Creation Museum

The Creation Museum is a $27 million museum in the United States privately funded through donations to the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis. The museum's doors will open to the public on May 28, 2007. Based on projections, the museum is anticipating 250,000 visitors in the first year of operation .

The museum presents the account of man's origins and early history according to the book of Genesis. Consequently, the exhibits assert that the planet is just a few thousand years old and that man and dinosaurs once coexisted. This is in contrast to the scientific paradigm that the earth is billions of years old and the dinosaurs which existed 200 million years ago became extinct millions of years before human ancestors originated. This has drawn criticism from certain educators. Lawrence Krauss world renowned Astronomer and Physicist has called on media, educators and government officials to shun the museum and claims its basis is in untruth.

In the introduction to a Good Morning America report on the museum shown Friday, May 25th, an ABC news poll was cited, indicating that despite educators' criticisms, a majority of the American public would agree with the Creation Museum. In the poll, it was stated that 60% of Americans believe that "God created the world in six days".

It is located in Petersburg, Kentucky, near the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. According to the founder of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, "One of the main reasons we moved there was because we are within one hour's flight of 69 per cent of America's population."

The museum's offical groundbreaking ceremony was March 17th, 2001, but plans for the museum had been in the works since the mid-1990's. A significant reason for the time span between planning and execution related to zoning battles which saw the museum's original location turned down. The zoning issues continued to its present location, with the final legal victory for Answers in Genesis becoming official on March 6th, 2000.

Among its various displays and exhibits, the museum is being designed to include life-size and even animatronic (animated and motion-sensitive) dinosaurs, large movie screens showing a young-earth history of the world, and a planetarium depicting creationist cosmologies and creationist interpretations of quantum physics. Model dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden will also be depicted.

For most of its time in construction, the cost of building the museum was set at $25 million. However, in response to studies and media reports that suggested an even larger number of visitors estimated annually than previously expected, the museum cost increased to $27 million as expansion to the front of the building, the parking lot, and the cafe were initiated. The Associated Press ran a Cincinnati Enquirer news report on April 11th, 2007 that stated $27 million had been raised, although fundraising continues for additional expenses related to opening. Mark Looy, Chief Communications Officer for Answers in Genesis, said in the article that around 75% of the contributions averaged around $100 per gift.

Answers in Genesis' success in raising donations for the museum was contrasted with the failure of the American Museum of Natural History to find corporate sponsorship for their exhibit on the life of Charles Darwin, because, according to the Daily Telegraph, "American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution."

See also

• Creation-evolution controversy
• Creationism
• Answers in Genesis

External links

• Creation Museum official site
• Answers in Genesis Official site
• CNN News Report on Creation Museum
• Answers in Creation, Christian site disputing the claims of the Creation Museum