry Answers in Genesis
and opened its doors to the public on May 28, 2007. Based on projections, the museum anticipated 250,000 paying visitors in its first year of operation. According to AiG, within its first two months attendance surpassed 100,000 visitors by July 21, 2007 and 200,000 visitors on September 20, 2007. They claim that visitor attendance exceeded first year expectations only 5 months and 5 days after opening, with a total of 250,000 visitors on November 2, 2007, and the half-million visitor mark was reached just under 9 months later. The one-millionth visitor was announced on April 26, 2010, just over a month away from the museum's three-year anniversary.
on 49 acres (19.8 ha) of land; the Answers in Genesis main offices are attached to the museum. The facility's stated mission is to "exalt Jesus Christ as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer", to "equip Christians to better evangelize the lost", and to "challenge visitors to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord".
According to founder of Answers in Genesis Ken Ham
: "One of the main reasons we moved there was because we are within one hour's flight of 69 percent of America's population." Ham also explains how the idea of the museum originated: "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really, America is." Previously Ham worked for the Institute for Creation Research
, which once ran a creationist museum in Santee, California, with free admission.
The museum's official groundbreaking
ceremony was March 17, 2001, but plans for the museum had been in the works since the mid-1990s. A significant reason for the time span between planning and execution related to zoning battles which saw the museum's original location turned down. The zoning issues continued to its present location, with the final legal victory for Answers in Genesis becoming official in March 2000.
For most of its time in construction, the cost of building the museum was set at US$25 million. However, in response to studies and media reports that suggested an even larger number of visitors estimated annually than previously expected, the museum's cost increased to US$27 million as expansion to the front of the building, the parking lot, and the cafe were incorporated. Mark Looy, Chief Communications Officer for Answers in Genesis, said in the article that around 75% of the contributions averaged around US$100 per gift.
One anonymous Cincinnati, Ohio
family donated $1 million to the cause. Two other families also gave donations in excess of $1 million.
The museum opened to the public on May 28, 2007, although about 5000 charter members received advance tours in the days before that. Among those getting an early preview was local Congressman
Geoff Davis
and his family, who have been supporters of the project. Ken Ham called the grand opening "not just a historic event in America, but a historic event in Christendom
". In addition to elected officials at the county and state levels and representatives from the state and federal governments, over 130 credentialed reporters covered the ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 26, 2007.
The Chronicle of Higher Education gave the museum an extensive pre-opening review.
Kurt Wise
was hired as scientific consultant for the project and played a major role in designing the exhibits, which are intended to be state-of-the-art, and include 52 professionally-made videos. In addition to large movie screens showing a young-Earth history of the world, the museum also features a 78-seat planetarium
depicting creationist cosmologies
and a 200-seat special-effects theater with seats that vibrate and jets that can spray the audience with mist. Many of the displays were designed by Patrick Marsh, who had formerly worked for Universal Studios
designing attractions such as Jaws and King Kong before becoming a born-again Christian and young Earth creationist.
Among its exhibits, the museum features life-size dinosaur
models, over 80 of them animatronic
(animated and motion-sensitive). Model dinosaurs are depicted in the Garden of Eden
, many of them side-by-side with human figures. In one exhibit, a Triceratops
and a Stegosaurus
are shown aboard a scale model of Noah's Ark
.
A major portion of the displays relates to the Great Flood as described in Genesis 6-9. The message is that the world prior to the flood was significantly and fundamentally different from the world we know today. The Flood is presented as literally real, a global catastrophe which fundamentally altered
the landscape of the Earth, and was the event that produced most of the geologic features (fossils, sedimentary strata, canyons, continents) we observe today.
The museum is critical of evolutionary theory that links dinosaurs with the origins of birds
. The second room of the creation museum for example displays a model prehistoric raptor
, stating that the species was featherless and had no connection to birds; this is a reference to Genesis 1, which states that birds were created before the advent of land animals. Biologists and paleontologists, however, point out that the recent discovery of a Velociraptor forearm bearing quill knobs, distinct structural parts of bones into which feathers are anchored, provides further evidence that the species did indeed have feathers.
