Rally For Reason

As the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum prepares to open Monday with its message that the Bible's story of creation is literally and scientifically correct, a growing group of scientists, educators, clergy and concerned citizens will be countering the Creation Museum's message with their own "Rally for Reason."

_________________________

No: The whole Genesis argument is nothing more than scientific fraud in the name of religion By Lawrence M. Krauss

The purpose behind the museum is quite simple, and openly stated: The historical record in Genesis, as it is interpreted by Ken Ham, who created the organization Answers in Genesis, must be literally true. Since he infers that this is incompatible with essentially all of modern scientific knowledge, therefore modern science must be incorrect or irrelevant.

_________________________

Museum's founders say science is on their side: The Creation Museum, which opens Monday, mocks evolutionary science and is a "creationist Disneyland." by Peter Slevin, Washington Post

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.

_________________________

Creation leader thanks critics BY MIKE RUTLEDGE The Enquirer

PETERSBURG, Ky. – Blessed were the protestors, for without them, the Creation Museum would not have been so big, Answers in Genesis leader Ken Ham said before the controversial building’s ribbon cutting today. The $27 million museum, which officially opens Monday, would have been far smaller and would have had less impact, without its opponents, Ham said. Circling overhead, an airplane working for protestors pulled a banner with the message: "Thou Shalt Not Lie."

_________________________

Thou Shalt Not Lie Posted on: May 26, 2007

While a small airplane flew overhead, towing a banner that read, "Thou shalt not lie," Ken Ham and his cronies opened their $27 million "museum" near Cincinnati today, and were met with condemnation from the country's scientists. This so-called "museum" portrays God as creating the heavens and the Earth in six days approximately 6,000 years ago. Ham responded to the criticism by claiming that his incorrect and unorthodox views were finally being represented publically.

_________________________

Creation Museum juxtaposes dinosaurs, Noah's Ark By Dylan T. Lovan, Associated Press

Scientists say there's a gulf of millions of years between man and the giant lizards, but according to the Creation Museum, they lived in harmony just a few thousand years ago. It's part of the literal interpretation of the Bible adopted by Ham and other creationists.

_________________________

Reactions to creation "museum" May 25, 2007

With the young-earth creation ministry Answers in Genesis scheduled to open its lavish creation museum in northern Kentucky over the Memorial Day weekend, there is a great deal of concern among the scientific and educational communities in the adjacent states about its impact on the public understanding of evolution. NCSE executive director Eugenie C. Scott told ABC's Good Morning America (May 25, 2007) that her fear is that students will "show up in classrooms and say, 'Gee, Mrs. Brown, I went to this spiffy museum last summer and they say that everything you're teaching me is a lie.'"

_________________________

Creationism museum set to open May 27, 2007 By Susan Hogan/Albach Special to the Daily Southtown

Two years ago, Carl Kerby quit guiding airplanes at O'Hare International Airport to steer people to his literal views of the Bible. He moved near Cincinnati, where a controversial Creation Museum will open Monday. In just more than a decade, Answers in Genesis, the organization behind the museum, has built a thriving crusade against evolution. Its swath of ministries includes publishing, conferences and a speakers' bureau, where Kerby works. "This is not a cheesy, snake-oil, roadside stand kind of place," said Kerby, 46, one of several people from Chicago with ties to the $27 million privately funded museum.

_________________________

Creation Museum Challenges Darwin By Peter Slevin - The Washington Post

Biblical scenes are hardly a fresh phenomenon, either as expressions of faith or as missionary props. 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."

_________________________

Solomon’s House: The Deeper Agenda of the New Creation Museum in Kentucky by Stephen T. Asma

"How many sheep would a dinosaur need to eat per day while living on the Ark?"

_________________________

New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark Reuters | By Andrea Hopkins Sat May 26, 2007

PETERSBURG: Like many modern museums, the newest US tourist attraction includes some awesome exhibits – roaring dinosaurs and a life-sized ship. But only at the Creation Museum in Kentucky do the dinosaurs sail on the ship – Noah's Ark, to be precise. The Christian creators of the sprawling museum hope to draw as many as half a million people each year to their state-of-the-art project, which depicts the Bible's first book, Genesis, as literal truth.

