Creation Museum

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The Creation Museum is a controversial museum in the USA that presents the history of its origins according to a Christian doctrine of the world, young earth creationism .

Content and purpose

The museum is located in the village of Petersburg , Boone County , not far from Cincinnati in the US state of Kentucky and has an area of ​​approximately 5000 square meters. The museum was founded by Answers in Genesis , a non-profit Christian fundamentalist association. The cost of 27 million US dollars (about 20 million euros) was raised through donations. The groundbreaking ceremony for the museum took place on March 17, 2001.

The museum, which opened on May 28, 2007, houses, among other things, animated dinosaurs and Adam and Eve as electronically controlled puppets.

The museum came about as efforts to introduce creationism into the curriculum in US schools were intensified . The main key messages should be:

  • Earth and the universe are around 6000 years old. Both were created in a seven day week of creation.
  • The first people were Adam and Eve created, where Eva was created from Adam's rib.
  • God exterminated all people and animals except for Noah's family and the animals in his ark through the flood.
  • Geological formations like the Grand Canyon were created by the flood within a few months.
  • The whereabouts of the dinosaurs is controversial. These could have been wiped out by the flood or have lived on as dragons into the near past.

Criticism and controversy

Among other things, 3,000 US teachers protested that the opening of the museum would "institutionalize a lie" . Researchers and other groups also voiced their concerns. Almost 600 university professors signed a petition against the opening called “Campaign to Defend the Constitution”. They made the following statement:

We, the undersigned scientists at universities and colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, are concerned about scientifically inaccurate materials at the Answers in Genesis museum. Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level.

“We, the undersigned scholars at universities and colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana are concerned about the scientifically incorrect materials at the Answers-in-Genesis Museum . Students who accept these materials as scientifically correct are unlikely to pass college-level exams. "

British politician, doctor and filmmaker Robert Winston visited the museum while filming the BBC documentary "The Story of God" and commented:

It was alarming to see so much time, money and effort being spent on making a mockery of hard won scientific knowledge. And the fact that it was being done with such obvious sincerity, somehow made it all the worse.

“It was alarming to see that so much time, money, and energy were devoted to making a mockery of the hard-earned scientific knowledge. The fact that it was done with such obvious seriousness somehow only made it worse "

In 2010 the author AA Gill wrote that this museum was directed not only against the theory of evolution, but against geology , anthropology , paleontology , history , the science of chemistry , astronomy , zoology , biology and good taste. It would directly or indirectly contradict almost every natural science .

In 2012 it was reported that public interest was waning. In November 2012, Answers in Genesis reported a 10% decrease to 254,074 visitors.

Movie

In the documentary Religulous by Bill Maher Maher visited the museum and interviewed the founder Kenneth Ham. When he asks Ham why the overwhelming majority of scientists around the world think the museum's central statements are wrong, he replies to Maher that humans rebel against their creator.

Similar facilities

  • The Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose , Texas . This institution was founded back in 1984 and tries to prove that humans and dinosaurs lived together 6,000 years ago.
  • Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola , Florida . This was founded in 2001 by Kent Hovind and also pursues the aim of suggesting the coexistence between dinosaurs and humans. It is now shut down.
  • Big Valley Creation Science Museum in Big Valley, Canada . The facility claims humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
  • The Institute for Creation Research in Santee , California (near San Diego ) includes the Museum of Creation and Earth History. Here evolution is contradicted.
  • The Museum of Earth History in Dallas , Texas , formerly in Eureka Springs , Arkansas , takes positions similar to the Creation Museum. It contains dinosaur bones and is believed to have been wiped out by the Biblical Flood. Adam and Eve had previously lived with dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurs .

Web links

Commons : Creation Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ answersingenesis.org: A groundbreaking event in the fight for Biblical authority , March 19, the 2,001th
  2. ^ Creationist Museum: Disneyland for believers in creation. In: Spiegel Online . November 14, 2006, accessed December 30, 2014 .
  3. ^ University Professors Sign Petitions Against Creation Museum. In: foxnews.com. May 22, 2007, accessed December 30, 2014 .
  4. ^ Reactions to creation "museum". In: ncse.com. May 25, 2007, accessed December 30, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Dylan T. Lovan: Educators Criticize Creation Museum ( Memento of 8 December 2007 at the Internet Archive ), May 20 of 2007.
  6. ^ The Story of God — an overview , Paul Taylor, AiG-UK, Answers in Genesis website, December 21, 2005.
  7. ↑ AA GILL: Roll Over, Charles Darwin! . Vanity Fair. February 1, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  8. ^ Creation Museum Attendance Drops for Fourth Straight Year . Cincinnati CityBeat . November 7, 2012. Archived from the original on November 13, 2012. Retrieved on November 7, 2012.
  9. ^ Museum of Earth History - Closed, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In: roadsideamerica.com. December 30, 2014, accessed December 30, 2014 .
  10. ^ Mixing science with creationism. ( Memento of March 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Salon.com, May 24, 2005.
  11. ↑ Paul Harris: Would you Adam 'n' Eve it ... dinosaurs in Eden . In: The Guardian , May 22, 2005. Retrieved December 30, 2007. 

Coordinates: 39 ° 5 ′ 10.5 ″  N , 84 ° 47 ′ 0.5 ″  W.