Other rooms on the tour depict Old Testament
prophets, Martin Luther
stressing the importance of using faith as a tool against contrary evidence, and a video presentation on the Scopes Monkey Trial
of 1925. Some of the rooms on the tour show modern times and espouse the view that families and society are hurt by a world view which is not Biblically based. In one video, a male teenager is shown sitting at a computer looking at internet pornography
and a female teenager speaks with Planned Parenthood
about having an abortion
; both acts are portrayed as the result of a world view which is not Biblically based. The belief that the Earth is "millions of years" old also derives from a non-Biblical starting point. The climax of the tour is the life of Jesus Christ
, with a three screen depiction of the crucifixion
. The exhibits have been called "painstakingly detailed" and even critics have agreed that "Answers in Genesis has gone to great lengths to make their new museum a place that has quality displays". The museum also includes a restaurant, outdoor walking trails, and a medieval-themed gift shop.
In 2009, the Creation Museum added a one room display devoted to Charles Darwin
. The display "argues that natural selection
—Darwin's explanation how new species develop because of new traits or new environments—can coexist with the creationist assertion that all living things were created by God just a few thousand years ago."
The museum is planning on building a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, which will be called the Ark Encounter. The Ark will cost $24.5 million to build and is expected to be completed in 2014.
is on staff for visitors in need of spiritual guidance. Each permanent employee must sign a statement of faith indicating that he or she believes in young Earth creationism and the other teachings of Answers in Genesis. These include "Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation", "the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman", "the great Flood of Genesis was an actual historic event" and "no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record." When applying for work a written statement of one's beliefs is required along with résumé and references.
view of the origins of the universe and life. Local opposition caused the construction approval process to take several years. During construction Professor Lord Robert Winston
visited the site of the museum during the filming of his documentary "The Story of God
" and remarked,
Educators criticizing the museum include the National Center for Science Education
. The NCSE collected over 800 signatures from scientists in the three states closest to the museum (Kentucky
, Indiana
, and Ohio
) on the following statement:
NCSE director Eugenie Scott
characterized the Creation Museum as "the Creationist
Disneyland." The Guardian
called the facility "quite possibly ... one of the weirdest museums in the world."
Physicist Lawrence Krauss has called on media, educators, and government officials to shun the museum and says that its view is based on falsehoods. Krauss said that the facility is "as much a disservice to religion as it is to science."
The introduction to a May 2007 Good Morning America
report on the museum stated that according to an ABC
news poll, 60% of Americans believe that "God created the world in six days." The report stated that the Creation Museum was aimed at convincing visitors that evolution is wrong, and that the Biblical story of life on earth from Adam and Eve to Noah's ark is scientifically verifiable. In a March 2007 Newsweek
poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 48% of respondents agreed with the statement "God created humans pretty much in the present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."
The museum has also been criticized by Christians who are not young Earth creationists. Notable among them is geologist Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation, an old earth creationism
ministry. Neyman released a press kit dealing with the museum's grand opening in which he said:
Neyman adds that "today, the church is many individuals who accept an old Earth" and "is already moving away from young Earth creationism." The Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor of St. Peter's United Church of Christ
in Cincinnati, Ohio
, joined others, both secularists and Christians, at protests at the museum's opening. He said "my brothers and sisters in the faith who embrace [the creationist] understanding call into question the whole Christian concept" and "make us a laughing stock." Roman Catholic
theologian John Haught
sees little merit in the museum, saying it will cause an "impoverishment" of religion. He concluded "It's hard for me to come up with a single reason why we should be doing this. ... It's theologically problematic to me, as well as scientifically problematic." Michael Patrick Leahy, editor of the magazine Christian Faith and Reason, says that by replacing the scientific method with biblical literalism
, the museum undermines the credibility of all Christians and makes it easy to represent Christians as irrational.
