Ken Ham poses with dinosaur models in his unfinished $25 million Answers in Genesis museum.
Posted on 05/23/2005 3:29:06 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Ken Ham has spent 11 years working on a museum that poses the big question - when and how did life begin? Ham hopes to soon offer an answer to that question in his still-unfinished Creation Museum in northern Kentucky.
The $25 million monument to creationism offers Ham's view that God created the world in six, 24-hour days on a planet just 6,000 years old. The largest museum of its kind in the world, it hopes to draw 600,000 people from the Midwest and beyond in its first year.
Ham, 53, isn't bothered that his literal interpretation of the Bible runs counter to accepted scientific theory, which says Earth and its life forms evolved over billions of years.
Ham said the museum is a way of reaching more people along with the Answers in Genesis Web site, which claims to get 10 million page views per month and his "Answers ... with Ken Ham" radio show, carried by more than 725 stations worldwide.
"People will get saved here," Ham said of the museum. "It's going to fire people up. If nothing else, it's going to get them to question their own position of what they believe."
Ham is ready for a fight over his beliefs - based on a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.
"It's a foundational battle," said Ham, a native of Australia who still speaks with an accent. "You've got to get people believing the right history - and believing that you can trust the Bible."
Among Ham's beliefs are that the Earth is about 6,000 years old, a figure arrived at by tracing the biblical genealogies, and not 4.5 billion years, as mainstream scientists say; the Grand Canyon was formed not by erosion over millions of years, but by floodwaters in a matter of days or weeks and that dinosaurs and man once coexisted, and dozens of the creatures - including Tyrannosaurus Rex - were passengers on the ark built by Noah, who was a real man, not a myth.
Although the Creation Museum's full opening is still two years away, already a buzz is building.
"When that museum is finished, it's going to be Cincinnati's No. 1 tourist attraction," says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, nationally known Baptist evangelist and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. "It's going to be a mini-Disney World."
Respected groups such as the National Science Board, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Teachers Association strongly support the theory of evolution. John Marburger, the Bush administration's science adviser, has said, "Evolution is a cornerstone of modern biology."
Many mainstream scientists worry that creationist theology masquerading as science will have an adverse effect on the public's science literacy.
"It's a giant step backward in science education," says Carolyn Chambers, chair of the biology department at Xavier University, which is operated by the Jesuit order of the Catholic church.
Glenn Storrs, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cincinnati Museum Center, leads dinosaur excavations in Montana each summer. He said the theory of dinosaurs and man coexisting is a "non-issue."
"And so, I believe, is the age of the Earth," Storrs said. "It's very clear the Earth is much older than 6,000 years."
The Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor of St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Pleasant Ridge, takes issue with Ham's views - and the man himself.
"He takes extraordinary liberties with Scripture and theology to prove his point," Adams said. "The bottom line is, he is anti-gay, and he uses that card all the time."
Ham says homosexual behavior is a sin. But he adds that he's careful to condemn the behavior, not the person.
Even detractors concede that Ham has appeal.
Ian Plimer, chair of geology at the University of Melbourne, became aware of Ham in the late 1980s, when Ham's creationist ministry in Australia was just a few years old.
"He is promoting the religion and science of 350 years ago," says Plimer. "He's a far better communicator than most mainstream scientists."
Despite his communication skills, Ham admits he doesn't always make a good first impression. But, that doesn't stop him from trying to spread his beliefs.
"He'd be speaking 20 hours a day if his body would let him," said Mike Zovath, vice president of museum operations.
Ham's wife of 32 years agrees. "He finds it difficult talking about things apart from the ministry," Mally Ham says. "He doesn't shut off."
Ham said he has no choice but to speak out about what he believes.
"The Lord gave me a fire in my bones," Ham says. "The Lord has put this burden in my heart: 'You've got to get this information out.'"
i have looked and haven't found anything. Maybe he thinks he's leading us on a merry chase.
Pitiful.
Anyway, yes. People do that on purpose, bludgeoning YOU with THEIR ignorance and illogic. Twist and Shout. Creative misunderstanding. Willful ignorance.
A sure sign that the enterprise is rotten to the core.
;-)
Well, Kenneth, speed is not a frequency. You should learn basic terminology. [VI=ON]
But Fester made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.
Not only clueless, the rest of the creationists are supporting him by their silence. Maybe they are that clueless. It may not be wrong to assume that their religious knowledge is of the same quality as their scientific knowledge and should be treated equivalently.
