The attack on the more standard versions of science is continued in the planetarium show, The Created Cosmos, written by David Lisle, a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado who is speaker and researcher for Answers in Genesis—and, as his bio notes, “a fan of the various ‘Star Trek’ programs (although he grimaces at the occasional evolutionary content).” The film tours galaxies and constellations, with pauses to discuss problems with Big Bang-oriented science such as its argument that light could not have traveled from the stars to the earth in only 6,000 years. The narrator concludes, “This tiny earth is where God placed the jewels of his handiwork. We’re the only ones created in His image.” The audience applauded at the film’s end.

The film Men in White confronts mainstream scientists as well, but from a different tack. In her introduction, an African American staff member notes that the movie’s humorous, satiric approach differs from that of the rest of the museum. “Prepare for some fun,” she tells the audience.

The lights dim. A mannequin of a young blond woman named Wendy sits on stage in front of a campfire, looking along with the audience at a video projection of a starry sky. She asks wistfully, “Did God create all this, or did we create God?”

Suddenly, the theater seats vibrate with a loud rumble, and two angels appear on the screen—Gabe and Mike, in white overalls and shirts. Their sunglasses tell you they’re hipsters even before their speech does (“My man Mike here is gonna run through things from the front to the back”). Speaking to Wendy, each other and the audience, they proclaim that “God loves science!” and, disbelievingly, that Wendy “thinks believing in science means not believing in God!” Gabe and Mike give highlights of the biblical story through the flood (at that point, water splashes audience members from the seats in front of them), then switch to evolution—which “makes absolutely no sense”—addressing those who might believe “that molecules-to-men business—from ‘Goo to you,’ we like to say.”

Pro-Darwin characters appear on screen: Newscaster Suzie Teevee interviews Dr. Ed U. Kaded; boring, patronizing teachers at Enlightenment High School talk to the camera face-on. Their message, offered with only circular logic, is that “no thinking person” could criticize Darwin. Two creationist students counter a professor’s unsupported assertions: Radioisotope dating is unreliable, they say (since the speed with which helium leaks from zirconium shows that the key reaction could have happened faster than evolutionists think); if the world were billions of years old, the oceans should be solid salt, since they get a little saltier every year. Or fossils—why hasn’t soft tissue such as blood vessels decayed by now?

Wendy remains unsure. “I guess there could be a God, but I don’t want people to think I’m stupid.” The angels conclude with a message they find lacking in their critics’ views: “Hey, folks—life isn’t meaningless.” A visitor commented as she exited the theater: “Fantastic! You can’t leave here without knowing the truth.”

The galleries explaining science are therefore just the beginning; subsequent galleries urge visitors to apply it. One exhibit outlines reasons “to start with God’s Word”: that it inspires hope, that it’s true, that archeology has repeatedly confirmed the Bible’s historical details, that hundreds of biblical prophecies have been fulfilled and none has failed. Another features attacks on the Bible, such as the 1925 Scopes trial that pitted teaching evolution against creationism. A time line chronicles the downward effects of questioning Scripture: Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Darwin.

Then comes an area showing the effects of “Scripture Abandoned in the Culture.” It begins with a dimly lit, twisted urban alley of exposed brick walls, graffiti, trash and car noises. A wrecking ball labeled “Millions of Years” slams into a wall on which tattered posters trumpet news headlines about stem cell research, gay teens, the Terri Schiavo case, the Columbine massacre. The path then winds through “Scripture Abandoned in the Home,” with video loops of a young woman discussing plans for an abortion and a young man watching pornography on a computer. A voice announces statistics on divorce, rates of sex outside of marriage and the low percentage of even born-again adults and teens who believe in “absolute truth.”

At this point, it’s time to get down to the basics, and the focus shifts to the three Bible stories at the heart of the museum’s mission. First is a gallery with dioramas of Adam and Eve. The brightly lit setting has everything Eden should: lush greenery, birdsong, animals (including dinosaurs; all are vegetarian at this point) peacefully circling Adam as they wait to be named. Adam, like the mate who joins him in subsequent dioramas, has dark-tan skin; long, dark hair; and attractive features. The accompanying texts cite Genesis, with some annotation. For example, where Adam awakens to discover the newly created Eve, text adds that “God made male and female fit for different roles from the beginning” and that they are “the foundation for marriage: one man and one woman.” Idylls follow: The couple caresses (tastefully) in a pool between waterfalls; an artful gray silhouette shows the two humans surrounded by light, walking with God in the Garden.

Well, you knew it couldn’t last. The tour bends into a dark tunnel with highlighted dioramas: the serpent glares evilly, Eve hands Adam the forbidden fruit, the couple is outcast. The seven C’s continue through four galleries of Corruption (including the first murder, when Cain slew Abel) and four of Catastrophe, with large constructions of Noah’s ark and dioramas and videos reenacting its journey. Three areas tell the story of Christ, Cross and Consummation, including a film in the Last Adam Theater. At the movie’s end, the staffer who gave an introduction comes back to say, “It is our prayer that as you leave today, this is the message you will take home with you.”

At the tour’s end, the two-story Dinosaur Den offers one more look at perhaps the most popular subject in any natural history museum. The final item you encounter is a model of a triceratops wearing a saddle; people climb on it and mug for a companion’s camera.

Evolutionary scientists take a different view of all this.

Photo by Angie Eason.

A July 17 press release from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology stated that “Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky,” a “view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for more than a century." Kevin Padian, president of the National Center for Science Education, was quoted: “Visitors to [Ham’s] ‘museum’ may arrive knowing little about [geology and paleontology], but they will leave misled and intellectually deceived.”