Lisa Park, a professor of paleontology at University of Akron
who is also an Elder in the Presbyterian Church
was particularly disturbed by the museum's depiction that war, famine and natural disasters are the result of a belief in evolution. She stated:
Edwin Kagin
, Kentucky State Director for American Atheists
, organized a “Rally for Reason” outside the gates of the Creation Museum its opening day, May 28, 2007. Kagin, a long time activist against creationism, was joined in this effort by the organization known as the "Campaign to Defend the Constitution
" and many other groups and individuals according to the organizer's website. Depending on the media source, it was reported that anywhere from 50 to 200 people attended the rally. The demonstrators displayed protest signs, an airplane trailing a banner flew overhead and speeches were made. As reported by Deb Silverman of WCPO
, "There was a long wait to be one of the first inside the Creation Museum but you couldn't get inside the $27 million building created by the group called 'Answers in Genesis Creation' [sic] without passing by a long line of protesters."
In July 2007, the UC Davis
science radio show This Week in Science
published a website parodying the Creation Museum. Based on Christian belief in literal biblical truth, the Unicorn Museum presents a case for Christian belief in unicorn
s.
In August 2007, the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau was criticized by scientists for describing the Creation Museum as a "'walk through history' museum" that "will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture". Daniel Phelps, the president of Kentucky Paleontological Society said that as a tax-supported institution, the use of the language was particularly problematic since many religious people accept evolution. The Bureau initially defended its use of the language saying that they used whatever language was supplied by each attraction, but then decided to change the description.
On his visit to the museum, Phelps noted that several of the dinosaur reconstructions were poorly reconstructed or outdated in depiction. A Tyrannosaurus
outside the museum grounds for example, is shown standing in an outdated tail dragging "tripod" stance, an Iguanodon
is shown bearing a skin texture completely different from what is known from fossilised skin impressions of the species and a Utahraptor
is shown to be without feathers, despite recent discoveries of the opposite, as well as sporting anatomically incorrect forearms. Phelps also leveled criticism at the reconstructions of Mesozoic
flora, one example being a cycad
plant reconstructed as little more than a giant pineapple. The museum has also been accused of using "outdated 19th Century quack anthropology", since refuted, to promote the idea that different human races (Homo erectus
, Neanderthal
, and Cro-Magnon
) came from Noah's descendants
, dispersing after the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel
.
In 2007 Bill Maher
"evaded" Creation Museum security and toured the location and interviewed Ken Ham
. The footage appeared in the October 2008 film Religulous
. In a press release by AiG critical of the movie, it called Maher "dishonest" in gaining access to the Creation Museum and Ken Ham.
In August 2009, more than 300 people part of the Secular Student Alliance
took a tour of the venue, along with PZ Myers
, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris
. Scientists in the group, such as chemist William Watkin, commented about how scientifically wrong the displays are. Myers posted an account of the tour on his blog, including condemning the venue for "promoting the Hamite theory of racial origins
, that ugly idea that all races stemmed from the children of Noah, and that black people in particular were the cursed offspring of Ham." This led to post exchanges between Ken Ham
and Myers.
In 2010, A. A. Gill
reported it is "a breathtakingly literal march through Genesis, without any hint of soul." "This place doesn't just take on evolution—it squares off with geology, anthropology, paleontology, history, chemistry, astronomy, zoology, biology, and good taste. It directly and boldly contradicts most -onomies and all -ologies, including most theology."
On February 11, 2011, a heterosexual Louisville man attempted to enter the museum with his male friend as part of the museum's "date night" event, but was denied entry, as the security guard thought the heterosexual man was gay. Mark Looy, the museum's Communications Director, later said that everyone is welcome at the museum. The group that the two men were part of sought refunds for the $71 total admission fee for the unused tickets—the museum refused to refund them the money, but they invite the group to come back, as long as they do not make a scene.
, Indianapolis
, Columbus
, Dayton
, Lexington
, and Louisville
.
