France Loves Creationism (Because It Makes Americans Look Stupid)
The French love stories like this. It gives them an excuse to look down their Gallic noses at Americans, and in this case, they’re infuriatingly right: Creationism going strong on Darwin anniversary.
Forget about dinosaurs, the origins of life, and the birth of the universe. According to Ken Ham, the creator of the Creation Museum in Washington, DC, the world is only several thousand years old, despite the claims of scientists.
Ham said, “What this museum is saying is that God created the world in 6 days, about 6000 years ago.”
Ham is one of the stalwarts of creationism. He believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible. Creationists believe that dinosaurs and humans were contemporaries. Adam and Eve frolicked among the brontosaurus in Eden’s lush vegetation.
The Page family, visitors of the museum, had theories of their own. Kelly Page, the father, claims that dinosaurs never went extinct. “Humans used to live 900 years, so reptiles actually never stopped growing. Dinosaurs are just big lizards. Now the lizards don’t live as long, so they don’t get as big.”
Terry Mortenson, a historian at the museum, claimed that Noah’s Ark included a few dinosaurs in its menagerie.
The world according to creationists may seem laughable, but they are dead serious. Support for their theories gained steam under former US president George W. Bush. He even raised the possibility of teaching creationism in school. And this is the ultimate goal of Ham.
“They’ve thrown God and the Bible out and re-defined science as naturism,” said Ham. “That’s actually a religious position. It’s the religion of atheism.”Since its opening a year and a half ago, the museum has welcomed over 600,000 visitors. And in a recent study, Americans showed their scepticism of Darwin’s theory of evolution, which only 50% of the US population accept as true.
