Posted on 08/06/2007 6:34:13 AM PDT by steveg1961
Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a "reasoned, logical defence" for young- earth creationism by Ken Ham, the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century.
The Creation Museum's fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive, include a vast number of scientific errors, large and small. These errors range from implying that the Earth's sedimentary rocks were deposited by a single biblical Flood, to claiming that humans and dinosaurs lived alongside one another, to denouncing the reality of transitional fossils.
"Ken Ham is not recognized as a scientist or educator among experts in the fields of geology and paleontology, and his views on the interpretation of Biblical texts are extremist. Visitors to his 'museum' may arrive knowing little about these sciences, but they will leave misled and intellectually deceived," said Dr. Kevin Padian, Professor and Curator, University of California, Berkeley and President of the National Center for Science Education.
The fossil exhibits at the Creation Museum discount the last 150 years of paleontological and geological discovery. Not only are transitional fossils, including snakes with limbs and dinosaurs with feathers, abundant in the fossil record, but radiometric dating allows paleontologists to pinpoint the timing of major events in the ancient history of the earth.
For example, Tyrannosaurus rex existed over 65 million years ago, whereas modern humans didn't show up on the scene until 200 thousand years ago. They never walked side by side. The Creation Museum neglects to include this critical data in its analysis of the history of life on earth. "Most of us in the public view museums as places to get the latest information on scientific discovery. In this case, the Creation Museum is using the disguise of science museums and centers without including an iota of science inside," said Dr. Kristi Curry Rogers of the Science Museum of Minnesota.
"That's the real danger of such a place – undermining the basic principles of science, eroding the public's confidence in science, and causing a general weakening of science education in the country," commented Dr. Glenn Storrs of the Cincinnati Museum Center.
No, Ham and his Hamites just deserve scorn, ridicule and contempt. These fellows and their ludicrous theories would be harmless and amusing, were they not ever trying to infiltrate and corrupt the nation's schools.
Sort of like the way evolutionists date fossils....
The decay rate of potassium 40 is not faith based, nor is it negotiable, being indifferent to anyone's opinion.
This brings up the interesting speculation as to WHY God would create a universe with absolute mathematically defined physical laws and constants, only to revoke one as a prank on paleontologists.
Your understanding is incorrect.
The decay rate of K-40 is not negotiable.....but the flawed, faulty, and self-serving starting assumptions made by evolutionists most certainly are.
No, it's not.
Arguing against the scientific nature of Creationism is violating their freedom of speech!!!!/sarcasm
1. You're wrong. Radiometric dating doesn't give "wildly erroneous numbers."
2. Even if all radiometric dating were invalid -- again it isn't -- radiometric dating isn't essential for proving either that the earth is more than 6000 years old, or that evolution takes place.
Whoever is feeding you your information is doing a notably poor job.
There is no question as to why the dinosaurs vanished. At approximately the same time, people living in what we now know as Texas and Louisiana discovered barbecue.
Smokey dinosaur must have tasted great.
Ping! The hoot-monkeys are at it again! ;)
No it is. Evolution isn't a philosophy. Evolution -- allele change of a population over time -- is an observed, settled scientific fact, explained by four basic mechanisms of evolutionary theory.
Philosophy doesn't enter into the equation.
All these Evo/Crevo/Creationist threads are beginning to remind me of this exchange:
M: I came here for a good argument.
A: No you didn’t; no, you came here for an argument.
M: An argument isn’t just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can’t. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn’t.
M: Yes it is! It’s not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that’s not just saying ‘No it isn’t.’
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn’t!
Ugh. I thought we were living in the 21st century, not the 11th. My mistake. I guess people DID live with dinosaurs - saw it on the Flintstones!! /S
Whew. I’m new here, and was dismayed after reading the first few responses to this article. Thought I was going to be tossed out for being an “evolutionist...”
Nonsense. We can date lava that's been out of the smokehole for 200 years (per historical records) and see radiometric dating methods give us ages for it of tens of millions of years. Evolutionists rely on these methods because they give them the numbers they want.
2. Even if all radiometric dating were invalid -- again it isn't -- radiometric dating isn't essential for proving either that the earth is more than 6000 years old, or that evolution takes place.
Concerning the age of the earth, how so? Concerning biological evolution, it's largely irrelevant for directly addressing that question.
Whoever is feeding you your information is doing a notably poor job.
Ah yes, the old "poisoning the well" pseudo-argument that evolutionists like to slip in. I guess I should just respond by noting that evolutionists suffer from group autism, and refuse to allow anything to intrude upon their self-contained fact-space, thus disturbing their cone of silence? Just as good of an "argument" as yours.
My contempt is limited to those who lie to children, not to the children who are being lied to. If ten million people had visited the "museum" my answer would be the same.
How many evolutionsists have you seen?
You shouldn’t have any trouble at all proving support for this asinine statement.
What is Ham’s answer for why we can see objects over 500,000 light years away if the “heavens and the earth” were all created only a few thousand years ago? There is no way to do this without there being light from stars that never actually existed shining down upon the earth. God is TRUTH. Starlight is a record of the truth, as the heavens shall proclaim his GLORY.
Why not? You did. You said that "calling something scientifically "in error" for positing a theory which you don't agree with it just boneheaded at best, and further, is circular reasoning." Geology teaches us that the strata built up over millions of years, something this 'museum' refutes. Paleontology teaches us that the dinosaurs died out millions of years before man came into the picture, something this 'museum' refutes. Meteorology teaches us that a flood as describes in Genesis is scientifically impossible, something this 'museum' refutes. The core theories in all thouse sciences say that this museum is in error, so are they engaged in 'circular reasoning' or are they not?
Saying that this 'museum' explains science is like saying Disneyland explains history.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.