Creationism museum doing brisk business
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Last October—and quickly lost amid the cacophony of a crumbling economy and an overheated presidential election—the AP reported on the resounding success of Kentucky’s Creation Museum. In a nutshell, the institution that’s devoted to presenting dioramas and exhibits that support a literalist reading of the Bible is raking in the visitors.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington attracted 5.8 million visitors in 2006; the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis brought in 1.2 million that year, according to a list compiled by Forbes magazine.
But for its size and budget—it took $27 million in private donations to build—the museum has been an overwhelming success, founder Ken Ham said.
The museum in rural northern Kentucky, a 30-minute drive south of Cincinnati, has drawn more than 550,000 visitors in 15 1/2 months, by its own count.
At the museum, one can hear lectures on how Darwin was full of crap, and read all about how human beings and dinosaurs roamed the earth in harmony and even rode Noah’s ark together. Forget everything you thought you knew about the physical world, in other words. Here’s some hidden camera footage from inside the place.
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David: Wow, nice post. Doesn’t this scare you? As a Christian who purports to have half a brain, it scares me. Even the former Pope John Paul II said at one point that evolution was viable to explain the creation story, and he was more conservative than Rush Limbaugh on a William F. Buckley bender.
As a ide note, I think it’s fascinating that the sort of Xians who dig this stuff can use all matter of legalism and science to prove the miracles of the Bible, and to disprove science itself. Hmmmm. I thought in his lifetime, Jesus fought legalism and asked people to live by faith. But maybe if I visit the museum, I’ll have this boffo conversion experience.
Nah.
Lou,
It sure does scare me. And you’re right about using the absurdity of using methods of science (or purporting to, anyway) to disprove what the methods of science have taught us.
There’s a lot of power in the idea of a museum, I suppose. If the package is glossy enough, what’s inside must be good and true, no?
Striking how the “red room” with the wall covered in dire headlines (“hey, the MSM serves our purposes sometimes, right?”) and photos of junkies, crying babies, and mushroom clouds has the same kind of fear-dynamics of the “Horror Houses” that Christianists build for kids.
OK, maybe not such a terribly profound observation.
R,
Some pretty wicked propaganda, to be sure.
This is the most depressing thing I’ve seen in some time. It’s too bad our most popular pushback to this are obnoxious atheists like Hitchens, Dawkins and Maher.
Joseph,
Well, that log play their role, as well. As Lou pointed out earlier, even the Catholic church seems downright liberal in comparison to the people at the Creation Museum.
I interviewed Ken Ham for a story I did about this place a few years ago. The scariest thing is that he’s a really smart, articulate guy. He’s also Australian, which I totally didn’t expect.
I confess I’d been expecting someone resembling “Cleetus the Slackjawed Yokel,” from the Simpson’s. Having grown up not too far from where that museum is located, I guess I made the mistake of thinking we had the corner on the nutball market. I lived in Paris long enough that I should have known better.
Austin,
No place has a monopoly on stupid. That’s both good and bad. Ham is a pretty happy (and wealthy) guy right about now, I suspect.
What’s different between that and Hanna-Barbera Land or Flintstones Park?
We’ll still have a gay old time.
Yaba-Daba Doo!
And what about Ann Walton’s Crystal Bridges Musuem? Anyword on that? Supposed to be massive in Arkansas opens next year.
At least the creation museum is clear what it is–it’s the subtler propigation of the Wal Mart viewpoint in the guise of academic art appreciation that’s more worrisome.
But then, with WalMart and ACDC in bed together–maybe there’s nothing to worry about anymore.
Re the Creationism Museum, the human capacity for self-delusion is amazing. I wonder what Darwin would make of it. Is there a genetic/survival-based reason for this weirdness?
I can only surmise that viewing life through such a lens must benefit those who follow such beliefs. However, no matter what one believes, if one doesn’t question why one believes it and for what purpose, it remains narrow. Why is it beneficial to think humans are such a central part of the Universe? What would it do to our worldview to find out we’re not? Would it change our behavior, our ability to feel empathy, our concern for each other? And if it doesn’t change who we are and how we behave, why hold on so tenaciously to these beliefs, insisting on them being absolute? And if they do hold such sway on our ability to be kind and concerned, than we are weak-willed individuals prone to conformity rather than any belief at all.
Maggie,
I wonder if other life forms are capable of seeing themselves as anything but being at the center of the universe.
Your point is interesting in light of the previous one left by Cherie. Is our propensity for self-delusion helpful to the survival of our species? An evolutionary cornerstone, if you will.