Ham has said the museum is not attempting to attract groups from public schools, saying "I suspect by intimidation and threats of lawsuits, I doubt whether public school students, as an official tour, would come." Steve Rissing, a biologist and board member of Ohio Citizens for Science, said that a lawsuit over separation of church and state
would be likely if public schools send students to the museum using public tax money.
In 2008 the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, "Cincinnati Zoo and the Creation Museum launched a joint promotional deal last week to draw attention to their holiday attractions." But following an outcry of criticism, the zoo ended the relationship after two days.
Critical
Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
of the Book of Genesis. The museum has been criticized by scientific and academic communities as promoting "fallacy over fact" and attempting to advance the tenets of a particular religious view while rejecting, overlooking and misconstruing scientific knowledge. Its exhibits reject universal common descent and biological evolution, and assert that the Earth and all of its life forms were created 6,000 years ago over a six-day period. In contrast to the scientific consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
, exhibits promote young earth creationist
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
claims, including the idea that humans and dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s once coexisted, and that dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
. The scientific consensus is that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
, and that the dinosaurs became extinct 65.5 million years before human beings
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
arose.
The museum has received criticism by the scientific community, several groups of educators, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
groups opposed to young earth creationism, and in the press. The museum, which is said to have cost $27 million, is privately funded through donations to the apologetics
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
ministry Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis is a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry with a particular focus on supporting Young Earth creationism and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. The organization has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States...
and opened its doors to the public on May 28, 2007. Based on projections, the museum anticipated 250,000 paying visitors in its first year of operation. According to AiG, within its first two months attendance surpassed 100,000 visitors by July 21, 2007 and 200,000 visitors on September 20, 2007. They claim that visitor attendance exceeded first year expectations only 5 months and 5 days after opening, with a total of 250,000 visitors on November 2, 2007, and the half-million visitor mark was reached just under 9 months later. The one-millionth visitor was announced on April 26, 2010, just over a month away from the museum's three-year anniversary.
History
The museum was originally marketed as the Creation Museum and Family Discovery Center. It opened in late Spring of 2007 as the "Creation Museum". The museum is located north-northeast of Petersburg, Kentucky, roughly 12 miles (19.3 km) from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International AirportCincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport , sometimes called the Greater Cincinnati Airport is located in Hebron, unincorporated Boone County, Kentucky, United States and serves the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. Despite being located in Boone County, the airport operations are...
on 49 acres (19.8 ha) of land; the Answers in Genesis main offices are attached to the museum. The facility's stated mission is to "exalt Jesus Christ as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer", to "equip Christians to better evangelize the lost", and to "challenge visitors to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord".
According to founder of Answers in Genesis Ken Ham
Ken Ham
Kenneth Alfred Ham is the Australian President/CEO of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth...
: "One of the main reasons we moved there was because we are within one hour's flight of 69 percent of America's population." Ham also explains how the idea of the museum originated: "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really, America is." Previously Ham worked for the Institute for Creation Research
Institute for Creation Research
The Institute for Creation Research is a Christian institution in Dallas, Texas that specializes in education, research, and media promotion of Creation Science and Biblical creationism. The ICR adopts the Bible as an inerrant and literal documentary of scientific and historical fact as well as...
, which once ran a creationist museum in Santee, California, with free admission.
Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are often attended by dignitaries such as politicians and...
ceremony was March 17, 2001, but plans for the museum had been in the works since the mid-1990s. A significant reason for the time span between planning and execution related to zoning battles which saw the museum's original location turned down. The zoning issues continued to its present location, with the final legal victory for Answers in Genesis becoming official in March 2000.
For most of its time in construction, the cost of building the museum was set at US$25 million. However, in response to studies and media reports that suggested an even larger number of visitors estimated annually than previously expected, the museum's cost increased to US$27 million as expansion to the front of the building, the parking lot, and the cafe were incorporated. Mark Looy, Chief Communications Officer for Answers in Genesis, said in the article that around 75% of the contributions averaged around US$100 per gift.
One anonymous Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
family donated $1 million to the cause. Two other families also gave donations in excess of $1 million.
