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.'"
Note to lurkers: I bet he's got nothing, but he'll either try to bluff his way through, or he'll ignore this post.
Please allow me the courtesy of some give and take. I'm not a dogmatist on the age of the earth. I'm a dogmatist where a literal understanding of Genesis is concerned.
Thank you. wallcrawlr! We have finally reached the point in our discussion of the timeframe of Creation where Scripture and science are in perfect agreement.:
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Scripture clearly tells us that (eternal, infinite, omnipresent) God's timeframe is NOT the same as our (earthly) timeframe:
"But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (NKJV II-Peter 3:8)
IOW, God does not measure time (or "days") the same way we do.
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Science (relativity) tells us that time, measured from different reference frames is radically different. Observation of time shifts in atomic clocks on fast-moving spacecraft proves that this is, indeed, so.
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In #204, 4ConservativeJustices wrote:
Gen 1:31. My God has no need of BILLIONs of years - God spoke - and it was!
To that I say, Amen!!!" -- for that is exactly what I believe.
But, to us, poor, slow-moving mortal creatures of His, it appears to be 'BILLIONS of years -- as we measure time.
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Perhaps, in the future . when we are "with the Lord", we will see time flow as He does. Until then, we can only measure time as He allows us to -- from within our Earthly timeframe, and with the tools He lets us have -- and be patient while we await the Rapture. In HIS good time...
Please put your question in context so I can respond. Do not expect citations. I try to think for myself.
Thank you.
(You may be surprised to learn that we agree...)
Actually it is the other way around. The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant and has been defined as exactly 299792458 meters per second.
BTW, you can roughly measure the speed of light yourself with nothing more that a microwave oven, a ruler, and a meltable food such as cheese or chocolate.
My apologies if I came across wrong.
LOL! Give or take a few billion years!
This implies you think that physics, geology and astronomy differ on their interpretation of the age of the Earth. Which one do you think disagrees with the others? Please provide citations.
Note to lurkers: As I pointed out, he's going to bluff this one out. Of course, he's done this a number of times before, so it wasn't really a major call on my part.
In other words, you make stuff up as you go along.
What I mean is, take the uniformitarian approach to planetary orbits (at least the ones we currently know about). Trace their orbit backwards, assuming the orbits have been consistent for the past, oh, who-cares-how-many years-days-hours-minutes-newyorkminutes-seconds-nanoseconds, and see if there is any point at which they are all perfectly aligned. Just out of curioisty, how far back in time would that be?
I too am interested in his answer.
Honestly, I am still puzzled. Aligned to what? Each other? Why do they ever need to be perfectly aligned?
Who cares(?)!
Who cares? You do. Rhetoric is not your best suit.
In a general sense they may agree, but when "billions of years" are involved it's kind of hard to be precise, don't you think? Go ahead and posit your own belief in the age of the earth. We'll see if every scientist lurker who cares to add to the discussion agrees with your belief. Out of bias for your faith they might agree, but they certainly have no more entitlement to credibility than the next guy who adds or subtracts a billion years from your notion.
It's not just what I think. It's a fact. Agreement about the age of the earth in scientific circles is far from being established, and it should be that way, because science hasn't even figured out what time itself is.
If Venus is ever perfectly aligned with Uranus, I don't want to know about it.
Not really. All sorts of lines of research have zeroed in on pretty much the same age for the Earth: 4.5 billion years. You'd be surprised if you actually did any reading on the subject instead of pontificating from a position of ignorance.
Yes. From the Sun to the furthest known planet from the sun.
Why do they ever need to be perfectly aligned?
That is a deeper question than appears on the surface. What say we just check into the possibility first, and then, if such a reverse point in time becomes mathematically apparent, address any potential ramifications? Or is it beneath science to trace the current planetary orbits backward for an indefinite period of time?
Citations, please. Otherwise, you're just talking out your tail end.
That's great. You've done your research and decided to subscribe to a line of orthodoxy proposed by those whom you've read. Have you also done your own research to test the claim that the speed of light is c. 386,000 miles per second, or do you take other peoples word for that, too?
What are you going to do when a peer-reviewed scientist claims the earth is really 4.6 billion years old? Or how about 5.7? LOL!
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html
http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit5/deeptime.html
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/gtime/ageofearth.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth
http://gpc.edu/~pgore/geology/geo102/age.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html
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