The Creation Museum
Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 6:10:21 pm PDT
Before we get to the real point of this post, here’s some background information on the Creation Museum in Kentucky:
The Creation Museum is a 60,000 square foot museum in the United States designed to promote young Earth creationism. The museum 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. Its exhibits reject evolution and assert that the Earth and all of its life forms were created 6000 years ago over a six-day period, and that man and dinosaurs once coexisted.
These views disagree with well in excess of 99.9% of the scientists in relevant fields. Also, the museum exhibits are at odds with the vast majority of scientists who accept 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 generated criticism by the scientific community, several groups of educators, Christian groups opposed to young Earth creationism, and in the general 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 month attendance surpassed 100,000 visitors by July 21, 2007 and 200,000 visitors on September 20, 2007. Visitor attendance also exceeded first year expectations only 5 months and 5 days after opening, with a total of 250,000 visitors on November 2, 2007.
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 in Petersburg, Kentucky, near the Greater Cincinnati International Airport on 49 acres 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 the 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 per cent 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 runs a creationist museum in Santee, California, with free admission.
With that introduction, a reader emailed a link to a Flickr photo essay by “astropop,” who visited the Creation Museum with a good camera and a good eye.
Here we see an animatronic cave girl happily coexisting with an animatronic vegetarian allosaur.
Here’s a slideshow of all the pictures. I recommend absorbing the entire message.