The museum opened to the public on May 28, 2007, although about 5000 charter members received advance tours in the days before that. Among those getting an early preview was local Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Geoff Davis
Geoff Davis
Geoffrey C. "Geoff" Davis is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party....
and his family, who have been supporters of the project. Ken Ham called the grand opening "not just a historic event in America, but a historic event in Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
". In addition to elected officials at the county and state levels and representatives from the state and federal governments, over 130 credentialed reporters covered the ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 26, 2007.
The Chronicle of Higher Education gave the museum an extensive pre-opening review.
Displays and exhibits
Kurt Wise
Kurt Patrick Wise is an American young earth creationist who serves as the Director of Creation Research Center at Truett-McConnell College. He has a PhD in geology from Harvard University.-Biography:...
was hired as scientific consultant for the project and played a major role in designing the exhibits, which are intended to be state-of-the-art, and include 52 professionally-made videos. In addition to large movie screens showing a young-Earth history of the world, the museum also features a 78-seat planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
depicting creationist cosmologies
Creationist cosmologies
Creationist cosmologies encompass a variety of theories of Young Earth creationists that are designed to support the religious belief that the universe is only a few thousand years old, in line with a literal reading of Genesis...
and a 200-seat special-effects theater with seats that vibrate and jets that can spray the audience with mist. Many of the displays were designed by Patrick Marsh, who had formerly worked for Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
designing attractions such as Jaws and King Kong before becoming a born-again Christian and young Earth creationist.
Among its exhibits, the museum features life-size dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
models, over 80 of them animatronic
Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and make noise, generally in speech or song...
(animated and motion-sensitive). Model dinosaurs are depicted in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
, many of them side-by-side with human figures. In one exhibit, a Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
and a Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
are shown aboard a scale model of Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
.
A major portion of the displays relates to the Great Flood as described in Genesis 6-9. The message is that the world prior to the flood was significantly and fundamentally different from the world we know today. The Flood is presented as literally real, a global catastrophe which fundamentally altered
Flood geology
Flood geology is the interpretation of the geological history of the Earth in terms of the global flood described in Genesis 6–9. Similar views played a part in the early development of the science of geology, even after the Biblical chronology had been rejected by geologists in favour of an...
the landscape of the Earth, and was the event that produced most of the geologic features (fossils, sedimentary strata, canyons, continents) we observe today.
The museum is critical of evolutionary theory that links dinosaurs with the origins of birds
Bird evolution
The evolution of birds is thought to have begun in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from theropod dinosaurs. Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. The earliest known species of class Aves is Archaeopteryx lithographica, from the Late Jurassic period, though...
. The second room of the creation museum for example displays a model prehistoric raptor
Utahraptor
Utahraptor is a genus of theropod dinosaurs, including the largest known members of the family Dromaeosauridae. Fossil specimens date to the upper Barremian stage of the early Cretaceous period...
, stating that the species was featherless and had no connection to birds; this is a reference to Genesis 1, which states that birds were created before the advent of land animals. Biologists and paleontologists, however, point out that the recent discovery of a Velociraptor forearm bearing quill knobs, distinct structural parts of bones into which feathers are anchored, provides further evidence that the species did indeed have feathers.
Other rooms on the tour depict Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophets, Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
stressing the importance of using faith as a tool against contrary evidence, and a video presentation on the Scopes Monkey Trial
Scopes Trial
The Scopes Trial—formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial—was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school science teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act which made it unlawful to...
of 1925. Some of the rooms on the tour show modern times and espouse the view that families and society are hurt by a world view which is not Biblically based. In one video, a male teenager is shown sitting at a computer looking at internet pornography
Internet pornography
Internet pornography is pornography that is distributed by means of various sectors of the Internet, primarily via websites, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups...
and a female teenager speaks with Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
about having an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
; both acts are portrayed as the result of a world view which is not Biblically based. The belief that the Earth is "millions of years" old also derives from a non-Biblical starting point. The climax of the tour is the life of Jesus Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, with a three screen depiction of the crucifixion
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
. The exhibits have been called "painstakingly detailed" and even critics have agreed that "Answers in Genesis has gone to great lengths to make their new museum a place that has quality displays". The museum also includes a restaurant, outdoor walking trails, and a medieval-themed gift shop.
