A monument to scientific illiteracy
 

Scientists Visit the Creation Museum Hotlist

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:41:39 PM PDT

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky opened in 2007 to present an
account of the origins of the universe, life and mankind according to a
literal interpretation of the Bible. The museum is used by many
evangelical Christians as a backdrop to attack the moral relativism that
they believe is ruining America. Visitors to the museum learn that the
universe was created 6000 years ago (in six days) and dinosaurs and
humans cohabited the earth.

Yesterday a group of scientists visited the Creation Museum.

The University of Cincinnati was hosting a conference for
paleontologists from all over the world. During a break in the
activities, a group of 70 scientists made the short trip to the Creation
Museum. While the Americans are accustomed to the general hostility to
science among many of their fellow citizens, many of the foreign
scientists were shocked at what they found.

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.

"I was just curious why," said Dr. Sato, a professor of geology
from Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan.

Poor Dr. Sato. Has he never read the Bible? Doesn't he know that 2348
BC was the year of the Great Flood?

Of course, the godless Europeans were also taken aback by the exhibits:

"I’m very curious and fascinated," Stefan Bengtson, a professor of
paleozoology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said before the
visit, "because we have little of that kind of thing in Sweden."

It's fun to laugh at the museum and the people that actually believe in
the junk science presented there. But not all the scientists were amused:

"It's sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn't it?" said
Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at
University of California, Berkeley.

Lisa Park of the University of Akron cried at one point as she
walked a hallway full of flashing images of war, famine and natural
disasters which the museum blames on belief in evolution.

"I think it's very bad science and even worse theology -- and the
theology is far more offensive to me," said Park, a professor of
paleontology who is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

"I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a
very Christian message... I find it a malicious manipulation of the public."

More than 750,000 people have visited the museum since it opened. Each
day, busloads of children from Christian schools throughout America
arrive at the Creation Museum for special guided tours.


From KOS