Last Updated: Saturday, 14 April 2007, 11:01 GMT 12:01 UK
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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.
Across the divide - evolutionist Scott with creationist Ham
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 stegosaurs.
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
Eugenie Scott
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. Creationists
say T. rex and the humans co-habited Earth
On a rocky ledge, there is a pair of small theropods - young T. rex
individuals, 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.
"Steve Steve" the panda is intended as a parody
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! From Our Own
Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 14 April, 2007 at 1130 BST on BBC
Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission
times.
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