The Creation Museum, which opens Monday, mocks evolutionary science and is a "creationist Disneyland."
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post
Last update: May 26, 2007 ndash; 6:48 PM
PETERSBURG, KY. - At the Creation Museum, a fanciful Eden rises from the void.
Adam appears, bearded and handsome, if slightly waxen. Eve emerges from his rib with luxuriant hair and a kindly expression. Trees blossom and creatures frolic, evidence that all started well in God's perfect world.
Elsewhere, as the story develops, Cain stands over his slain brother, Abel; life-size workmen build a replica of Noah's ark, and Methuselah intones, "With each passing day, judgment draws nearer ...
I can tell you, whatever God says is true." Despite the showmanship behind the $27 million museum opening here Monday, the evangelists who put it together contend that none of the gleaming exhibits are allegorical. God did create the universe in six days, they say, and the Earth is about 6,000 years old.
What separates the Creation Museum from its Bible-boosting brethren is the promoters' assertion that they can prove through science that the book of Genesis is true. All of it. But in this latest demonization of Darwinian evolution, there is a sticking point: For the biblical account to be accurate and the world to be so young, several hundred years of research in geology, physics, biology, paleontology, and astronomy would need to be very, very wrong.
"This may be fascinating, but this is nonsense," said Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Case Western Reserve University and a vocal defender of evolutionary science. "It's fine for people to believe whatever they want. What's inappropriate is to then essentially lie and say science supports these notions.
" Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, calls the sparkling facility "the creationist Disneyland." Come Monday, when the museum opens for business not far from Cincinnati, protesters plan to gather at the gates. The Creation Museum, a project of the socially conservative religious organization Answers in Genesis, mocks evolutionary science and invites visitors to find faith and truth in God.
It welcomes its first paying guests -- $19.95 for adults, $9.95 for children, not counting discounts for joining a mailing list -- just weeks after three Republican presidential candidates said they do not believe in evolution.
Opinion polls suggest that about half of Americans agree. They dismiss the scientific theory that all beings have a common ancestor, believing instead that God created humans. Similar numbers say the world's age should be counted in the thousands of years, not billions, as established science would have it.
Museum exhibits suggesting that man coexisted with dinosaurs -- which fossils show became extinct millions of years before humans existed -- rely on the notion that the evidence is simply open to interpretation. One sign sets "Human Reason" against "God's Word." The backers of the concept of intelligent design, which posits that living beings are too complex to have evolved from a primordial soup, take a similar approach, widely discredited by scientists.
Designed to inspire Christian belief, the facility was largely built with contributions of $100 or less, although three families gave at least $1 million each, said Mark Looy, an Answers in Genesis co-founder. To put together a museum with pizzazz, the planners recruited Patrick Marsh, the designer who created the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at Universal Studios in Florida. 250,000 visitors are expected the first year.
Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham said "A lot of non-Christians will come. You couldn't blow them into church with a stick of dynamite, but they'll come to this.
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