Bible as biology
Creation Museum outside Cincinnati readies its exhibits
Friday, February 10, 2006
Dennis M . Mahoney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
PETERSBURG, Ky. — Ken Ham admits that the Creation Museum rising on 50 acres of former farmland in northern Kentucky uses dinosaurs to attract people.
But while the giant creatures are a hook, they also help his organization, Answers in Genesis, get across its fundamental message: If the Bible says it, it’s got to be true.
"Every doctrine of theology is found in that history, and all of Christian morality," Ham said. "And so in a sense, the museum is standing here saying, ‘The Bible’s history is true; that’s why its message of morality, its message of the Gospel is true.’ "
What is true for Answers in Genesis, and what the 30,000-square-foot museum will depict, is:
• The Earth is about 6,000 years old, not millions as many say.
• God created everything in six days.
• Adam and Eve and all other creatures were vegetarians — until the first couple sinned. Meat-eating and death then followed.
• Dinosaurs must have lived at the same time as humans. Because death came only after Adam and Eve sinned, the dinosaurs couldn’t have lived and died before them.
• A great flood destroyed much of the Earth and killed the dinosaurs, but Noah and the animals in the ark were spared.
• God chose the Israelites to bring his word to the world.
• Jesus died and was resurrected to end human separation from God caused by sin.
Thwarted by foes
Answers in Genesis was co-founded by Ham in Australia, his native country, in the late 1970s. He came to the San Diego area in 1987, and in late 1993 started a U.S. office of the organization with fellow Australian Mark Looy.
Ham, a 54-year-old former science teacher, and Looy, 51, moved the U.S. office to Florence, Ky., just south of Cincinnati, in 1994 because it was more centrally located to a large portion of the U.S. population.
Looy said building a museum was always a goal of Answers in Genesis, which also has offices overseas in five countries. But the organization was stymied in its first attempt to do so.
In the mid-1990s, it met stiff resistance when it sought the rezoning of land just outside Big Bone Lick State Park, southwest of Florence, to build the museum and offices. The park’s museum displays fossils of prehistoric animals found on the site in the 18 th century.
Among those leading the opposition were Edwin and Helen Kagin of nearby Union. Mr. Kagin is director of the Kentucky chapter of American Atheists and its legal representative.
"Many educated people simply didn’t believe or could not comprehend that anyone was actually claiming that dinosaurs that became extinct 65 million years before the advent of humans on the planet lived at the same time," Mr. Kagin said. "They really thought it was sort of a joke."
When it became clear Ham and Looy weren’t kidding, Mrs. Kagin helped gather about 1,000 signatures opposing the rezoning. She said opponents thought the site had been chosen to contrast with the archaeology of the park.
The Kagins said their opposition was based on legal issues, not religious ones.
"They have an absolute right to build their museum of nonsense," Mr. Kagin said. "My opposition was based solely on their failure to meet the zoning requirements."
The rezoning was denied. After that, Answers in Genesis found the current site, where Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky come together in one of the few undeveloped areas along I-275.
Elaborate presentation
The museum — scheduled to open in spring 2007 — will include 70 dinosaur models, some of which are animatronic. Visitors will view displays that tell the story of creation, the sinful fall of Adam and Eve and its aftermath, and the great flood.
The final part of the tour deals with the coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the final judgment.
The museum will include a $500,000 planetarium, which seats 84, and a special-effects theater, seating 175, that cost about $1 million. There will be cafes, a gift shop and a chapel where clergy people will answer questions.
The building encompasses 95,000 square feet, with about 30,000 being the museum. The rest is for Answers in Genesis offices and museum workshops.
Travis Wilson, 19, is a Rochester, Mich., native who is working at the museum as a sculptor. He learned of the museum when an Answers in Genesis speaker came to his church.
Wilson, who lives in nearby Burlington, said his experience has been "awesome."
"You can go to work every day and be like, yeah, I did something that was worthwhile. It’s cool," he said.
Georgia Purdom is leaving her job teaching molecular and cell biology at Mount Vernon Nazarene University this summer to work for Answers in Genesis because she says her new post will allow her to be more creative.
Purdom, who earned her doctorate in molecular genetics from Ohio State University in 2000, will teach, write and develop curriculum for Answers in Genesis.
She also will be doing research for an Institute for Creation Research project that is analyzing and comparing the genomes of humans and chimps. The goal is to show that the two have no common ancestor, according to the institute’s Web site.
Purdom said the Bible molds her thinking as a scientist.
"Because I believe in the authority of the Bible, and what we call plain reading of the Bible, then I have no reason to doubt that God created the world in six, 24-hour days," she said.
"And so that is the foundation. That’s my presupposition. And so everything, science, it doesn’t matter what field, is interpreted in light of that."
Developing the Answers in Genesis complex — where 155 currently work — is costing about $25 million, with about $20 million in the bank so far, Looy said. The organization’s budget last year was $15.5 million.
About two-thirds of its revenue comes from donations, he said. The rest is from product sales and book royalties, and fees it charges at some of the several hundred seminars it conducts each year nationwide, Looy said.
Struggle for minds
The museum is another part of Answers in Genesis’ effort to flood the culture with information and change its thinking, Ham said. Another big part of that is an Internet site (
www.answersingenesis.org) that has more than 1 million visitors monthly, he said.
Ham said creationists were not set back by a recent decision by a Pennsylvania judge that "intelligent design" — the notion that life results from an unknown intelligent plan — can’t be taught in public schools.
"The fact that these battles are occurring, even if they’re losing . . . the fact that it’s bringing it to the forefront in the culture, to me means something is happening," Ham said.
"So I don’t see a loss here or a loss there. If you’re going to change something, you’ve got to expect those sorts of things."
Ham said the organization’s research shows that more than just true creationist believers will visit the museum because everyone is interested in their origins.
"There are people today that won’t go to a church," he said. "But they’ll come to something like this because it’s interesting. And that’s why we’re doing it in a first-class way.
"We’re up front about who we are and what we believe. But the statistics indicate we’re going to have quite a large percentage of non-Christians coming."
------------------------------------------------
Linear Mode