_________________________

Museum uses dinosaurs to tell Earth's history The Hindu News Service Sunday, May 27, 2007

Petersburg, (Kentucky) May. 27(AP): Adam and Eve fall from grace and Noah survives an epic flood at a new museum that tells the Bible's version of history on a theme-park scale. But the scene near the front lobby might stop a puzzled paleontologist in his tracks: a pair of ancient children frolic just a few feet away from a group of friendly dinosaurs. That exhibit, among others, has earned the Creation Museum notoriety among skeptics and anticipation from believers who are expected to pack its halls when it opens on Monday.

_________________________

New Bible-Based Museum Has Dinosaurs Saturday May 26, 2007 By DYLAN T. LOVAN Associated Press Writer

PETERSBURG, Ky. (AP) - Adam and Eve fall from grace and Noah survives an epic flood at a new museum that tells the Bible's version of history on a theme-park scale. But the scene near the front lobby might stop a puzzled paleontologist in his tracks: a pair of ancient children frolic just a few feet away from a group of friendly dinosaurs. That exhibit, among others, has earned the Creation Museum notoriety among skeptics and anticipation from believers who are expected to pack its halls when it opens on Memorial Day.

_________________________

Creation beliefs Saturday, May 26, 2007 The Kentucky Post

Many people of faith find Genesis to be compatible with the conclusions of astrophysicists who believe the universe was formed more than 12 billion years ago from a cataclysmic explosion known as the Big Bang, that our planet is a speck in the cosmos, deriving its energy from a nearby star that will someday burn out. Many Western religions have also reached an accommodation with the overwhelming scientific evidence that man and other life forms evolved through a process popularly known as natural selection.

This weekend a ministry known as Answers in Genesis is opening a spectacular, $27 million museum in Boone County that challenges such conclusions. Answers in Genesis promotes a literal reading of the Bible, from the first page to the last.

In short, Answers in Genesis is attempting to make science conform to religious belief.

_________________________

New Creation Museum Mostly Illustrates that Creationists Have Lots of Cash

The guy who developed the Jaws and King Kong rides at Universal Studios is behind the new Creation Museum, which is set to open May 28 just south of Cincinnati. (The Times has a great review.) Pro: Now Cincinnati will be known for something other than race riots. Con: Now Young Earth Creationism, which one would hope would be recognized as both bad theology and bad science, has its Mecca. (Can a Hajj be far behind?) (For those of you unfamiliar with Young Earth Creationism, it's worth noting that one of its central tenets is that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, and that dinosaurs are in fact Dragons. Really!)

_________________________

Preaching Chapter One as literally true By Kevin Eigelbach Post staff reporter

The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed galaxies as far as 13 billion light years away. If it takes 13 billion years for the light from these galaxies to arrive on Earth, and the Earth is only 6,000 years old, how can we see those galaxies?

_________________________

Museum has Adam and Eve in land of dinosaurs May 27, 2007 By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN The New York Times

The entrance gates 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.

_________________________

Where Dinosaurs Meet Methuselah By Guardian Unlimited Published: 5/26/2007

The opening of a new museum dedicated to exploring the Earth's past and educating visitors is an event that rarely generates national controversy. This blending of science and religion has worried many experts who believe that the museum has targeted children to instill ideas in them, based on religious faith, that have no relation to reality. Two separate groups of scientists are circulating petitions that accuse the museum of undermining education by trying to inject a right-wing Christian viewpoint into schools.

'When they try to confuse kids about what is science and what isn't science, scientists have an obligation to speak out. There's no doubt that these are documented lies,' said Lawrence Krauss, a physics professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

________________________

Creationists to open $27 million museum Published May 27, 2007

PETERSBURG, KENTUCKY -- The creation story found in Genesis is the centerpiece of a museum opening here on Memorial Day. Patrons of the Creation Museum walk through a re-creation of the Garden of Eden and see life-size models of Adam and Eve frolic then get banished. And in the era of the Great Flood animatronic workers are building Noah's giant ark. The non-profit Answers in Genesis ministry built the $27 million facility where evolution is derided and humans and dinosaurs coexist.

