Part 1: Introduction and the Men in White

On an early morning in February, I boarded a bus with the planned destination of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY (just south of Cincinnati, OH). We were instructed to "prepare to believe" by the tagline of the museum, but I was not entirely sure how prepared I could become. We had been warned that uncivilized behavior would not be tolerated and I was glad of that.

Sitting on the bus, I knew some things about myself. First of all, I have been for many years an Evolutionary Biologist, and I had even gotten an undergraduate degree in it. Also, I felt that people were entitled to their view of the world, and that creationists have as much right to live as evolutionists. Finally, all I knew was that I did not want creationism (in any form) ever in my high school biology classes. I knew that I could be civil in my viewing of the museum, and that I would calmly take pictures and notes and put all of my thoughts into a nice, long blog entry for my friends to peruse at their leisure. This is what I present, and in this I will give you their take on events and mine, to see where the problems lie.

Strata

This was the wall inside the entrance of the Creation Museum. Here you see the strata. I will not go into great detail on this now, since there will be a long discussion of it later on. Though the rocks look incredibly lifelike, they were hollow.

After a ridiculously long time of waiting for our tickets (the cashiers were having problems with our tax exempt status- though it did get us free tickets to the Planetarium show), we headed inside. These were our first views.

Pterodactyl

This Pterodactyl reigned over the bookstore.

First View of exhibits

This was the first look into the world of the Creation Museum. It was hard to tell from this what we were getting ourselves into. We had come prepared, but I did not realize how prepared I had needed to be...

========Side Note========

In the Bathroom

Though I do not usually take pictures in a bathroom, I thought this was too good to let go. Not hygiene, oh no, this is where we dispose of the women.

I also overheard in the bathroom a few women talking about the planetarium. One said that they remembered going to COSI and seeing a planetarium show that began with "Billions and billions of years ago." She was excited to see the truth presented.

========End Side Note========

We moved into our first experience, the Men In White movie. The movie was prefaced by a staff member, fully in paleontologist get-up, explaining that it was supposed to be a fun satire. It was going to discuss "stereotypes from your school days." It was also 4-D, so there were spouts for water and the seats vibrated when necessary.

Men in White was set up as a girl sitting at a campfire contemplating her existence. She is visited by two angels in white t-shirts and overalls. They explained many things to our campfire girl, who thought that science had proven evolution and the age of the earth. She was actually mistaken. God made everything in the world, and everyone in the world has a purpose in life.

There are many lines of evidence cited in this presentation. One of the main issues in science is the idea of "billions of years". Obviously this cannot be true, since the Bible tells us that the universe is only about 6,000 years old. Now, scientists have found very old rocks, but the creationists here discuss the loss of helium from zircon rocks to prove that these rocks cannot possibly be as old as they are claimed to be. For more information, see Creationist and Geochemistry explanations.

We are also presented with the idea of ocean salt. There is more salt in the ocean every year, and if the world were as old as scientists say, the oceans would be completely full of salt, and you would be able to walk across them. Scientists discuss many main missing explanations for salt removal that the creationists tend to leave out. For more information, see Creationist and Geochemistry explanations.

Another line of evidence is the T-rex found with soft tissue still attached. This could show that the dinosaur was actually preserved during the flood, and is not millions and millions of years old. This is actually a very cool specimen, since it is a perfect example of exceptional preservation. Paleontologists do not come across these often, but sometimes organisms are buried in anoxic (no oxygen) environments. This made it possible to learn tons about the T-rex, and scientists were able to do DNA testing on the T-rex and learn just how closely related it is to modern bird.

The final couple pieces of evidence come quickly and without much explanation in the video. Quick and dirty, magnetic fields and supernovas are introduced. Basically, the earth's magnetic field is going away, and so if the world were actually several billion years old, we would not have a magnetic field left. If the universe were as old as scientists claim, then there would be big supernovas, which we do not see.

Variety was given to eat kind by God. This means that inside of the two cats that were on the ark, God placed the ability to form many different varieties. This is how you get all the cats in the world from the ark. This would work quicker than evolution, and could happen in the Biblical timeline.

We are taken to school rooms, and shown ugly, angry science teachers who do not know what they are talking about. As the boys begin to show a slide-show of the "God did it" persuasion, the teacher is aghast, and has no answers to their questions about God. The teacher instead touts that Darwin was a great guy and that evolution has been proven. When discussing dinosaur extinction, the teacher says "65 million years ago there was a comet or an ice age or something."

There is a quick mention of seeing a designer in the chair and therefore seeing a designer in nature (a nod towards the Intelligent Design movement of the old-earth creationists). We are finally instructed to listen to God's word and to teach the truth. There are also several mentions of how the evolutionary scientists work with the framework of evolution, and therefore all of their evidence leans toward evolution. We are left with the image of our campfire girl, who "does not want to seem stupid."

Leaving the room we heard several families describing the excellence of the video. It was difficult for me to stomach the children who were so very excited about the video. It was beginning to become apparent just how much this museum was geared towards small children, and how much the rest of the museum just might upset me...

Little Dinosaur Models

We ate lunch in a basement meeting room where these two set up. Note the sign, they were all over the place.

Because I do not want to use pictures here of actual people, you will miss the riding of the triceratops by myself and my friends. If you are friends with me on Facebook, however, you can see them there. There is also a man with a wheelbarrow of bricks who is intent on "Rebuilding our biblical foundations".

Cosmology

This was in the bookstore. I was always interested in the way they would deal with the universe, since my astronomer boyfriend scoffs at my measly "millions of years". There is a planetarium at the museum, and that description will be last, since it was the last thing we did when we were there