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.'"
The most glaring mistake in all of Star Wars! LMAO!
Remind you of anyone we know on FR.... someone who doesn't understand "quantity calculus"?
;-)
Sound bite of the week, if not the month, and maybe the whole damned year. Well done.
Yes, it's so good it should have been my line. [Grumble, grumble]
Sorry. It's beer-thirty, school's out, and your homework is speed of electricity/light
So what is the difference between a teacher and a preacher?
When things are written in the language of a horoscope, it is impossible for it to be true or false or to provide any guidance, because everyone will interpret it differently. Think about it for a moment. If the meaning were clear and unambiguous, then there would be no catching up to do, because everyone would know what it meant.
Your link provides a good primer on the subject. It becomes all the more clear that the common man relies upon the observations and reports of others when believing and declaring what is the speed of light. The guys who had the tools and intellect reported. The rest decided. That is what teaching is about.
Throughout much of history there has not been agreement as to whether light is finite or infinite. Imagine Johannes Kepler insisting, as a matter of law, that the observations of James Bradley be disallowed in classrooms. How much more absurd is the notion that intelligent design has no place in the classroom where the observation and detection of information is concerned.
This information did not manifest itself. It had to be sought out, tested, and confirmed. IMO, those who did the seeking and testing should be counted as above the average person where the tools and intellect are concerned. Too bad they were ignorant of a 4.5 billion-year-old earth.
Y'all are bringin' me down. It's a known fact that the Great Green Arkelseizure sneezed the universe into being, and I'm offended, nay outraged that we are wasting time on this "evolution" nonsense when the arrival of the Great White Handkerchief is nigh!
I think he says it best.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1409126/posts?page=10#10
I've never seen people with so much testosterone sitting behind a keyboard...it must just fill them with machismo.
Ill pray for you.
Kissel.
First, I am not an atheist. Just because I am not a Christian does not mean that I am an atheist.
However, your loud proclamation of your Christianity is belied by your abject failure to live by the creed you claim as your own.
Second, someone who, like you, insists on telling the Creator how He made the Universe fits the description of being a pompous ass who isn't nearly as intelligent as he thinks he is.
"But Fester made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs."
That line cracked me up the first time I heard it, then made me pretty sick to my stomach every time thereafter.
You are correct in pointing out (#554) that the proposition of a 4.5-billion-year-old earth is as much an article of faith as the proposition that God created the heavens and the earth. There are a good many folks who have difficulty in distinguishing between facts and reasonable conjecture and thus, either out of pride or ignorance, present reasonable conjecture as if it were fact.
To think these same are entitled by law to present their conjecture as solely worthy of hearing in a classroom is, well, disappointing to say the least. As I said in another post, the speed of dumb beats the speed of light every time. The speed of dumber follows on its heels. Just watch this thread.
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.
are either of these ambiguous? think about it how would "Job" know about the springs of the sea? or noah "great fountains of the deep"
seem quite clear to me.
to paraphrase C.S lewis 'the less the bible is read the more it gets interpreted.'
However, you forget that we don't read words individually, we read them in context.
I like Mary like I like brussel sprouts. Three "likes", two meanings, but noone is confused.
I went back to the store and while I was there I scratched my back and then walked backwards until I hit a backpack.
Four "backs", still no confusion.
When "yom" is used with a number, it always refers to a normal day.
"Please describe how your "six 'yom' -- 6000 years ago" viewpoint explains this:"
Why is that difficult? You don't think God is that powerful?
Note that the redshift of galaxies is mentioned by the Bible as well -- it says He spreads out the heavens, which is exactly what we see.
Try following what the first post of this thread says and "Be nice". It feels like I'm scolding a child.
Those of you that want to somehow shame me into thinking my postings dont live up to a certain creed can shove it. When God asks you what choices youve made in life, he wont accept, "well wallcrawlr acted this way on the forum (whaa whaa) so I dont want to believe in Christs work". It aint gonna fly.
Mule nose and 2x4 place mark
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