http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18061154/site/newsweek/

Quote :

"Biblically Correct A former teacher is opening a Creation Museum in Kentucky. Will its appeal extend beyond the believers? Updated: 5:03 p.m. ET April 11, 2007 April 11, 2007 - In the theater, the seats shake and audiences are sprayed with water at every mention of the flood. Nearby, a Garden of Eden is an animated vision depicting humans happily coexisting alongside dinosaurs and a little girl who laughs every time one of the giant reptiles bares its teeth. And nope, this isn’t your average theme park. Welcome, instead, to the Creation Museum. Here, dozens of exhibits attempt to show the Bible as the literal truth and the theory of evolution as unsupportable by science. Creationists believe that the Garden of Eden did exist, that the world is 6,000 years old, that God created man and animals simultaneously, and that the flood wiped out every living creature that wasn’t inside Noah’s Ark. The museum will open to the public in late May, and founder Ken Ham hopes it will attract 250,000 visitors in its first year. Located on a 50-acre piece of flat land in the little town of Petersburg, Ky., it is in the heart of Middle America—just a short drive from Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio, and, say the organizers, no more than a day’s road trip for two thirds of the American population. Ham believes that the public is certainly ready for his museum. A NEWSWEEK poll conducted last month found that 39 percent of those surveyed felt that the theory of evolution was “not well-supported” by evidence. Last year, a Pew Research Center poll found that 58 percent of those interviewed support the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in schools. Ham certainly shares that view. A onetime high-school biology and zoology teacher in his native Australia, he felt he could not be consistent if he taught evolution while believing in the literal truth of the Bible. He came up with his plan for a creation museum after seeing his students presented with evolution as fact when they visited natural-history museums. Ham, 55, went on to found the Creation Museum and become president of Answers in Genesis, the Evangelical ministry behind the project. In an interview, he recalls how, when he was first taught evolution in school at the age of 13, he asked his father—a dedicated Christian—about “those ape men.” “If you don’t believe in Genesis,” his father told him, “then the whole rest of the Bible falls.” These words stuck. The Creation Museum, which has so far funded its $26 million cost through private donations, focuses on Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Its special-effects theater shows a video of Biblical history; when it’s time for the flood, the seats shake and the audience is sprayed with mists of water and air. There is also a planetarium—Ham calls it “one of the most powerful parts of the museum”—with big, comfortable chairs that tilt backward so that viewers can watch a video about the galaxy projected on the dome-like screen on the ceiling. “It gives them a taste of the kind of creator they have, and they say ‘wow,’” says Jason Lisle, who is in charge of the planetarium program. Lisle is 32 and has a Ph.D. in solar astrophysics from the University of Colorado. One of his tasks, he said, is to review videos for accuracy. Has he ever found a contradiction between the scientific and Biblical claims in the videos? Lisle says this is the wrong question. “Science comes out of a Biblical worldview,” he says. “We don’t try to prove the Bible from outside evidence. We accept the Bible as presupposition.” No exhibit demonstrates this point better than “Dinosaur Dig Site,” where two mannequins—the elderly gray-haired model represents a creationist paleontologist; the youthful one wearing a denim jacket symbolizes an evolutionary paleontologist—draw different conclusions from studying the same dinosaur bones. Ask Ham if that’s because the creationist’s point of departure is the Bible, while for the evolutionist it’s science, and he responds: “They [evolutionists] basically define science as naturalism. They say we cannot involve the supernatural.” If to Biblical creationists science can involve the natural and the supernatural, then the debate appears to be over the definition of the concept “science.” Ham often asks of evolutionists: “How do you gain knowledge about the past when you weren’t there?” But what of the argument that the same question could be asked of creationists who believe—also without having been there—that the Bible was written by men who reflected the word of God? Man by himself could not have written such a consistent, non-contradictory book,” says Ham. But how does he know man wrote it with divine inspiration? “Because of what the Bible itself claims of itself,” he says. Much of the museum is devoted to telling the story of the Bible chronologically through two-minute videos, voiceovers, large murals and models. There is also a recreation of a cave-like stone house inhabited by Adam and Eve after they’ve been expelled from Eden and an enormous replica of Noah’s Ark, which the museum says is much smaller than the original. Most of these exhibits are like a modern, technologically advanced version of an animated children’s Bible. The last stop is the gift shop, where visitors are greeted by fierce-looking dragons. Some creationists believe that dinosaurs could have been alive as recently as a few centuries ago, and that European dragon legends were likely a result of dinosaurs living among the populace. In the Dragon Hall bookstore, the ambience is meant to suggest a medieval castle. Knights’ shields line the walls and a black, metal chandelier six feet in diameter hangs from the high ceiling by a thick chain. Long rows of apparel, books, magazines and DVDs fill the store. One book, “The New Answers Book,” has a chapter called: “Does Carbon-14 disprove the Bible?” The answer: “When a scientist’s interpretation of data does not match the clear meaning of the text in the Bible, we should never reinterpret the Bible. God knows just what he meant to say, and His understanding of science is infallible, whereas ours is fallible.” Ham hopes that the museum visitors will agree. "

hmmmmm...i wonder how long this is going to last? obviously some people want it to happen because they raised $26m for it.

this is my favorite part:

Quote :

"He came up with his plan for a creation museum after seeing his students presented with evolution as fact when they visited natural-history museums."

so what does he do? he creates a museum that presents creationism as fact. sweet.

