Creation Museum in The New York Times

In a very well written article (even though we would not agree with certain statements), The New York Times museum reviewer Edward Rothstein wrote a review on the Creation Museum. He visited recently, and although the Museum was not finished, he obviously understood clearly the message we set out to deliver through this facility.

It is really worth reading the entire article. Here is an excerpt:

The entrance gates here are topped with metallic Stegosauruses. The grounds include a giant tyrannosaur standing amid the trees, and a stone-lined lobby sports varied sauropods. It could be like any other natural history museum, luring families with the promise of immense fossils and dinosaur adventures. But step a little farther into the entrance hall, and you come upon a pastoral scene undreamt of by any natural history museum. Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away.

What is this, then? A reproduction of a childhood fantasy in which dinosaurs are friends of inquisitive youngsters? The kind of fantasy that doesn’t care that human beings and these prefossilized thunder-lizards are usually thought to have been separated by millions of years? No, this really is meant to be more like one of those literal dioramas of the traditional natural history museum, an imagining of a real habitat, with plant life and landscape reproduced in meticulous detail. For here at the $27 million Creation Museum, which opens on May 28 (just a short drive from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport), this pastoral scene is a glimpse of the world just after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in which dinosaurs are still apparently as herbivorous as humans, and all are enjoying a little calm in the days after the fall.It also serves as a vivid introduction to the sheer weirdness and daring of this museum created by the Answers in Genesis ministry that combines displays of extraordinary nautilus shell fossils and biblical tableaus, celebrations of natural wonders and allusions to human sin. Evolution gets its continual comeuppance, while biblical revelations are treated as gospel.

Read the rest of the article here.

Johns Hopkins president takes swipe at Creation Museum

In the commencement address for graduates of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, its president warned the graduates about ignorance and how dangerous it is to deny scientific facts. In an article adapted from the speech, we read that the Creation Museum was one of a few examples the president was warning about:

Consider for a moment the headlines and news stories of the past year alone. In December Iran held an "International Holocaust Conference" largely for the purpose of denying the Holocaust ever happened. In Japan the Prime Minister claimed there is "no evidence to prove coercion" of the women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. At the International AIDS conference in Toronto, South Africa's health minister questioned the science of AIDS treatment and promoted a diet of garlic, lemon and beetroot as a viable alternative to anti-retroviral drugs now in use. Here at home, the Environmental Protection Agency ignored the advice of its own scientists (and an expert advisory panel) that fine-particle soot in the air be reduced as a proven human health risk. In a few days, in Kentucky, the $25 million Creation Museum will open featuring a diorama of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.... happily co-existing with dinosaurs, whose fossil remains must be accounted for in some manner. Meanwhile, a recent Newsweek poll found 39 percent of those surveyed believed the theory of evolution is "not well- supported" by evidence. We must all beware the very real and understandable human tendency to ignore or subvert facts, and findings of science, that discomfort us for reasons of ideology, politics, religion, or personal taste.

When one considers the recent petitions against the Creation Museum circulated by a group that supposedly defends the constitution, and the atheist/secular humanist groups gathering to protest the Creation Museum opening, and now a swipe against the Creation Museum by the president of Johns Hopkins during his commencement address—one can tell that the secular world is extremely worried by the opening of the world’s first major museum of earth history based on the Bible’s account of history.

It’s interesting that the Johns Hopkins president talks about “willful ignorance.” Well, the Bible in 2 Peter 3:5 talks about those “willingly ignorant” of the fact that God created and that the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day really did happen. It is not the Creation Museum that is willingly ignorant, but those like the Johns Hopkins President, who has not visited the Creation Museum, not read the signs or seen the videos, not talked to any of the Creation Museum Ph.D. scientists—yet he knows the museum ignores scientific facts and promotes a view of what he calls “willful ignorance.” If the students of Johns Hopkins adopted such procedures in their own research, I’m sure they wouldn’t be allowed to be in the graduating class.

You can read the entire report on the Johns Hopkins President’s address at:

http://www.american.com/archive/2007/may-0507/jhu-commencement-address

28^th interview

Today, I did my 28^th interview in three days in regard to the Creation Museum! I have a number of interviews scheduled for Thursday. Today, my sister Beverley and husband Les arrived from Australia (see photograph) to attend the official opening of the Creation Museum. I’ve also included a photograph of AiG’s Dr. Jason Lisle as he is being interviewed by American Family Radio (120 stations nationwide) who broadcasted live from the Creation Museum on Wednesday.

Sneak preview

This week, we allowed Charter Members, contractors, staff, and others to have a sneak preview of the Creation Museum—even though final touches are still be made to a number of exhibits. Over the first three days, 4000 have already visited—and the response from the visitors has been phenomenal. I’ve heard comments like “awesome,” “blown away,” “first rate,” “far better than I ever imagined,” etc. I’ve included a photograph of a visiting family in the biblical authority room.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken