Creation Museum, Kentucky, USA

In the shadow of a looming nuclear power plant near the Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio border, you will find the Creation Museum. The museum is, in effect, an alternative natural history museum, complete with large-scale animatronic dinosaurs and figures (see Noah's Ark) to delight the children. The museum is vast, super high-budget, and very well designed. Once you enter, you are corralled along the program, through exhibits contrasting the findings of "human reason" and "the bible's word" with great informational graphics, into theaters showing short videos, numerous cafes, speakers, musicians, and even a planetarium, where a jovial narrator debunks astronomical science using... astronomical science.

Confused? We were too. While all the while, the families and seniors surrounding us nodded and chuckled in agreement with the high-production-value videos and the slick signage. At the end of the day, we made our purchases in the gift shop, where one could buy curricula for home schooling, posters, souvenir books and bumper stickers, t-shirts, even shot glasses. We arrived soon after opening to try to duck the crowds; no such luck. At 10:15, the parking lot was already nearly full and a line snaked around the lobby. Needless to say, our American Association of Museum membership cards did us no good there, and admission was $21.95, with the "Stargazer's Planetarium" show an additional $7.

Prevalent themes of the museum: Noah's flood versus geology and paleontology's view of history, the sin of human reason vs god's word, humans and dinosaur's concurrent existence and their existence on Noah's Ark (the bible says so!), the "seven C's of God's Eternal Plan" (see signage photos), "same facts, different starting points" (and thus conclusions), why things are so rotten in today's world (we're attempting to use human reason! This was Adam's sin!), and Adam's sin (they really play down Eve's contribution, interestingly) being the reason why we God might seem unjust or callous. He's not. Just read the bible! That message is the strongest message of them all. If you start with the bible, and have faith, you really can't go wrong. Its that human reason business that creates all the trouble! his is what I learned at the Creation Museum.

Here is how the the museum website describes the museum: "The Creation Museum presents a 'walk through history.' Designed by a former Universal Studios exhibit director, this state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life. A fully engaging, sensory experience for guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animals, life-sized people and dinosaur animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with misty sea breezes and rumbling seats. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy.


For more on the museum, check out Stephen Asma's article for the Chicago Tribune here.

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items are from 18 Jul 2008.