The Creation Museum is one of many Answers in Genesis projects. A daily radio program on 860 stations features Ken Ham and AiG’s cofounder and chief communications officer, Mark Looy, and the ministry will offer about 325 “teaching events” this year, ranging from one-hour talks at churches to five-day seminars. It also produces curricula, books, about 20 DVDs annually and a website with a reported 100,000 visits per day, which it says is one of the most visited religious websites in the world. The building housing the museum also provides 40,000 square feet for AiG’s headquarters.

Ham is very pleased with how many people the museum is reaching. Comparing its attendance to that of speaking engagements, he noted that it would take 80 days of 2,000-person audiences—which would be larger than average—to meet the museum’s success in the same period. “Instead of us going out, people can come here and see and experience. Let’s face it: If I’m speaking at a church, a lot of people won’t come.” At the museum, “A lot of people won’t feel as intimidated. We’ve had secular tours, evolutionists. Christians feel more at ease bringing non-Christian friends.” The museum, near an airport hub, promotes itself as being within a day’s drive of nearly two-thirds of the country’s population, and its informal look at cars in the parking lot has found license plates from all states except Hawaii. “I’d say people come from all across America,” said Ham, “which is very significant—we haven’t started national advertising. We’ve done mailings, but not TV.” Staff at local restaurants and hotels tell him a lot of their customers are there because of the museum. “Hotels say they can often tell who’s coming to visit the Creation Museum: They have more than two kids.”

Ham is also gratified by visitors’ reactions. “Parents say even little kids get the message because they experience it. I got a testimonial yesterday in an e-mail from a man whose son told him, ‘Dad, I don’t like that place,’” referring to the museum’s dark Cave of Sorrows after Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden. “‘Can we go back to the Garden?’ My six-year-old son got the message.” He sees a strong potential for repeat visits from the 11,000 lifetime museum members across the country and the many people who say they are on their third or fourth visit. There are also “the Christians who say, ‘We’re going to bring back our non-Christian friends, our church, our Sunday school.’ They see it as an opportunity to take someone who’s not a Christian because at least you’ll understand the message and it’ll challenge you.

“We’ve had some people come here and sneer. Some have come and challenged us, and some said, ‘We’re going to think about it.’ And that’s great. And some convert.”

In planning the museum, Ham said, “I told the scriptwriters and designers, ‘Construct and write it for the non-Christian, and by doing so, you’ll reach everyone. Write as if people don’t know the basics of the Bible. Deal with the dominant paradigm of the age, evolution.’” Future plans include an “ape and man” exhibition on human origins, new planetarium shows for Christmas and Easter, a larger auditorium, day camps for children, teaching sessions and expansion of the museum and botanical gardens.

“We’ve never had the funding to do what we do,” Ham said. “We just stepped out in faith and started building. And we didn’t have personnel. But people started contacting us, like Patrick Marsh—just as God brought animals to Noah on the ark, he brought people to us. Something like 75 percent of the $27 million we raised was from people giving just over $100. And it came from all over the world—a Japanese church sent $10,000.” People have also made donations in kind, such as the $1.2 million control system that runs the museum’s animatronics and other functions, for which the museum paid only $700,000.

Asked what he would like to say to skeptics, Ham replied, “Why are you so worried? After all, if you think operational science supports you . . . All schools across the country teach the secular view. If we’re wrong, it should be easy—you’ve got the media and the ways to get the word out. If we can have such an impact with just one museum, maybe you’d better rethink what you think.”

What is the likely impact of the Creation Museum? It could end up mainly preaching to the converted—or it could give significant new support to beliefs already more widespread than many Americans realize. A 2005 report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that “Overall, about half the public (48%) says that humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 42% say that living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” At a May 3 debate among Republican candidates for president, three said they didn’t believe in evolution (Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Tom Tancredo). The battle over teaching evolution versus creation didn’t end with Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan; in 2004, a Pennsylvania public school board decided to teach intelligent design in the district’s biology classes. (A federal judge overturned the decision.) The Creation Museum’s embrace of science, asterisks notwithstanding, could help legitimize efforts to make creationism part of standard science education.

The institution’s status as a museum is, by itself, likely to aid its cause. A national study published by AAM in 2001 found that “Almost 9 out of 10 Americans (87%) find museums to be one of the most trustworthy or a trustworthy source of information among a wide range of choices.” Books were a distant second at 61 percent, and a majority found print and broadcast media and the Internet not to be trustworthy. Schools were viewed as the most important educational source for children, but museums and libraries were next in line. And no current definitions of museums restrict the content of their messages. The International Council of Museums (ICOM), for example, identifies a museum simply as “A non-profitmaking, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.” The museum profession has not formally addressed the issue of what a museum exhibits.

“What would we do if someone built a museum saying the Holocaust didn’t happen?” asked Gene Kritsky, “that slavery was a right of the early colonists?” Ken Ham’s perspective, regarding his own institution, is that his critics should trust in the corrections of a free market of ideas.

The Creation Museum is not alone in its mission: The website www.creationism.org lists 12 other “creation centers and museums” in the United States (as well as one in Alberta, Canada), and the 2007 Official Museum Directory adds four more. But judging from the information on the websites of those institutions, the new museum in Kentucky has upped the ante to a new level of organization, design, funding, marketing and visitation—in the process, garnering attention from the New York Times (which reviewed it both before and after it opened), the Washington Post and the BBC. That attention has come not so much from a line being crossed as one being erased—the line between religion and science. As the Creation Museum pushes its visitors to reconsider what they believe, it may also push the museum field to redefine what a museum is and what it can do.