Ken Ham poses with dinosaur models in his unfinished $25 million Answers in Genesis museum.
Posted on 05/23/2005 3:29:06 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Ken Ham has spent 11 years working on a museum that poses the big question - when and how did life begin? Ham hopes to soon offer an answer to that question in his still-unfinished Creation Museum in northern Kentucky.
The $25 million monument to creationism offers Ham's view that God created the world in six, 24-hour days on a planet just 6,000 years old. The largest museum of its kind in the world, it hopes to draw 600,000 people from the Midwest and beyond in its first year.
Ham, 53, isn't bothered that his literal interpretation of the Bible runs counter to accepted scientific theory, which says Earth and its life forms evolved over billions of years.
Ham said the museum is a way of reaching more people along with the Answers in Genesis Web site, which claims to get 10 million page views per month and his "Answers ... with Ken Ham" radio show, carried by more than 725 stations worldwide.
"People will get saved here," Ham said of the museum. "It's going to fire people up. If nothing else, it's going to get them to question their own position of what they believe."
Ham is ready for a fight over his beliefs - based on a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.
"It's a foundational battle," said Ham, a native of Australia who still speaks with an accent. "You've got to get people believing the right history - and believing that you can trust the Bible."
Among Ham's beliefs are that the Earth is about 6,000 years old, a figure arrived at by tracing the biblical genealogies, and not 4.5 billion years, as mainstream scientists say; the Grand Canyon was formed not by erosion over millions of years, but by floodwaters in a matter of days or weeks and that dinosaurs and man once coexisted, and dozens of the creatures - including Tyrannosaurus Rex - were passengers on the ark built by Noah, who was a real man, not a myth.
Although the Creation Museum's full opening is still two years away, already a buzz is building.
"When that museum is finished, it's going to be Cincinnati's No. 1 tourist attraction," says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, nationally known Baptist evangelist and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. "It's going to be a mini-Disney World."
Respected groups such as the National Science Board, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Teachers Association strongly support the theory of evolution. John Marburger, the Bush administration's science adviser, has said, "Evolution is a cornerstone of modern biology."
Many mainstream scientists worry that creationist theology masquerading as science will have an adverse effect on the public's science literacy.
"It's a giant step backward in science education," says Carolyn Chambers, chair of the biology department at Xavier University, which is operated by the Jesuit order of the Catholic church.
Glenn Storrs, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cincinnati Museum Center, leads dinosaur excavations in Montana each summer. He said the theory of dinosaurs and man coexisting is a "non-issue."
"And so, I believe, is the age of the Earth," Storrs said. "It's very clear the Earth is much older than 6,000 years."
The Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor of St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Pleasant Ridge, takes issue with Ham's views - and the man himself.
"He takes extraordinary liberties with Scripture and theology to prove his point," Adams said. "The bottom line is, he is anti-gay, and he uses that card all the time."
Ham says homosexual behavior is a sin. But he adds that he's careful to condemn the behavior, not the person.
Even detractors concede that Ham has appeal.
Ian Plimer, chair of geology at the University of Melbourne, became aware of Ham in the late 1980s, when Ham's creationist ministry in Australia was just a few years old.
"He is promoting the religion and science of 350 years ago," says Plimer. "He's a far better communicator than most mainstream scientists."
Despite his communication skills, Ham admits he doesn't always make a good first impression. But, that doesn't stop him from trying to spread his beliefs.
"He'd be speaking 20 hours a day if his body would let him," said Mike Zovath, vice president of museum operations.
Ham's wife of 32 years agrees. "He finds it difficult talking about things apart from the ministry," Mally Ham says. "He doesn't shut off."
Ham said he has no choice but to speak out about what he believes.
"The Lord gave me a fire in my bones," Ham says. "The Lord has put this burden in my heart: 'You've got to get this information out.'"
Excuse me, but if you would like credit for intolerance of fraud for you own side, you should be willing to advance some evidence for it. Otherwise, you are asking me to imagine some subset of your side's bogus collection of mantras which you know to be false but have not exposed. I don't think you've ever uttered a single peep of protest to a creationist poster on any crevo thread where you were active, no matter what sort of wild-eyed yahoo was "witnessing" against satanic old Eeeeeeviluuushun.
You're making an extraordinary claim for which there is no evidence.
Probably this thread: Evolution Disclaimer Supported. Almost 7,000 posts. (More posts, perhaps, than years since Creation.)
And I believe in the very same Creator God -- and that He (through scientifically-demonstrable laws that He created to govern His works) continues to control all that transpires in ALL of His creation.
I am, however, offended by 'believers' who insist that I must adhere to their interpretation of "yom" -- that, out of all His mighty creation, the ticks of the Infinite, Etarnal Creator's clock are measured by the rotation rate of this specific, miniscule spheroid of dirt.
My God is too big for such limitations!!!
I don't know the individuals, nor have I looked at, or followed their posts. So, I can't speak truthfully to the cases you've asked about.
