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.'"
Yes, but is it a thing that will make him go?
:)
I just returned from WallyWorld and I looked at three different WMO's and NONE mentioned the output frequency of the magnatron!
Fortunately, this militant ignorance does not devolve upon the rest of the world, no matter how much the creationists want it to.
Ever hear of a magnatron or waveguide?
Evidently not, they are not part of the coalition of nitwits.
If I gave you the frequencies would you believe me?
Nope. You can choose any protein at random.
Your teachers put it there for you, along with a few parrots. You inherited and watered a tree based on the assumption that like things necessarily have common substance and history, while no one was available to test and observe whether the relationships from leaf to branch to trunk to root have basis in reality.
There are no such assumptions. I can demonstrate that too. The tree-like form of the interrelationships between the gene sequences of organisms is an experimental result, not an assumption. The genomes of the mammals could be random; they could be related by loops or nets or complex multidimensional shapes. They're not. They're related by trees. And there's no excuse, not to establish that for yourself. All the data you want is available in the National Center for Bioinformatics. Even a kindergartner can compare sequences of letters and draw graphs to show how they're related. We're not talking about quantum physics here. Your failure to do so is inexcusable; it's willful ignorance.
Of course, this has been pointed out to you before. It must have been one of those times you had your fingers in your ears.
For one who is ready to deny intelligent design as an agent of your creation you sure make good use of the same.
You seem to be determined not to make any use of your intelligence at all, lest it lead you away from your ingrained prejudices. I'd hate to think I lived in a universe whose presiding deity wanted his creations to act in such a manner.
Ouch. I felt that smack over here.
I can determine the frequency by measuring the cavity.
Anytime you can sucker your debate opponent into questioning the measurment of the speed of light you are ahead.
If you can sucker them into simultaneously demanding authoritative sources and rejecting authoritative sources you are ahead.
It matters not who is louder and posts more.
Yes. Unfortunately I don't have one at home. Would you please lend me yours? It would be helpful if you also gave some general instruction as to how I can make use of those tools. Do I need to plug in the microwave? Which waves do I measure, the light waves or the microwaves? Which one will tell me the precise age of the earth? Also, has the entire wave spectrum been defined by science for all time?
No need for citations or links. I'll accept your plain answers.
Funny but this same logic can be used to prove God exists. Let me just change a couple words...
As noted prior...the answers to this question are out there for you to find, if you are in fact truly interested in the answer. I'm sure that one of the more theologically educated among the posters could provide you with links and citations to studies and papers showing the evidence for the God of the Bible (which you will promptly ignore, I know). But really, refusing to examine the evidence does not mean that the God of the Bible does not exist.
Good for you. If you told me I'd believe you. Why shouldn't I trust you in this small matter?
Ahhh.. You don't have a microwave oven.
Which waves do I measure, the light waves or the microwaves?
Do you know what the difference is (if any)?
Which cavity?
The entire oven space or the one in the tube?
Uhm that's what you're supposed to use the ruler for.
lf = c
l - the wavelength you measured.
f - the frequency of the oven's magnetron
c - the speed of light
If the oven operates at (the standard) 2.45 Ghz you'll see melted/unmelted nodes about every 12cm.
"As noted prior...the answers to this question are out there for you to find, if you are in fact truly interested in the answer. I'm sure that one of the more theologically educated among the posters could provide you with links and citations to studies and papers showing the evidence for the God of the Bible (which you will promptly ignore, I know). But really, refusing to examine the evidence does not mean that the God of the Bible does not exist."
I thought belief in God requires faith. Scientific vidence is not faith; it is evidence, and not subject to the concept of belief. One is free to "believe" that the bus barrelling along the highway does not exist, despite the physical evidence to the contrary; that will not change the result of stepping out in front of it.
Thanks for the reaffirming recapitulation of the debate scenario on this thread. We shall all together place you as the highest judge of these matters, who, at the end of the debate, may scientifically declare the winner. You've given ample demonstration of your unbiased nature and are certain to be given high praise for your intelligence, wherever it came from.
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