In 2009, the Creation Museum added a one room display devoted to Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. The display "argues that natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
—Darwin's explanation how new species develop because of new traits or new environments—can coexist with the creationist assertion that all living things were created by God just a few thousand years ago."
The museum is planning on building a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, which will be called the Ark Encounter. The Ark will cost $24.5 million to build and is expected to be completed in 2014.
Workforce
The creation museum employs about 160 people with another 140 working at the attached Answers in Genesis headquarters. To help the museum's mission to evangelize, a chaplainChaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
is on staff for visitors in need of spiritual guidance. Each permanent employee must sign a statement of faith indicating that he or she believes in young Earth creationism and the other teachings of Answers in Genesis. These include "Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation", "the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman", "the great Flood of Genesis was an actual historic event" and "no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record." When applying for work a written statement of one's beliefs is required along with résumé and references.
Controversy and criticism
The Creation Museum has been the subject of controversy ever since it was proposed, because the exhibits are based on a young Earth creationistYoung Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
view of the origins of the universe and life. Local opposition caused the construction approval process to take several years. During construction Professor Lord Robert Winston
Robert Winston
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician.-Early life and education :...
visited the site of the museum during the filming of his documentary "The Story of God
The Story of God
The Story of God is a three-part video series produced by Dangerous Films featuring the physician Professor Lord Winston. It first aired on 4, 11 and 18 December 2005 on BBC One. It was rebroadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in May and June 2006 and by the Australian Broadcasting...
" and remarked,
Educators criticizing the museum include the National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
. The NCSE collected over 800 signatures from scientists in the three states closest to the museum (Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
) on the following statement:
NCSE director Eugenie Scott
Eugenie Scott
Eugenie Carol Scott is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education since 1987...
characterized the Creation Museum as "the Creationist
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
Disneyland." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called the facility "quite possibly ... one of the weirdest museums in the world."
Physicist Lawrence Krauss has called on media, educators, and government officials to shun the museum and says that its view is based on falsehoods. Krauss said that the facility is "as much a disservice to religion as it is to science."
The introduction to a May 2007 Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
report on the museum stated that according to an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
news poll, 60% of Americans believe that "God created the world in six days." The report stated that the Creation Museum was aimed at convincing visitors that evolution is wrong, and that the Biblical story of life on earth from Adam and Eve to Noah's ark is scientifically verifiable. In a March 2007 Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 48% of respondents agreed with the statement "God created humans pretty much in the present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."
The museum has also been criticized by Christians who are not young Earth creationists. Notable among them is geologist Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation, an old earth creationism
Old Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism is an umbrella term for a number of types of creationism, including gap creationism and progressive creationism...
ministry. Neyman released a press kit dealing with the museum's grand opening in which he said:
Neyman adds that "today, the church is many individuals who accept an old Earth" and "is already moving away from young Earth creationism." The Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor of St. Peter's United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, joined others, both secularists and Christians, at protests at the museum's opening. He said "my brothers and sisters in the faith who embrace [the creationist] understanding call into question the whole Christian concept" and "make us a laughing stock." Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
theologian John Haught
John Haught
John F. Haught is a Roman Catholic theologian and Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. His area of expertise is systematic theology, with a special interest in issues of science, cosmology, ecology, and reconciling evolution and religion...
sees little merit in the museum, saying it will cause an "impoverishment" of religion. He concluded "It's hard for me to come up with a single reason why we should be doing this. ... It's theologically problematic to me, as well as scientifically problematic." Michael Patrick Leahy, editor of the magazine Christian Faith and Reason, says that by replacing the scientific method with biblical literalism
Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
, the museum undermines the credibility of all Christians and makes it easy to represent Christians as irrational.