But, lies, distortions, partial truths, restructuring of statistics to favor predetermined conclusions, fibs, are all but various forms of deception.
There is NOTHING that any Christian should hate any more than deception. Christ called Satan the Father of Lies, and indicated how we must be repulsed by lies as much as we are by Satan.
If ANY Christian knowingly repeats lies, slander, mistruths or the such, he/she will utimately undergo not just a 'peer review', but a 'superior review' that will have "Cataclysm" written all over the final page.
I don't like intellectual dishonesty. From either side.
How've you been doing? Beautiful day here in Colorado.
...now, if my fingers could just learn to spell, "Eternal"... '-{
"This scientist obviously made a name for himself by conducting proper science, and then misused the authority he'd thereby been granted for whatever unknown reason (perhaps for personal renown, or perhaps for nationalistic reason, or whatever)."
OK. Maybe I'm being too opaque here.
HOW DID IT GET PAST PEER REVIEW?
Peer review is the golden gate past which nothing false should normally enter.
I belive more people would show up for discussion if it were as you stated.
I wonder if thats what PH thinks when he posts this general statement to the begining of his threads. "Everybody be nice."
IT OBVIOUSLY GOT PAST PEER REVIEW BECAUSE WHOEVER WAS ENDORSING HIS FRAUDULENT DATING CLAIMS WAS ACCEPTING THEM ON THE BASIS OF HIS PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED REPUTATION THAT HE CHOSE TO MISUSE. IT DID NOT HOWEVER GET PAST PEER REVIEW INDEFINITELY, BECAUSE IT WAS PRECISELY PEER REVIEW THAT ULTIMATELY EXPOSED HIS FRAUD.
Do you comprehend now, or do you need bigger letters? BTW, all my answers are essentially a variation of post #110, so please just refer back to it unless you have something new to ask.
Same way non-bacterial origins of ulcers did.
Human error.
Scientists recognize it and deal with it as fast as possible.
As I have said several times.
Why do you seem to have a problem with this concept?
The kind of civility I mean is a response to the consistent put downs, accusatory tones and remarks used to stifle discussion.
I'm not pointing out individuals (from any side of the aisle). I believe we could all recognize it when we saw it.
The good professor's fraudulent data/findings are published in my kids' science textbook. That's why it's a problem. Textbooks tend to stay in circulation quite awhile. There are countless examples of this happening. I guess peer review ain't all it's cut out to be.
"I don't think you've ever uttered a single peep of protest to a creationist poster on any crevo thread where you were active..."
Well stated. I stand rebuked.
It is true that I don't actively respond to what I see as incorrect statements by Creationists on these threads. It seems that I have my plate full with the marvellous claims made my evolutionists, and their opprobrium towards those who don't believe in skepticism/evolution/atheism/whatever as they do.
I do, however, utilize the knowledge that I gain (from both sides of this argument) here at FR to teach my fellow Christians, at church and/or in personal conversations about what I believe to be strong, supportable positions that are believable, rational, and Biblical all at the same time. And some of those have been modified by the formidable materialistic arguments that some of you have professed here at FR.
I'd be interested to know if there was any such honest review of the spiritual amongst my esteemed opponents!
It is not a task for the timid.
And just for the record, the posts where you rebuked a fellow evo for patently loony, over-the-wall, statements could be found (by us now-interested parties) where?
Was the museum created or did it just evolve?
There's something else to consider about flame wars, and that is the less polite they are the more hits they get. This is due to the inflammatory nature of the discussion. Sure, it keeps some people away though. The flip side to this is that over-moderated threads are boring, and get less hits. Moderators have to walk a fine line between stifling discussion and keeping trolls in check.
You mean, like the first 10 posts? :)
A theory is not disproven by pointing out occasional acts of academic misconduct, or even outright fraud. There are tens of thousands of scientists, and a few have disgraced themselves. (Similarly, a religion is not discredited because of the personal flaws of a few clergymen.) A demonstration of fraud could be a successful attack on a theory, but only if the theory can't survive without the fraudulent material.
Back when I was teaching I seriously advocated printing textbooks on newsprint with the cheapest possible binding.
Science progreses too fast for anything else; although in the basic human anatomy course I did suggest to students that they purchase the oldest book they could find and I'd let them know about any updates.
What is the info from this guy and what grade textbook is it in?
There's always something new to ask:
Does the fact that 'peer review' in the scientific community is so prone to manipulation cause you to be less religious in your acceptance of the 'new' revelations about evolution that get printed in the latest journals?
For instance, I have an enormously healthy skepticism about what I read in religious journals, which must undergo 'peer review'. Do you read science journals with the same skepticism? Or do you receive it as gospel?
That's the root rationale for my probing posts, whether it appeared evident, or not.
Anything to bring some dignity back to these threads. The Evo-Creo threads are the Rodney Dangerfield of Fr.
Good stuff. I shoud have included that in my original reply, but, of course, didn't think if it. Thanks, I'll store it in a corner of my brain for the inevitable next time.
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