Posted on 01/14/2007 5:31:07 PM PST by Tim Long
PETERSBURG, Kentucky - Ken Ham's sprawling creation museum isn't even open yet, but an expansion is already underway in the state-of-the art lobby, where grunting dinosaurs and animatronic humans coexist in a Biblical paradise.
A crush of media attention and packed preview sessions have convinced Ham that nearly half a million people a year will come to Kentucky to see his Biblically correct version of history.
"I think we'll be surprised at how many people come," Ham said as he dodged dozens of designers working to finish exhibits in time for the May 28 opening.
The $27 million project, which also includes a planetarium, a special-effects theater, nature trails and a small lake, is privately funded by people who believe the Bible's first book, Genesis, is literally true.
For them, a museum showing Christian schoolchildren and skeptics alike how the earth, animals, dinosaurs and humans were created in a six-day period about 6,000 years ago -- not over millions of years, as evolutionary science says -- is long overdue.
While foreign media and science critics have mostly come to snigger at exhibits explaining how baby dinosaurs fit on Noah's Ark and Cain married his sister to people the earth, museum spokesman and vice-president Mark Looy said the coverage has done nothing but drum up more interest.
"Mocking publicity is free publicity," Looy said. Besides, U.S. media have been more respectful, mindful perhaps of a 2006 Gallup Poll showing almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve, but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.
Looy said supporters of the museum include evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews and conservative Catholics, as well as the local Republican congressman, Geoff Davis (news, bio, voting record), and his family, who have toured the site.
FROM 'JAWS' TO EDEN
While the debate between creationists and mainstream scientists has bubbled up periodically in U.S. schools since before the Scopes "monkey trial" in nearby Tennessee 80 years ago, courts have repeatedly ruled that teaching religious theory in public schools is unconstitutional.
Ham, an Australian who moved to America 20 years ago, believes creationists could have presented a better case at the Scopes trail if they'd been better educated -- but he's not among those pushing for creation to be taught in school.
Rather than force skeptical teachers to debate creation, Ham wants kids to come to his museum, where impassioned experts can make their case that apparently ancient fossils and the Grand Canyon were created just a few thousand years ago in a great flood.
"It's not hitting them over the head with a Bible, it's just teaching that we can defend what it says," he said.
Ham, who also runs a Christian broadcasting and publishing venture, said the museum's Hollywood-quality exhibits set the project apart from the many quirky Creation museums sprinkled across America.
The museum's team of Christian designers include theme park art director Patrick Marsh, who designed the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at Universal Studios in Florida, as well as dozens of young artists whose conviction drives their work.
"I think it shows (nonbelievers) the other side of things," said Carolyn Manto, 27, pausing in her work painting Ice Age figures for a display about caves in France.
"I don't think it's going to be forcing any viewpoint on them, but challenging them to think critically about their evolutionary views," said Manto, who studied classical sculpture before joining the museum.
Still, Looy is upfront about the museum's mission: to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with nonbelievers.
"I think a lot of people are going to come out of curiosity ... and we're going to present the Gospel. This is going to be an evangelistic center," Looy said. A chaplain has been hired for museum-goers in need of spiritual guidance.
The museum's rural location near the border of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana places it well within America's mostly conservative and Christian heartland. But the setting has another strategic purpose: two-thirds of Americans are within a day's drive of the site, and Cincinnati's international airport is minutes away.
The project has not been without opposition. Zoning battles with environmentalists and groups opposed to the museum's message have delayed construction and the museum's opening day has been delayed repeatedly.
The museum has hired extra security and explosives-sniffing dogs to counter anonymous threats of damage to the building. "We've had some opposition," Looy said.
The word for "day" used in Genesis is yowm. It is based upon an unused root meaning "to be hot." Yowm can mean "day, time period, year," or simply "hot." A yowm can last from sunrise to sunset or from sunrise to sunrise. A yowm is "a lifetime, an indefinite period in time, a generic temporal reference, today, yesterday, or tomorrow." It is only a twenty-four hour period of time when yowm is modified by the definite or a cardinal number. In Scripture, yowm is translated: "afternoon, age, always, chronicles, continually, daily, day, days, first, forever, life, long, period, time, today, when, year, and years," on multiple occasions.
