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.'"
1) day, time, year
a) day (as opposed to night)
b) day (24 hour period)
1) as defined by evening and morning in Genesis 1
2) as a division of time
a) a working day, a day's journey
c) days, lifetime (pl.)
d) time, period (general)
e) year
f) temporal references
1) today
2) yesterday
3) tomorrow
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/3/1116903239-6383.html
No one - God is eternal, and predates our creation.
If God created himself, then it is possible for something to create itself, so why can't the universe create itself?
God did not create Himself, He had no beginning/end as we know it. Regarding the universe creating itself, if you so choose to believe I will never convince you otherwise. The difference between our beliefs then becomes the WHY of our existance - for me you and I are God's creations, there is a moral foundation to the universe, and we are accountable for our actions. Otherwise, our life has no purpose other than continuation of a species, there is no morality nor accountability.
If God created the universe and did not create himself, then God is not a part of the universe, so God must be outside the universe. Who created the place where God is?
Bingo. God is NOT part of our universe, He is everywhere, even outside the bounds of this universe. God is not IN a place - God IS the everything. Everything exists because He allows it to continue to exist.
If, as astronomers and astrophysicists tell us, the universe contains a hundred billion galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars, why is this astronomy not in the Bible? Are astronomers lying or deceived?
Genesis 1 is replete with astronomical information. God states that He created the heavenS and the earth - ie, the earth and everything else.
If orbiting some of those stars there are planets similar to the Earth with creatures at least as intelligent as human beings, do they find any less favor with God than do humans on Earth? Does anything in the Bible imply that such creatures cannot exist?
I think the Bible is abundantly clear that He loves ALL his creation. I think Genesis 1:20-31 describe created life on earth ('Let the earth bring forth the living creature'), and 31 states 'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.'
What is wrong with asking questions like these?
Nothing. Faith is belief in things unseen and unprovable - or else it wouldn't be faith would it? ;O)
No surprise ;o) God's creation is the basis of science and all mathematical laws. Creationists are often portrayed as Luddites, uneducated simpletons' etc. I grew up on Asimov and physics.
Digressing from the topic for a moment, the real "sneaking" in public schools has concerned the denial of of education concerning religion. Is it really schooling if a topic of such importance and impact on the history of man is completely ignored? That is absurd.
Capitalism, and indeed western civilization was founded largely because of societies emphasis on religious principles.
Heck, if countries had never persecuted Jews then we might never have discovered banking, or concepts such as financial liquidity. If it were not for edicts by the papacy concerning the propagation of "the faith' we might never have discovered the "new world" or even circumnavigated the earth.
Seriously, it is the eliminating of instruction concerning religion that has been the real harbinger of societal decay during the last half century in the country. What is this prohibition that you are talking about? Who enacted that? Judges?
I am surprised that gravity is still only a theory.
Nothing wrong at all........
good answer
Genesis 5:1.............
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
As I read it, according to the Bible (KJV), time started in the 6th day and the generations of man began with Adam!
This was after some of the other "days" of Creation! The other "days" may have been of similar duration, or they may have been longer or shorter even.
All one has to do is to turn on almost ANY cartoon or children's tv program, and Evolution will be there!
No doubt you will note that those are primarily references to earthly time. And earthly time is based on motion of the earth relative to the sun -- either rotation on its axis (sundown to sundown) or around its orbit (year).
Since the Sun was not created until the fourth "day" of God's creation, it is irrational to demand that the first three (or any of) God's "days" of creation were measured by rotation of a point on this earth relative to the sun.
As I pointed out elsewhere, I believe it is sinful for humans to try to impose on others their (absurd, IMHO) interpretation that God's "Yoms of creation" must be equal to rotations of this ball of mud.
And I would be most fearful were I guilty of the hubris of imposing such an ego- and geo-centric constraint on Almighty, Eternal, Omnipresent, Creator-of-the-Universe God.
Particularly since Scripture (II Peter 3:8) clearly says otherwise...
Pinging your post to myself for later review.
Ok... you've piqued my interest!
I did!
(I've been to supper!)
To call it sinful is a bit much.
There can be disagreement on the timetables due to how a person wants to interpret scripture. I myself see Gen as a 24 hour day or something like that. I dont think it reasonable to stretch the meaning of Peter all the way back to Gen. You may, I dont...its just a difference of opinion based on interpreting scripture. I certainly wouldnt consider it a sin.
There's about 200 replies fo rme to checkup on!!!
No FAIR!!
You piqued too!
Cool!
But what if your MWO has one of those rotating wands that you can't get to to stop?
Would that mess up the standing waves?
OH???
Where?
Ping for later read
I finally got tired of seeing that smirking editors face, and left my subscription lapse after DECADES of enjoyable reading.
From time to time I'll pick one up in a book store to see if much has changed. It hasn't..........
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