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Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don't Mesh
New York Times ^ | 6/29/09 | Kenneth Chang

Posted on 06/30/2009 3:51:33 PM PDT by steve-b

Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods -- the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the velociraptor from the Upper Cretaceous -- yet in each case, the date of demise was the same: around 2348 B.C...

[H]ere in the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, Earth and the universe are just over 6,000 years old, created in six days by God. The museum preaches, "Same facts, different conclusions" and is unequivocal in viewing paleontological and geological data in light of a literal reading of the Bible.

In the creationist interpretation, the layers were laid down in one event -- the worldwide flood when God wiped the land clean except for the creatures on Noah's ark -- and these dinosaurs died in 2348 B.C., the year of the flood.....

Many of the paleontologists thought the museum misrepresented and ridiculed them and their work and unfairly blamed them for the ills of society.

"I think they should rename the museum -- not the Creation Museum, but the Confusion Museum," said Lisa E. Park, a professor of paleontology at the University of Akron.

"Unfortunately, they do it knowingly," Dr. Park said. "I was dismayed. As a Christian, I was dismayed."

Dr. Bengtson noted that to explain how the few species aboard the ark could have diversified to the multitude of animals alive today in only a few thousand years, the museum said simply, "God provided organisms with special tools to change rapidly."

"Thus in one sentence they admit that evolution is real," Dr. Bengtson said, "and that they have to invoke magic to explain how it works."...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: evolution; science
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1 posted on 06/30/2009 3:51:33 PM PDT by steve-b
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To: steve-b

Creation Museum - what a farce!


2 posted on 06/30/2009 3:56:24 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: steve-b

The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.


3 posted on 06/30/2009 3:57:51 PM PDT by kingpins10
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To: kingpins10

The Creation Museum is foolishness on earth, in heaven, or anywhere else.


4 posted on 06/30/2009 3:59:09 PM PDT by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: kingpins10
The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.

A very wise observation.

5 posted on 06/30/2009 3:59:09 PM PDT by Misterioso (Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. -- Ayn Rand)
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To: steve-b

Sad that Christians feel compelled to place all there eggs in one basket with the interpretation of a word in Hebrew to mean ‘days’ when it is legitimate to interpret it as ‘ages’.


6 posted on 06/30/2009 4:16:59 PM PDT by nuf said (I am, therefore I think.)
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To: kingpins10

But the Creation Museum is just plain foolishness.


7 posted on 06/30/2009 4:21:31 PM PDT by popdonnelly (The Democrats have returned to their game of supporting totalitarian regimes. Now they're muslim.)
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To: kingpins10
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God."

It is one thing to claim that due to our finite limitations we will never approach the wisdom that only God can claim. That however wise we become it will be as foolishness in comparison.

It is another thing entirely to say that clear evidence that the world is billions of years old has to be discarded so that some foolish interpretation of the Bible must be correct.

8 posted on 06/30/2009 4:29:23 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (These fragments I have shored against my ruins)
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To: popdonnelly
"But the Creation Museum is just plain foolishness."

Not to fundie illiterates.

9 posted on 06/30/2009 4:31:14 PM PDT by Matchett-PI (Obama has entered the "cracking stage" of his presidency. ~ Gagdad)
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To: popdonnelly
It is incorrect to categorize the Creation Museum's epic foolishness as plain or ordinary.
10 posted on 06/30/2009 4:40:33 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Competent small-government conservative = close enough for government work)
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To: nuf said

Not all born-again believers place their eggs in one basket. My wife and I are born again...I’m an old earth creationist and my wife is a young earth creationist. The problem is that non-believers assume that all believers accept only the young earth creationist viewpoint.


11 posted on 06/30/2009 5:01:11 PM PDT by The Unknown Republican
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To: nuf said
Sad that Christians feel compelled to place all there eggs in one basket with the interpretation of a word in Hebrew to mean days when it is legitimate to interpret it as ages.

No all Christians do so, although some will say you cannot be a Christian and believe the universe is ancient. Unfortunately some who claim to read the Bible literally instead read numerology and other almost occult things into it. So we are left with the mindless materialism of the liberals or the invented timelines of the fundamentalists.

12 posted on 06/30/2009 5:06:54 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: steve-b

Evolving is not out of line with Christianity. Of course animals evolve when cross-bred and exposed to different elements. This neither proves nor disproves God.

Too often, people mistake Evolution for Creation. What created the 1st particles in the universe? We cant know because we dont think with an eternal time frame, were linear.


13 posted on 06/30/2009 6:25:38 PM PDT by Raider Sam (They're on our left, right, front, and back. They aint gettin away this time!)
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To: steve-b

My Bible says that the Upper Cretaceous period lasted from November 14-17, 2087 BC.


14 posted on 07/01/2009 12:35:41 AM PDT by DallasMike
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To: steve-b

Those who believe the Universe has existed only 6000 years have a very real problem because triangulation from the opposite ends of Earths orbit show the distance in light years of many heavenly bodies that are millions of light years away. This means the light has traveled millions of years. Obviously the only possible conclusion is that creation of many parts of the Universe necessarily occurred millions of years ago. God is not the author of confusion. Not to mention that the Bible says a day for God is like eons for us. Accept reality. God’s creation is not just 6000 years old.


15 posted on 07/01/2009 1:06:22 AM PDT by ReadTheLaw (by Frederic Bastiat)
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To: The Unknown Republican

The problem is that non-believers assume that all believers accept only the young earth creationist viewpoint.
_____

I don’t think that is really the case. I think most folks think the young earthers are but a small, vocal minority.


16 posted on 07/01/2009 8:06:58 AM PDT by dmz
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
Science hasn't proven anything about the age of the earth. If you would rather believe in microbiological soup, that is obviously up to you. We (mankind) do not have a system or means to even dig up dirt, analyze it and tell exactly how old it is. To say that it is ‘millions of years old’ is risible.
17 posted on 07/01/2009 12:39:51 PM PDT by kingpins10
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To: kingpins10
"Science hasn't proven anything about the age of the earth."

Agreed. Science hasn't even proven that there is in fact an earth with humans on it of any age.

Science is theories backed up with lots of evidence. No amount of evidence (short of an infinite amount) will suffice to prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt.

However, like evidence produced in court, enough evidence can be collected to provide reasonable support for specific theories.

The theory that the earth has been around for billions of years has lots of evidence to support it from numerous branches of science.

The theory that the earth was created in 6 days around 6,000 years ago has only the incorrect interpretation of Scripture to back it up.

18 posted on 07/01/2009 2:04:26 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (These fragments I have shored against my ruins)
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To: ReadTheLaw
"Obviously the only possible conclusion is that creation of many parts of the Universe necessarily occurred millions of years ago."

Haven't you heard that the speed of light has been constantly changing over time?

At least that's one young earth creationist's theory ...

It's not just a good idea. It's the law!

19 posted on 07/01/2009 2:10:12 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (These fragments I have shored against my ruins)
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To: The Unknown Republican
The problem is that non-believers assume that all believers accept only the young earth creationist viewpoint.

The real problem is people like you who classify everyone who doesn't agree with creation as outlined in the Bible as non-believers.

20 posted on 07/01/2009 2:11:37 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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