That said, I have a confession to make. Not long ago I viewed the creation account through this lens. I considered yowm to designate a general period of time or an unspecified era. But live and learn: time is not a constant, and like matter, it did not always exist. Time is relative, differing considerably in relation to the velocity, energy, and/or mass of an observer relative to another. At the velocity of light, for example, time stands still. As we progress in this study, with the help of physicists, I shall prove scientifically that from Yahuweh’s vantage point at creation, not only is the universe six twenty-four hour days old, but that each day uses the natural, or universal spiral to lay out a precise timeline from light to life over the course of nearly 16 billion years looking back in time from our perspective.
The Genesis account is three stories in one. In addition to creation, Yahuweh is providing us with an accounting of our salvation and of human history. So to appreciate how and when the events unfolded, to understand Yahuweh’s timeline past and present, we will have to search the Scriptures for definitions.
there is no better place than the 90th Psalm. In it David provides us with a quantification of the unit of measure Yahuweh is using. But before he gets to it, David provides some valuable insights for living that I’d be remiss for not sharing."Yahuweh, you are, have been, and will be
(hayah - exist as)our dwelling place and provision
(ma’own - abode and refuge, help and support)in all times, generations, and life. Before the mountains were brought forth in distress
(yalad)and You formed them giving birth to
(chuwl)the earth and the people who live in the world
(tebel)even from everlasting to everlasting
(‘owlam ‘owlam - perpetually, continuously existing),You are God
(‘el - the Mighty One). You return (shuwb) mortal humankind (‘enowsh) to dust and destruction (dakka’ - diminishment, reduction by grinding, pressing, or crushing into something smaller; a state of despondency pertaining to emotional grieving as the result of sin), and say (‘amar - think, instruct, declare, and promise): ‘Return (shuwb - turn around, change, and establish spiritual relations, be restored, repaired, and refreshed) O children of Adam (‘adam).’ For a thousand (‘eleph) years (shanah - division of time indicative of an age or life) in Your sight (‘ayin - perspective, knowledge, and thinking) are like yesterday (tamowl yowm) when (kiy - indeed because of, by reason or account of) it passes by (‘abar - passes over, crosses) a perceptive observer (shamar - one who takes heed and observes so as to be saved) in the night (layil - time of darkness and gloom)." (Psalm 90:1-4)
This Psalm provides some of the keys needed to decipher the Genesis revelation which is why I believe it references the formation of the earth. The passage links hayah, the basis of Yahuweh’s name (I was, I am, and I will be), and the second most repeated word in Genesis one, to our past, present and future dwelling place, our ultimate provision through rebirth, leading to everlasting life. As we have just discovered, hayah, plays a significant role in the account of our creation and continued existence. The Hebrew verb is all about time. It is another way of Yahuweh telling us that He and His accounting of time combine past, present, and future together as if they were one and eternal. Because He is one and eternal, we can be one with Him eternally.
There are two words for men in the passage, ‘enowsh/mortal humankind and the children of ‘adam/Adam. The ‘enowsh are returned to dust. They are diminished with some being destroyed and others rendered to a state of despondency over sin. The sons of Adam, however, have the opportunity to choose God, and thus life. They are called to change and return so as to establish spiritual relations with Yahuweh and be restored to life. We are told that a perceptive observer of the Word will be protected and saved, even in the time of darkness. This is important because the Genesis account strongly suggests that while all animals, and thus all men, are endowed with a soul (a nepesh) or consciousness, not all humans have a conscience (a nesamah) - the ability to discern right from wrong. Without a nesamah people are precluded from knowing, choosing, or relating to God.The second key derived from the Psalm is that our "perspective" on time and Yahuweh’s are not the same - especially in the context of creation. Related to this, when speaking about the prophetic history of our salvation a day with Yahuweh is like a thousand years.