Lisa Park, a professor of paleontology at University of Akron
University of Akron
The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...
who is also an Elder in the Presbyterian Church
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
was particularly disturbed by the museum's depiction that war, famine and natural disasters are the result of a belief in evolution. She stated:
Edwin Kagin
Edwin Kagin
Edwin Frederick Kagin, J.D., is an attorney at law in Union, Kentucky, and a founder of Camp Quest, the first secular summer camp in the United States for the children of secularists, atheists, agnostics, brights, skeptics, naturalists and freethinkers...
, Kentucky State Director for American Atheists
American Atheists
American Atheists is an organization in the United States dedicated to defending the civil liberties of atheists and advocating for the complete separation of church and state. It provides speakers for colleges, universities, clubs and the news media. It also publishes books and the monthly...
, organized a “Rally for Reason” outside the gates of the Creation Museum its opening day, May 28, 2007. Kagin, a long time activist against creationism, was joined in this effort by the organization known as the "Campaign to Defend the Constitution
Campaign to Defend the Constitution
Campaign to Defend the Constitution was an American online organization founded in September, 2005 to support the constitutional separation of church and state and to oppose what it perceived as the growing influence of the religious right. It was a project of the Tides Center, a non-profit...
" and many other groups and individuals according to the organizer's website. Depending on the media source, it was reported that anywhere from 50 to 200 people attended the rally. The demonstrators displayed protest signs, an airplane trailing a banner flew overhead and speeches were made. As reported by Deb Silverman of WCPO
WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV, virtual channel 9 , is an ABC-affiliated television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.The station...
, "There was a long wait to be one of the first inside the Creation Museum but you couldn't get inside the $27 million building created by the group called 'Answers in Genesis Creation' [sic] without passing by a long line of protesters."
In July 2007, the UC Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
science radio show This Week in Science
This Week in Science
This Week in Science is a science radio talk show broadcasting from KDVS 90.3FM on the UC Davis campus. Each week, TWIS founder/host Kirsten Sanford and co-host Justin Jackson review current research in technology...
published a website parodying the Creation Museum. Based on Christian belief in literal biblical truth, the Unicorn Museum presents a case for Christian belief in unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
s.
In August 2007, the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau was criticized by scientists for describing the Creation Museum as a "'walk through history' museum" that "will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture". Daniel Phelps, the president of Kentucky Paleontological Society said that as a tax-supported institution, the use of the language was particularly problematic since many religious people accept evolution. The Bureau initially defended its use of the language saying that they used whatever language was supplied by each attraction, but then decided to change the description.
On his visit to the museum, Phelps noted that several of the dinosaur reconstructions were poorly reconstructed or outdated in depiction. A Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
outside the museum grounds for example, is shown standing in an outdated tail dragging "tripod" stance, an Iguanodon
Iguanodon
Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
is shown bearing a skin texture completely different from what is known from fossilised skin impressions of the species and a Utahraptor
Utahraptor
Utahraptor is a genus of theropod dinosaurs, including the largest known members of the family Dromaeosauridae. Fossil specimens date to the upper Barremian stage of the early Cretaceous period...
is shown to be without feathers, despite recent discoveries of the opposite, as well as sporting anatomically incorrect forearms. Phelps also leveled criticism at the reconstructions of Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
flora, one example being a cycad
Cycad
Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female . Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters...
plant reconstructed as little more than a giant pineapple. The museum has also been accused of using "outdated 19th Century quack anthropology", since refuted, to promote the idea that different human races (Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
, Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
, and Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present....
) came from Noah's descendants
Sons of Noah
The Seventy Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing in of the Hebrew Bible, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective...
, dispersing after the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...
.
In 2007 Bill Maher
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...
"evaded" Creation Museum security and toured the location and interviewed Ken Ham
Ken Ham
Kenneth Alfred Ham is the Australian President/CEO of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth...
. The footage appeared in the October 2008 film Religulous
Religulous
Religulous is a 2008 American comic documentary film written by and starring comedian Bill Maher and directed by Larry Charles. The title of the film is a portmanteau derived from the words "religion" and "ridiculous"; the documentary examines and mocks organized religion and religious...