_________________________

Museum undermines science of evolution Thomas Gregg, Jnanendra K. Bhattacharjee & Gary Janssen

In view of the deteriorating performance of American students in math and science, it is indeed unfortunate to be faced with the much-publicized opening of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, with the ultimate aim of changing what is taught in science classes. While there seems to be increasing public alarm over our children's lack of science knowledge, there seems to be a counter-intuitive glitzy welcoming of this "museum."

_________________________

Creationist museum brings dinosaurs on board Noah’s Ark May 28, 2007 Tom Baldwin From The Times

A vegetarian Tyrannosaurus rex frolicked alongside human beings only a few thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden until Eve decided to munch on that apple, according to the Creation Museum, which opens in Kentucky today. The $27 million (£14 million) exhibition is funded by evangelical Christians, who apparently believe that by reclaiming dinosaurs and fossils for their literal biblical interpretation of natural history, teenagers are less likely to look at internet pornography or get pregnant out of wedlock.

_________________________

Creation Museum is an unfunny 'Flintstones' Published: May 28, 2007

No, humans didn't have dinosaurs as pets. But, yes, science remains under assault. The Creation Museum, a $27 million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati today. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's animatronic balderdash -- dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! -- we'd like to clear up a few things: "The Flintstones" is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners? All make-believe.

_________________________

Protesters, Visitors Flock To Creation Museum May 28, 2007

PETERSBURG, Ky. -- Adam and Eve fall from grace and Noah survives an epic flood at a new museum that tells the Bible's version of history on a theme-park scale. But it's the life-sized scene near the Creation Museum's front lobby that might stop a puzzled paleontologist in his tracks. There, next to a gurgling waterfall, a pair of ancient children frolic just a few feet away from a group of friendly dinosaurs.

It's the kind of controversial exhibit that's earned the museum notoriety among skeptics and anticipation from believers who are sure to pack its halls beginning Monday. As the doors opened, about 100 protesters were outside the front gates, News 5's Brian Hamrick said. But Hamrick said the line for people entering the building was between 500 and 600, with the line running around the building. Both groups of people are welcome at the museum, founders have said.

_________________________

Creation Museum Ready for Debut Morning Edition, May 28, 2007

SOUND CLIP Twenty-five years ago, Ken Ham says, he felt a calling to build a museum to promote creationism. A quarter-century and $27 million later, The Creation Museum has opened in Petersburg, Ky., just outside Cincinnati. The displays offer the creationists' view of how the world came to be, which differs sharply from the teachings of science.

_________________________

Critics Assail Creation Museum Morning Edition, May 28, 2007 by Steve Inskeep and Barbara Bradley Hagerty

SOUND CLIP Ken Ham's $27 million Creation Museum project was built entirely with private money. Yet it was bound to attract skeptics and detractors. And protesters will be out in force Monday. What might people find objectionable about the exhibits?

_________________________

Sneak Peak at the Creation Museum May 28, 2007

If you want to tour the ridiculous Creation Museum we blogged the other day, but don't want to give a bunch of delusional idiots your money, check out this excellent photo gallery by Zachary Lynn. Unfortunately, there's no image of Adam and Eve frolicking with dinosaurs, but there is a tasty image of gruesome animal sacrifice

_________________________

A Sneak Peak at the Creation Museum (CAUTION: Some images not suitable for children)

_________________________

On the frontiers of creationism May 27, 2007

The Creation Museum, a $27-million (U.S.) tourist attraction promoting theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati tomorrow. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's balderdash – dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! – we'd like to clear up a few things: The Flintstones is a cartoon, not a documentary. Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here's another: The Earth is round.

The problem is that people who deny science in one realm are unlikely to embrace it in another. Those who cannot accept that climate change may have caused the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago probably don't put much stock in the fact that today it poses grave peril to the Earth as we know it.

_________________________

New Museum Draws Hundreds With Different Views On Creationism May 28, 2007 Posted By: Deb Silverman

Memorial Day plans for hundreds of people included a visit to the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Before the museum even opened today protesters were holding their signs while families were lining up to get inside. There was a long wait to be one of the first inside the Creation Museum but you couldn't get inside the $27 million building created by the group called "Answers in Genesis Creation" without passing by a long line of protestors. "They are outraged at the idea that a multi-million dollar museum of nonsense has been built in our area that is attempting to teach Bronze Age myths as truths," says Edwin Kagin. The protesters say the museum undermines the science of evolution.

_________________________