As it relates to cosmological time, Genesis readers have several choices. They can believe that the universe, our solar system, life and man were created in six solar days, one of which occurred before our sun was created, two before the earth existed, and three before sunrises and sunsets were even visible, in complete disregard for the scientific evidence to the contrary. According to recent surveys, most Americans believe the unbelievable. If you are one of them, visit the Creation Institute on the web. You will find many like-minded folks.
The second option is render the word yowm as an imprecise "period of time" and not fret over the details.
Third, Genesis can be scrapped as a scientific explanation and be read exclusively for its spiritual insights. This is the Vatican’s most current view. The Church, which has a knack for being wrong, recently issued a statement saying that the creation account wasn’t accurate and that at best, God played a distant, fatherly role, in our genesis.
I am partial to the fourth option, viewing yowm as a precise quantitative measurement, as an accurate accounting, but relative to the witness. That is the course we shall chart in this chapter because it provides the best fit between Yahuweh’s testimony, evidence and reason.
However, within the framework of six plus one and of a day being equivalent to one thousand years, the readers of Genesis cannot be faithful to the text and ignore the fact that the "days" of creation are prophetic. They reveal the key aspects of our salvation history - past, present, and future - from the fall of Adam to the fall of man, and then to the final Millennial Sabbath. For this accounting Psalm 90 was essential because it provided the scale of one day representing one thousand years. Nearly six millennia of human history has passed since man, as we know him, came to exist. In that, God’s word, science, and recorded history all agree.
Based upon our analysis of the cosmic clock, Yahweh’s claim that the first universal epoch lasted one day may not be in conflict with the scientific assertion that it required 7 to 8 billion years.
While the various scientific methods for estimating of the age of our universe provide differing conclusions, they all fall within the same general magnitude. So while we cannot be dogmatic or assert that the scientific claims are precise, based upon our ability to measure, looking back in time from the vantage point of earth, the universe can reasonably assumed to be 15 billion years old plus or minus a billion years or so.
The creative days of Genesis, however, look forward, not back. Yahuweh’s testimony was composed as an eyewitness, from the perspective of the Creator at creation, not from the created on earth. The simple truth is that no matter how arrogant and self-reliant mankind chooses to be, our planet didn’t even exist when the universe was created, so our perspective and clock were not used.
With that in mind, let’s compare our clock to His. To do that we must multiply the approximately 15,000,000,000 year age of the cosmos by 365.25 days per year so that both clocks conform to the same unit of measure. 15,000,000,000 years x 365.25 day/year = 5,478,750,000,000 days (plus or minus 10%, or 1.5 billion years).
Then to calibrate this 5.5 trillion-day period to creation’s clock, respecting the relativistic nature of time, we must divide earth time in days since creation by the amount time was slowed at creation. Earlier, we determined this number by averaging the coefficients derived from the four methods from which it can be deduced. Big Bang time ran 0.9 x 1012 (900,000,000,000) times slower than earth time does now.
So here is the math: 5,478,750,000,000 days / 900,000,000,000 = 6 days. That means that from the vantage point of a witness to creation, existing at the point of inception, the whole process from start to finish took a length of time that equates to six earth days. "And thus the heavens and earth were finished...and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made..." (Genesis 2:1-2) What a coincidence. Yahuweh’s timeline, His accounting, God’s 3,200-year-old written testimony, corresponds precisely with the evidence. If that doesn’t get your attention and cause you to think that His Scriptures might be inspired, nothing will.
But we have only scratched the surface. With every layer and detail He adds, God proves that He knew how the universe was created, when it was created, the role light played, and how and when life came to exist. And there is but one rational, informed reason for this: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." http://yadayahweh.com/Yada_Yahweh_Foundation_Owr.YHWH
So, put up or... you know the rest.
that's a load of doo- dating methods rely on preconceived notions and throw out ALL the counter evidences that do not fit in their specified timelines- it's NOTHING but interpretations and faith and discounts anythign that might suggest otherwise- there are plenty of cases that show items buried in supposedly million year old strata that just do not correspond with the preconceived timelines- daters both have to have faith in their timelines (because there are NO known or testable factos with which to date by) and faith that irreconciable unknowns are not proofs against hteir preconceived timelines.