4/12/2007 11:26:06 AM

wow we are joke to the rest of the world. i'm sure western europe is laughing at our creationism museum

4/12/2007 11:38:19 AM

/message_topic.aspx?topic=471690

4/12/2007 12:02:29 PM

yeah, that was a great thread!

4/12/2007 12:07:10 PM

Quote :

"But how does he know man wrote it with divine inspiration? “Because of what the Bible itself claims of itself,” he says."

4/12/2007 12:14:53 PM

Quote :

"wow we are joke to the rest of the world. i'm sure western europe is laughing at our creationism museum"

Oh no, we have western europe laughing at us. what ever shall we dooooo?

4/12/2007 12:22:40 PM

build another creatonism museum?

4/12/2007 12:23:29 PM

ok, in all honesty, i believe in creationism (im sure that will bring criticism, but not really worried about it) but seriously, can you really make a museum about an idea for which there is nothing to put in the museum?

4/12/2007 12:29:14 PM

ill be honest, i have no problem with creationism, i just find the explanations from Ham pretty hilarious.

4/12/2007 12:33:00 PM

4/12/2007 12:39:06 PM

Quote :

"Man by himself could not have written such a consistent, non-contradictory book"

oh LOL

4/12/2007 12:39:09 PM

^ my favorite line as well.

4/12/2007 12:41:17 PM

i think its a good idea.

4/12/2007 12:49:40 PM

I believe in creationism as well. I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

Quote :

""Man by himself could not have written such a consistent, non-contradictory book""

^^ I don't have time to get into an indepth discussion about it, but I too believe the bible is error free.

4/12/2007 1:11:41 PM

of course it is, the bible says so.

4/12/2007 1:12:39 PM

i would like to see the education level comparison between people who beleive in creationism and those that do not

4/12/2007 1:16:38 PM

^
There's probably a strong correlation.

It's like people embrace stupidity and ignorance in this country. They wear it as a badge. When the hell did this happen?

4/12/2007 1:22:14 PM

First, old and soap box. Second, my favorite line is from the founder in another article:

Quote :

"If the Bible is the word of God, and its history really is true, that's our presupposition or axiom, and we are starting there."

pre·sup·pose
tr.v.
1. To believe or suppose in advance.
2. To require or involve necessarily as an antecedent condition. See Synonyms at presume.

ax·i·om
n.
1. A self-evident or universally recognized truth; a maxim.
2. An established rule, principle, or law.
3. A self-evident principle or one that is accepted as true without proof as the basis for argument; a postulate.

self-ev·i·dent
adj.
Requiring no proof or explanation.

In other words, the man that has inspired over twenty million dollars in donations and intends to open a museum educating the public about the origin of life has said the following: 1) He believes in the truth of the Bible in advance of reason. 2) Anything else he believes must conform to this preceding belief in the Bible. 3) He believes the Bible requires no proof or explanation. 4) He accepts the Bible as true without proof and uses it as the basis for his arguments.

When science and fallacious “axioms” collide in the minds of fools, the preconceptions always win. How could they lose? They’re self-evident!

4/12/2007 1:25:58 PM

Quote :

"First, old and soap box."

i looked....could you point me to a thread already talking about this museum? also, i purposely didnt put this in soap box because everything turns into a semantics arguement there. its a waste.

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 1:37 PM. Reason : a]

4/12/2007 1:37:36 PM

ah ha ha ha ha ha, I just noticed the cat head replacing the wolf logo.

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 1:49 PM. Reason : cat cat cat cat cat]

4/12/2007 1:39:19 PM

^^message_topic.aspx?topic=468947

It's not on a specific museum though.

4/12/2007 1:47:56 PM

ahh...that wonderful thread title caused me to miss it when i searched!

4/12/2007 1:48:59 PM

There was a thread before that one too, it was also crappily titled.

4/12/2007 1:50:25 PM

i dont doubt it

4/12/2007 1:52:27 PM

best hack ever

4/12/2007 1:55:56 PM

Quote :

"raised $26m for it."

how many meals does that equal for the homeless? clothes? shelters?

4/12/2007 2:01:45 PM

^oh, are those important things to Christians?

4/12/2007 2:04:10 PM

love the cat!

4/12/2007 3:42:24 PM

this is why I follow The Hawk

4/12/2007 4:54:20 PM

OT: I see NEDM on my screen.

BTTT: I too believe in creationism. And I don't see anything wrong with raising $26M to build a museum for it. Religious give much more to the needy/poor than the secular. So, it's "justified" in a sense. Besides, it's going to go to raise "awareness" to the topic of creationism. So, it's all gravy to us creationism folks.

4/12/2007 5:08:43 PM

dude, learning how to calculate tip is gravy to creationists

4/12/2007 5:24:48 PM

IT'S HAPPYCAT!

4/12/2007 7:38:14 PM

I dont really understand all the hate.

Guy wanted to build a museum and he did. Its America he can do what he wants

4/12/2007 10:15:24 PM

i'll be honest, i think creationism is wrong, and stupid

4/12/2007 10:22:35 PM