. In a press release by AiG critical of the movie, it called Maher "dishonest" in gaining access to the Creation Museum and Ken Ham.
In August 2009, more than 300 people part of the Secular Student Alliance
Secular Student Alliance
The Secular Student Alliance , founded in May 2000, is an independent, democratically structured organization in the U.S. that aims to serve the needs of freethinking high school and college students. The Secular Student Alliance is based in Columbus, Ohio...
took a tour of the venue, along with PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris
University of Minnesota, Morris
University of Minnesota Morris is a public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges located in Morris, Minnesota, United States...
. Scientists in the group, such as chemist William Watkin, commented about how scientifically wrong the displays are. Myers posted an account of the tour on his blog, including condemning the venue for "promoting the Hamite theory of racial origins
Curse of Ham
The Curse of Ham is a possible misnomer, for the Curse of Canaan. The curse refers to Noah cursing Ham's offspring Canaan, for Ham's own transgression against his father, according to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. The debate regarding upon whom the curse fell has raged for at least two thousand...
, that ugly idea that all races stemmed from the children of Noah, and that black people in particular were the cursed offspring of Ham." This led to post exchanges between Ken Ham
Ken Ham
Kenneth Alfred Ham is the Australian President/CEO of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth...
and Myers.
In 2010, A. A. Gill
A. A. Gill
Adrian Anthony Gill is a British writer who uses the byline A. A. Gill. He is currently employed by The Sunday Times as their restaurant reviewer and television critic and Vanity Fair magazine as a restaurant reviewer...
reported it is "a breathtakingly literal march through Genesis, without any hint of soul." "This place doesn't just take on evolution—it squares off with geology, anthropology, paleontology, history, chemistry, astronomy, zoology, biology, and good taste. It directly and boldly contradicts most -onomies and all -ologies, including most theology."
On February 11, 2011, a heterosexual Louisville man attempted to enter the museum with his male friend as part of the museum's "date night" event, but was denied entry, as the security guard thought the heterosexual man was gay. Mark Looy, the museum's Communications Director, later said that everyone is welcome at the museum. The group that the two men were part of sought refunds for the $71 total admission fee for the unused tickets—the museum refused to refund them the money, but they invite the group to come back, as long as they do not make a scene.
Promotion
Ken Ham promoted the museum in the hope that people from all over the United States and the world would visit the museum. Groups from churches and Christian schools are also anticipated. During the week the museum opened Answers in Genesis began running a 30-second television commercial promoting the museum in six metropolitan areas, CincinnatiCincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, and Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
Ham has said the museum is not attempting to attract groups from public schools, saying "I suspect by intimidation and threats of lawsuits, I doubt whether public school students, as an official tour, would come." Steve Rissing, a biologist and board member of Ohio Citizens for Science, said that a lawsuit over separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
would be likely if public schools send students to the museum using public tax money.
In 2008 the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, "Cincinnati Zoo and the Creation Museum launched a joint promotional deal last week to draw attention to their holiday attractions." But following an outcry of criticism, the zoo ended the relationship after two days.
See also
- Creation-evolution controversyCreation-evolution controversyThe creation–evolution controversy is a recurring cultural, political, and theological dispute about the origins of the Earth, humanity, life, and the universe....
- Creation Evidence MuseumCreation Evidence MuseumThe Creation Evidence Museum, originally Creation Evidences Museum, is a museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, USA. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying purported evidence for creationism, the museum purports to show that the Earth is only...
- similar museum in TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in... - Creation Research Museum
- Creationist perspectives on dinosaurs
External links
OfficialCritical
- Press kit critical of the museum from Answers in Creation, a Christian site disputing young Earth creationism
- Reactions to creation "museum" from National Center for Science EducationNational Center for Science EducationThe National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
- Pharyngula: The Creation Museum, a compilation of blog reactions to the museum