Science goes on KNOWNS- and Testable factors- NOT on unknowns- yet dating requires FAITH in interpratations that can't be backed up with KNOWNS
You present dates as 'verifiable' and that is not fact- different interpratations discount this suppsoed 'verifiable' factor right off the bat- and you are STILL dealing with guesses and putting FAITH in the fact that that unknown actions didn't happen to throw off your preconceived notions of how old the earth should be- Catastrophic events have PROVEN the fallicy of old held beliefs and these have proven them precisely because KNOWN elements were both observed and tested as they were recorded- you can't say that of anything beyond approximately 6000 or so years ago- there were NO records- so it all falls to interpretation-
I just know you aren't going to vigorously ddefend interpretation, right? We've all seen how reliable interpretations that turn into dogma can be- especially when they are disporvoien
No Junior- You can yell all day long- I don't care- I'm not doing research again that you yourself can do- As I said- remain ignorant of the facts that I suggest or look them up- either way- I don't care- yell on- and as long as folks are claiming false facts I'll dispute them as I like- I gave you PLENTY of links- either read them and look up other things I say or not- whatever-
You didn't really expect him to post his supporting evidence did you? ;-)
You have to throw away everything we know about science in order to make your case that the earth is 6000 years old. Why, even the bible does not make the claim on the age of the earth.
Naw. I knew he didn't have anything.
i don't have to mg- and won't get sucked into the endless cycle of denial and ignoring the links and the evidences prodeuced- been there done that- the evidence is freely available to you and junior-- the argument 'he didn't produce the links means the info doesn't exist' is a bogus- lazy argument- but by all means- jump right on that bandwagon-
Up all night- nope sorry- creation science has plenty of evidence that we don't have to throw out in order to support a young earth- as well, there is plenty of science to discount old earth and prove dating methods are bogus- as I metnioned earlier- there are more accurate dating methods that are ignored because htey don't jive with the preconceived notions- the helium for one- http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=302
As well as radiohalos
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/369
Naw- I got it- you just ignore it stomping your foot refuseiong to do the work yourself-
I didn't make the claim.
Many people hear see what we see. But we tend to get drowned out by voices whose volume is inversely proportional to content.
Paleontology was a boyhood interest - this idea of humans and dinosaurs co-existing is ridiculous.
Regards, Ivan
i don't care- my previous post stands- The info is there- putting your hands over your eyes won't change that fact
Whatever.
evolution? The biologically impossible theory and God can coexist? You'd have to prove evolution overcame impossible biological hurdles in order for that to be fact. The scientific evidences show more that God and His word are consistent and true- not that evolution happened and God's directive. It is impossible for mutations to create NEW cell information- ALL mutations do is alter celular information that is ALREADY present- evolution demands NEW information from outside the source (outside the species- from another species) in order to be viable- lateral gene transference however has it's own set of impossible problems- but beyond even htose impossiblities, amino acids couldn't make the impossible leap to protiens in order for evolution to even get a head start were it even remotely possible- Not to mention that all experiments on 'primordial soups' with lightening strikes in CAREFULLY controlled envirnments that were set up to reproduce what would have been necessary for the creation of life from non life (ie life from chemicals) have proven that the WRONG type of amino acids were created and did NOT live long enough anyways.- they were left hand amino acids- precisely the wrong type needed for life.
These aren't just some inconsequential hurdles- these are MAJOR impossibilities that evos' have not been able to explain or even suggest an explaination. No- it takes a HUGE amount of FAITH in order to bleeive the impossible was possible.
http://www.sjchurchofchrist.org/amino.shtml
http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/design.html
http://www.evolutionisimpossible.com/chemistry.html
http://www.creationism.org/heinze/SciEvidGodLife.htm
I do believe God and evolution can co-exist. I'm sorry you are not open to that possibility. However, arguing with people like yourself rarely achieves anything - so therefore, I conclude this discussion.
Ivan
But they do get wound up rather quickly ;-)
lol gosh whaT a surprise- discount the evidences because they carry the word God in them- Tracts? No sir- facts- conclude if you like- didn';t expect any less.
Think about it. I'm done talking to you; don't post to me again, thanks.
Ivan
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