For those who don't know Ken Ham is the president of "Answers in Genesis" a creationist organization behind the notorious Creationist Museum in Petersburg, KY.
As excited I was about the debate, a debate with Ken Ham can only go so far. While Nye would go into long scientific detail, Ham would simply refute him by saying that the bible is true. The debate started to feel really pointless after awhile. Ken only uses science until it backs him into a corner and then throws up his hand and goes "BIBLE!".
The debate is up HERE for now.
Of course this debate brought back memories of the Creationist Museum for me. I visited in 2009 and it is flat out the most insane thing I have ever seen.
I guess I should start out by running down the beliefs of the museum. The museum (obviously) has a creationist perspective. They operate on a "young earth creationist" believe, meaning that they believe the earth is less then 10,000 years old. This of course means that humans and dinosaurs lived together. Interestingly enough the museum does not try to discredit Darwin, instead twisting his studies and insisting that mainstream science misunderstands them. The museum believes that there is not an evolution "tree", but instead an evolution "orchard".
You follow that?
But the underlying rule at the museum is that Bible is right. If something contradicts with what the bible says, the bible wins. The bible is the starting point, and science fills int he cracks, but only if if the science doesn't contradict the bible.
I should mention that before the museum opened there was actually protests from other creationist groups fearing that this museum would make them look foolish.
Walking into the museum the first think you see are animatronic people hanging out with animatronic dinosaurs.
You know you are in for a good time.
The one thing that is so striking about the museum is how well done it is. The exhibits and displays are extremely professional. The production values are just as good if not better then your "mainstream" museum.
The museum eases you into the idea of creationism, by simply explaining that there are different ways of looking at evolution. This is illustrated in a video by a jolly bearded creationist scientist and his partner a skinny Asian atheist who doesn't speak. Here are the characters in Wax form.
From here things start to get a bit more intense, as these wax school children introduce you to the part they "left out in school".....
The museum goes into detail about how man has turned his back on God in dramatic fashion....
Of course the museum is not afraid to use fear tactics to get their point across.....
Humanism leads to starvation, nuclear war and wolf attacks you know.....
Then we head into a little bit of bible history as we join Adam in the garden of Eden.....as he frolicks with sheep and penguins.
All the watchful eye of a friendly dinosaur....
Then we get a surprisingly risque scene with Eve.....
We are introduced to a fairly badass version of "The Serpent".....
Then we get the "Fall of Man" scene which was designed specifically to give children nightmares. I am no biblical scholar, so I'm not sure why Adam and Eve are crying over a gruesome pile of skinned sheep.
In case you wanted a closer look at those sheep carcasses, here you go.....
Man. That's gross.
Moving on we get an abbreviated Bible History Lesson.
Highlights include Kane killing Abel....
A talking Methuselah.....
Which is possibly the most unsettling animatronic I have ever come across.....
And finally we get a look at Noah building the ark.....
Which leads to the best part of the whole museum......They state that Dinosaurs actually rode on the Ark with Noah....
There is a nice diorama of the arc setting sail, living the sinners behind to battle bears on a hellish island....
And there you have it....The Creation Museum, which will leave you feeling like someone literally beat your head in with a bible.....Luckily, they have a petting zoo outside where you can go and hang out with some fuzzy animals while you try to process what you just saw. Oh, yeah.....and they have a Zonkey....
The Carpetbagger
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