In certain fields of knowledge immutable facts are inevitable and necessary. In others they are not, and should not be expected. Your assertion that I would maintain one must see the origins of human flight to believe it exists is a preposterous non-sequitur. If you truly think I must maintain such a position to be consistent, then you should be the last person whom I might expect to see as a participant in rational discourse.
Perhaps if Einstein read your words he would substitute the speed of dumb for the speed of light. In fact, Fester hereby postulates on Einstein's behalf that the speed of dumb far surpasses the speed of light in both amplitude and frequency, as demonstrated by it's pernicious effects on public schools, the Democratic Party, and the proponents of the philosophy of evolution who continually confuse philosophy with science, all of whom have been rendered a muddle of hapless mediocrity.
While I count it a disconcerting experience to live in an age that must witness the speed of dumb in a vaccuum, yet I count it a joy to be called names by those who toil and sweat that we might benefit both directly and indirectly from their self-indulgent pursuits.
The most glaring mistake in all of Star Wars! LMAO!
I don't think so. I think it's the basis of your entire argument.
No. It is a failure on your part to comprehend the relationship between faith and facts. Is it not you who said "I trust my own understanding of physics?". But I should expect as much from those who fail to distinguish between immutable fact and reasonable conjecture and then set themselves up as preachers in the classroom.
If you refuse to acquaint yourself with facts, and in fact ignore or reject them when presented, of course you will be unable to distinguish between facts and conjecture. And if you can't distinguish between faith and facts, of course you won't be able to tell the difference between a teacher and a preacher. And that is your goal; to be able to claim that they are indistinguishable.
Argumentum ad stupidum. The only way you can sustain it is by clinging to your ignorance, or feigned ignorance. You're clearly not stupid; you write literately, make no or very few spelling and grammatical errors, and don't seem particularly ill-informed, except about science. I don't believe ignorance could be that selective. Yours is an assumed and false position.
Obviously my question was phrased in such a way as to cause turmoil and delight among the faithful. Let me phrase it differently:
Does the oven's magnetron generate any wave length within the ~700nm to ~400nm range? I gather it does not.
Because your eyes are sensitive to wavelengths between 700nm-450nm.
At any rate, I think you are saying every wave within the electromagnetic spectrum travels at the speed of light. Yes?
Yes. Up to the point where the refractive index of the transmission medium becomes a factor.
At the frequencies we're talking about, air @20°C has a refractive index of 1.00029 or about 0.03% slower than it's speed in a vacuum (index=1.0).
For completeness:
lf = c/n
Where:
l - the wavelength
f - the frequency
c - the speed of light
n - refractive index
Since n is essentially equal to 1 ...
lf = c/1 or lf = c.
We are being led by a nose ring here IMHO.
I am done with my grade school science class on this thread.
No doubt, but I think a point has been made.
And I'm going to put some chocolate in the microwave when I get home. I want to see if it actually works.
Thanks for the mental anchor. I was wondering if 'Kessel run' was some kind of Skinner maze ...
Job 38:16
Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Ecclesiastes 1:6
The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
how long did it take "science" to catch up to the Bible?
From my standpoint as an observer, until a proposition is verified personally it remains a proposition that I must accede to by faith. There are many scientific propositions and immutable facts to which I have acceded, among them the current speed of light, the law of gravity, human flight, etc. Some of them I have witnessed directly.
If I tell you what is the speed of light, I am telling you what I believe. When RA tells me the speed of light, he is telling me what he knows and accepts as immutable fact. I can accept that because the data is operable and available in the present day. Furthermore, I trust he has gathered the knowledge accurately, and shared it without distortion. Since I have not gathered the knowledge and tested it myself, I am relying upon the testimony of someone else. What shame is in that?
So too, when a text that has been handed down for hundreds of generations makes the proposition that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," I accede to that proposition not only because of its wide acceptance, but also because it makes sense to attribute all the information available to my reason and senses (not to mention my reason and senses themselves) to an agent of intelligent design. What shame is in that?
Right. It's just a rough measurement. Greater precision can be achieved, but not without better equipment and some extra work. I suppose you could get a cleaner data set with one of the planets that has fewer moons. Mars would probably do, but then you'd need a better telescope. I suspect this gets done all the time. RA would know if we do it with the signals from the Martian probes.
Thank you.
Has the entire electromagnetic spectrum been discovered and explored by science? Why is it necessary to assume "nothing is faster than the speed of light in a vaccuum?"
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.