My Visit to Ken Ham’s Creation Museum: Down the Rabbit Hole (or should I say Velociraptor Hole?) (Part 2)

🔊 Listen to Post  In my last post, we left off in our journey through Ken Ham’s Creation Museum right where he had just transitioned from the claim that people date dinosaur fossils according to their given “starting point” assumptions as to how old the universe is, and had pivoted to the display that talks about how the Bible is the “starting point” to understanding the big questions about life, meaning and human destiny.

Thus at the Creation Museum, one literally “turns a corner” from an initial display that presents the fallacious claim that geologists, astronomers, and biologists come up with their conclusions based solely on their preconceived biases regarding the universe’s age, to a display that claims the Bible is the starting point in one’s quest to discover life’s meaning—something, however true, that nevertheless has no connection to scientific questions regarding the age of the universe.

But for AiG, it does, for their fundamental claim—the very reason for the Creation Museum itself—is that if Genesis 1-11 isn’t historically and scientifically accurate, then the rest of the Bible, society and morality itself, will go out the window, and there is no meaning or morals at all. Society is on its way to hell in a handbasket.

So get those handbaskets ready. Welcome to the dystopia of Ken Ham…

Hell in a Handbasket
What we see in the next exhibit is the result of questioning young earth creationism: moral decay in society. Or as one of the signs said: “Scripture Abandoned in the Culture leads to relative morality, hopelessness, and meaninglessness.” And then another: Scripture Compromised in the Church leads to scripture abandoned in the home.”

Along with these signs are images of things like a giant wrecking ball crashing into a church, graffiti, riots, drugs, drinking, and small displays that depict dysfunctional family in various situations family breakdown. Why is little Jimmy uninterested in the sermon, and is instead eating peanuts while the pastor is preaching? Because the pastor is telling his congregation that Genesis 1-11 is only a “story,” and therefore isn’t important.

The message is clear: our society is in a mess because “secular scientists” and “compromised clergy” are telling people that the Bible isn’t true. But let’s face it, what AiG really is referring to isn’t Scripture as a whole, but more specifically, their insistence that Genesis 1-11 must be historical and scientific. That’s a huge difference. Saying Genesis 1-11 isn’t in the genre of history is not the same as saying it’s not true. But you’d never know that by listening to Ken Ham.

In any case, this part of the exhibit reminded me of those “hell houses” that many ultra-Fundamentalist churches put on during Halloween. In this case, all the horrors of modern society are traced back to rejecting AiG’s claim that Genesis 1-11 is historically accurate and scientifically true. The whole display was an example of fear-mongering wrapped up in bad biblical exegesis and bad science: comical and disturbing at the same time.

But There is Good News…Well, Sorta…
No, what comes next isn’t the Good News of the resurrection of Christ that is on display. It’s a giant recreation of the events in Genesis 1-11, starting with the Garden of Eden, complete with Adam and Eve frolicking with…yes you guessed it…dinosaurs, who were busy eating fruit.

But soon after seeing a display of Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent, my friend and I entered “Corruption Valley,” which was essentially the Cain and Abel story…and a dinosaur.

Before you get to the life of Adam and Eve outside the Garden, and the eventual murder of Abel by Cain, you pass by…you guessed it…a velociraptor. But unlike the dinosaur in Eden who was eating fruit, this one was feasting on flesh—according to AiG, the dinosaurs of Eden suddenly became savage meat-eaters soon after Adam and Eve ate the fruit, a mere 6,000 years ago. Nevermind the fact that nowhere in the Bible does it say velociraptors became vicious meat-eaters as soon as Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, according to YEC logic, this had to be the time dinosaurs started eating flesh. Why? It’s all about starting points! When you ignore modern science proper biblical exegesis, and insist that the universe is only 6,000 years old, dinosaurs have to fit somewhere!

In any case, after the Cain and Abel display, we arrived at what one might call “The Prototype to the Ark Encounter.” In the next room we found ourselves in the interior of the ark, complete with an animatronic Noah discussing the building of it, as well as “pagan workers,” discussing how Noah was a religious fanatic, and how they were just building it to get paid. Of course, if this scenario of AiG had really happened (i.e. Noah hiring pagan workers to build the ark), the last thing they would accuse Noah of being would be a “religious fanatic.” Pagans worshipped many gods, and had idols that represented them. They would have seen Noah as a veritable atheist: an invisible God, with no idol to represent him? That’s no god…at least it wouldn’t be to an ancient pagan culture.

But those are just some inconvenient details that completely undercut AiG’s fanciful (and unbiblical) claims regarding Genesis 1-11.

We got though the ark room, and in the next room we found some rather cool models of the ark, complete with animals making their way in, two by two: elephants, giraffes, lions, bears…and, you guessed it…dinosaurs. The problem, of course, is that not only does the Bible not mention dinosaurs, according AiG’s own claims, animals like modern elephants, giraffes, bears, and lions would not have existed at that point.

Again, just some more inconvenient details…

…and I won’t even bother going into detail of the display of the ark at sea, along with scores of people on a nearby mountain time, being consumed by the floodwaters (although a few are being mauled by tigers). Bodies everywhere…

And That Was It….
Although there were a few other side exhibits, the main exhibits were done. Ian and I made our way to the bookstore that was filled with merchandise and books, all touting the YEC doctrine of a young earth and dinosaurs in Eden and on Noah’s Ark. I noticed that one of the books, written by Ken Ham’s son-in-law Bodie Hodge, was entitled World Religions and Cults. I opened it and found there was a chapter on Eastern Orthodoxy. I’m not sure if Hodge thought it was another religion or a cult, but skimming the chapter it was pretty clear—he felt something was really wrong with it because Eastern Orthodoxy relies on Church Tradition along with the Bible.

Imagine that. Eastern Orthodoxy isn’t truly Christian because it values Church Tradition and practice. I wasn’t really surprised, though. I had just spent a couple of hours being told that Beowulf was historical, that dragons in folklore and literature were based on dinosaurs, that scientists just make conclusions based on their own biases alone, that dinosaurs were vegetarians in Eden, that dinosaurs started eating meat shortly after that, and that dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark. And then there was this display…

…by the way, did I mention the dinosaurs? Because at the Creation Museum, it seems to be quite important that to be a faithful, Bible-believing Christian, one has to believe dinosaurs are in the Bible, even though they aren’t.

Conclusion
There you have it. In these five posts on both the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum, we have gone down the velociraptor hole, and have been witnesses to a very bizarre wonderland indeed. I know that there are some who are absolutely enraged with Ken Ham and AiG, with both the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. I, though, am not.

Yes, I’m enraged at how so many young earth creationists and biblical literalist treat and condemn any and everyone who dares question them. That is the very reason why I wrote my book. Such things need to be brought to light.

But the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum don’t enrage me. Both simply bewilder me. If you listen to the videos I took (they can be found in this post as well as my Ark Encounter posts), I’m sure you’ll be able to tell in my voice how much I found it all so humorously ridiculous. You simply can’t be mad about it—it’s too funny.

To be sure, one visit was enough for me. I’m glad I had the experience, though. It’s one thing to write about Ken Ham, AiG, and YEC from afar; it’s quite another thing to inspect their work up close. And what can we conclude? Simple: YEC is false and Ken Ham is wrong. Time will bear this out. All we can do is patiently, and perhaps with a bit of humor, keep bringing the truth to light.

On a positive note, the gardens at the Creation Museum were beautiful. I thought I saw Claude Monet.