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.'"
You snuck this by me. That's a problem with your stuff. Essentially every sentence is complete BS. The eye of the critic glazes over and some of it goes unparsed and thus unrebutted. Happily, Right Wing Professor caught this.
There is nothing that fits your description in the fossil record until long after Archaeopteryx. Read what you posted, then go back to the dumb-ass pamphlet you're cribbing from and read that again.
Wrong on both counts.
That's all right. Butting into other people's conversations is a personal favorite of mine :-)
Why certain folks want to masquerade under the name of science while they present fanciful versions of unrecorded, unobserved history is no mystery, but a shame.
"No. What I submit is that we operate a great deal more on the basis of faith than we do on certitude. We trust propositions made to us by science without testing for ourselves whether the statements are true. With respect to the speed of light, that is something science can observe in the present day, though it only treats of one small aspect of light. Even in the matter of the speed of light, the average person lacks the tools and intelligence to measure it."
Ok, I still don't really understand your point. Consider...all of these things, discoveries, scientific principles, etc. are and have been verified by thousands of people who have put forth the effort to study and understand them. In fact, anyone who wants to do so can slog through the educational process in order to verify them for him or herself. Back to the example of the speed of light, none of the thousands of scientists who have studied, understood, and measured it have said, "nope, not verifiable!" or "nope, untrue!"
You seem to be marking the above scenario as the equivalent of religious faith. I see an enormous difference between the two. A Christian takes the messages of the Bible on faith because there is no way, short of some kind of time machine, to verify what is said. On the other hand, scientific principles are verifiable to any person with the inclination to study, and have been verified in such a manner over and over and over and over again. How can you say those two scenarios are even remotely similar?
Wrong and wrong. The quantum mechanical description of light is satisfactory and complete; and the speed of light is constant, according to relativity, which is accepted by the consensus of physical scientists.
You can find a few fruitcakes, of course, who believe the earth is llat, or even (are you sitting down?) that the earth was created six thousand years ago, but this is true nutball-level stuff.
The average person in what century?
So you don't know nuttin' 'bout no science but you know your granddaddy weren't no ape. Science has left details of the history if you ever do want to reconstruct how it got to where it is.
It is OK to decline to review this. The main point of educating yourself thoroughly in a scientific specialty is to prepare yourself for a career, bringing yourself up to the edge so you can push the envelope in your research. People who don't intend to be scientists themselves will more likely confine themselves to layman-level presentations.
However, declining to learn even the first things about science somewhat undercuts your claim to knowing that science has everything all wrong.
I agree, its too bad ignorance cant be used as an excuse though. One day we'll all have to answer for it. Maybe I'll see you then??
Not quite. The amount of observation and reporting of current history lends certitude where scientific statements are made. Nevertheless, we operate with less knowledge than we care to admit. Science is far more ignorant than it pretends to be. To suggest that I might be ready to deny facts of physics, biology, chemistry etc. because I do not believe in an unobserved, unrecorded rendition of history is merely to suggest a red herring. I'm used to it.
Grow up. If your statement above is any indication of your ability to read, comprehend, and critically assess an issue, then I suggest you stay away from scientific pursuits until you have the capability to refrain from overgeneralization.
Perhaps according to the sources whom you choose to trust.
I trust my own understanding of physics.
Your argument seems to go: I'm too stupid or lazy to understand physics, so any judgement I make must trust someone else, so I'll trust this old book instead.
Argumentum ad stupidum; well, at least you've concocted a new fallacy.
"To suggest that I might be ready to deny facts of physics, biology, chemistry etc...."
But that's exactly what you were doing in your earlier posts regarding the speed of light and the quantum mechanical description of light. It's there in your posts. I may not be a physicist, but I can read as well as the next person.
Projection of ignorance seems rampant among creationists.
"Only" a theory? What else would it be?
You shouldn't generalize from personal experience (or lack thereof).
And easily followed up by Peep Wars!
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