Adam and Eve Did What? A Visit to the Creationism Museum
Makes Scientists Laugh, Cry

http://www.alternet.org/story/141053/adam_and_eve_did_what_a_visit_to_the_cr
eationism_museum_makes_scientists_laugh%2C_cry/

<http://www.alternet.org/story/141053/adam_and_eve_did_what_a_visit_to_the_c
reationism_museum_makes_scientists_laugh%2C_cry/>

The museum argues, among other things, that war, famine and natural
disasters
are to blame on belief in evolution.

For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a
great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference.

But while there were a few laughs and some clowning for the camera, most
left
more offended than amused by the frightening way in which evolution -- and
their
life's work -- was attacked.

"It's sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn't it?" said Jerry
Lipps,
professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of
California,
Berkeley.

"Like Sunday school with statues... this is a special brand of religion
here. I
don't think even most mainstream Christians would believe in this
interpretation
of Earth's history."

The 27 million dollar, 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-metre) museum which
has
been dubbed a "creationist Disneyland" has attracted 715,000 visitors since
it
opened in mid-2007 with a vow to "bring the pages of the Bible to life."

Its presents a literal interpretation of the Bible and argues that believing
otherwise leads to moral relativism and the destruction of social values.

Creationism is a theory not supported by most mainstream Christian churches.

Lisa Park of the University of Akron cried at one point as she walked a
hallway
full of flashing images of war, famine and natural disasters which the
museum
blames on belief in evolution.

"I think it's very bad science and even worse theology -- and the theology
is
far more offensive to me," said Park, a professor of paleontology who is an
elder in the Presbyterian Church.

"I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a very
Christian message... I find it a malicious manipulation of the public."

Phil Jardine posed for a picture below a towering, toothy dinosaur display.

The museum argues that the fossil record has been misinterpreted and that
Tyrannosaurus rex was a vegetarian before Adam and Eve bit into that
sin-inducing apple.

Jardine, a palaeobiologist graduate student from the University of
Birmingham,
was having fun on the tour, but told a reporter that he was disturbed by the
museum's cartoonish portrayal of scientists and teachers.

"I feel very sorry for teachers when the children who come here start
guessing
if what they're being taught is wrong," Jardine said.

Arnie Miller, a palentologist at the University of Cincinnati who was
chairman
of the convention, said he hoped the tour would introduce the scientists to
"the
lay of the land" and show them firsthand what's being put forth in a place
that
has elicited vehement criticism from the scientific community.

"I think in some cases, people were surprised by the physical quality of the
exhibits, but needless to say, they were unhappy with things that are
inaccurately portrayed," he said.

"And there was a feeling of unhappiness, too, about the extent to which
mainstream scientists and evolutionists are demonized -- that if you don't
accept the Answers in Genesis vision of the history of Earth and life,
you're
contributing to the ills of society and of the church."

Daryl Domning, professor of anatomy at Howard University, held his chin and
shook his head at several points during the tour.

"This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it's just as
much a
distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science," he
said.

"It's not your old-time religion by any means."