Creationist museum challenges evolution
By Martin Redfern BBC News, Kentucky, USA |
For some a battle between science and religion is
being fought for the soul of America. The Creationists argue God
created the world in six days and want their beliefs given equal status
to evolutionary science.
Petersburg Kentucky is in the middle of North America. It is supposedly within a day's drive of two thirds of the US population.
For the rest, it is just 10 minutes from Cincinnati
International Airport. That is why it was picked as the site for a new
museum, due to open in a couple of months.
We enter the landscaped grounds through gates flanked by wrought iron Stegosauruses.
The lobby is modelled on a cliff in the Grand Canyon. But this is no ordinary museum of science and geology.
It is the dream of Ken Ham, President of Answers in
Genesis, a Christian ministry that promotes the idea that the Biblical
book of Genesis should be taken literally in describing the creation of
the world, life and humans as carried out by God over a six-day period
a few thousand years ago.
We get as far as the museum bookshop - already well-stocked with creationist titles - but no further.
Officials tell us that state regulations forbid it. It is still under construction and closed to visitors.
In the card game of creationism, the Bible trumps science every time
Is this, I wonder, because I am accompanied by Eugenie Scott, director
of the National Centre for Science Education and a polite but
determined campaigner against attempts to teach creationism alongside
evolution in American school science classes?
Sharp teeth
So it is round the back to the offices, to receive Ken Ham's crushingly sincere handshake.
He came to the US from Australia 20 years ago, founded Answers in Genesis and never left.
He lectures or broadcasts almost daily and clearly has the charisma to raise $27m (£14m) for this ambitious museum.
He is also not afraid to show us what is inside, and turns on the Animatronic dinosaurs.
On a rocky ledge, there is a pair of small theropods -
young T. rexes we're told. And near to them ("hold onto your hat," says
Ken, anticipating our disbelief) there are two human children playing
by a stream.
Most geologists would say humans and dinosaurs were separated by more than 60 million years.
And those dinosaurs have very sharp teeth!
"So do bears", says Ken. "But they eat nuts and berries!
Remember, before the sin of Adam, the world was perfect. All creatures
were vegetarian." One of the dinosaurs lets out a rather contradictory
roar.
Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but what annoys
Eugenie Scott is the way in which the received wisdom of Genesis is
given equal or higher status to scientific evidence and the way in
which the latter is used selectively.
"In the card game of creationism, the Bible trumps science every time," she says.
But in her game, science is dealt a hand that is purely
materialistic. Ideas of a supernatural being belong in a different
game, be it philosophy or theology.
As we prepare to leave, Eugenie Scott quietly slips a panda glove
puppet from her handbag and photographs it among the dinosaurs.
It is introduced to me as Professor Steve Steve. Creationists are fond of lists of "scientists who doubt Darwin".
Many thousands more support evolution, but rather than
play the same game, Eugenie has parodied the lists by concentrating on
scientists named Steve (Stephanies are also eligible).
So far, more than 700 have signed up. Their mascot is a
panda because of a notorious creationist text entitled "Of Pandas and
People".
Steve was picked in honour of the late evolutionary
biologist Stephen J Gould. Steve Steve because - well, all pandas have
double names.
Noah's Ark
Much of the Creation Museum in Kentucky is still under
construction and we were not able to go on to see the section through
Noah's Ark or the model of the Grand Canyon.
Instead, we visited the real thing - the Canyon not the Ark!
For the creationists, Noah's flood IS science
Grand Canyon park guides will tell you that the canyon took more than a
million years to form and cuts through rocks that span more than a
billion years.
Not so, say "Young Earth" creationists. All those rocks were deposited by flood waters at the time of Noah.
Though the Bible does not mention them directly, Ken Ham
thinks there is no reason to suppose that dinosaurs were not still
around at the time of the flood.
Indeed, he speculates that two of each may have been
taken aboard the Ark (newly hatched dinosaurs are quite small so
fitting them in would not have been a problem).
And what about the animals from other continents? Did Noah sail to Australia to drop off the kangaroos?
No, the flood waters lubricated a process called runaway
subduction in which the continents subsequently drifted apart at a
sprint!
Challenged with this scenario, a uniformed park guide
says that, while everyone is entitled to their belief, he prefers to
stick to accepted science.
For the creationists, Noah's flood IS science.
For them, the Canyon is a gash in the surface of the
Earth left by that flood, representing the wrath of God against the
sins of mankind.
Here at least, sin and anger have turned into something surprisingly beautiful!
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1 comment:
You write very well.
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