creationism – Memphis Flyer

Kudos

Kudos to the Flyer and Jackson Baker for his succinct and invaluable guide to the upcoming election (“A Sleeper Election?,” July 31st issue). There are many of us who rely on your publication and Baker for our political “fix.” Thanks for what you do.

Julio Martinez

Memphis

Creatively Designed

Regarding Charles Gillihan’s letter (July 31st issue): Gillihan is trying to distance himself and the intelligent-design movement away from its predecessor “creation science.” The lecture delivered by Barbara Forrest (“Q&A with Barbara Forrest,” July 24th issue) was not to “offer the alternatives.” That was not her job. Her job was to show in court during the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board trial (and later to her lecture audience) that intelligent design evolved from creationism.

She showed convincingly that intelligent design is creationism and thus religious. By doing so, “intelligent-design creationism” was judged unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment as a subject to be taught in public school science class.

I suggest Gillihan read the trial transcript at creationismstrojanhorse.com.

Chris Stahl, Director

Memphis Freethought Alliance

Those in the Discovery Institute and the intelligent-design/creationism movement use code phrases such as “logical analysis,” “critical thinking,” and so forth. Another common one is “teach the controversy.” The irony of those code phrases is that the intelligent-design creationists often do exactly the opposite.

Intelligent-design creationists rarely apply critical thinking, logical analysis, or teach the controversy strategies to ideas about creationism or the Bible (specifically the Book of Genesis). Controversy is rampant in the creationism camp: “young-Earth creationists” argue with “old-Earth creationists.” “Gap creationists” contend that God created and then annihilated man and later annihilated all of humanity except two people. By contrast, many biblical scholars believe that the creation story in Genesis is actually the splicing together of more than one Jewish creation story with varying chronologies.

The point is that there is a lot of debate amongst the Christian communities about the creation story. Intelligent-design creationists instead focus on an imaginary controversy among scientists over the theory of evolution. They also conveniently ignore the fact that a significant number of Christians embrace the scientific theory of evolution.

Jason Grosser

Cordova

Gillihan’s assertion that there are non-creationists who believe in intelligent design is absurd. If anyone takes the time to follow the careers of these people, they were all associated with some sort of fundamentalist religious organization before they got into intelligent design.

Bill Runyan

Memphis

Gillihan wrote: “There are many non-creationists who hold to intelligent design.” This is not so. Creationism is intelligent design. Barbara Forrest did an excellent job during the trial of proving conclusively that in all documentation over the last 10 years, the phrase “intelligent design” has been substituted for “creationism.”

Why? Because the Supreme Court ruled that teaching creationism as science is unconstitutional. This is absolutely clearcut. Creationism equals intelligent design equals religious instruction.

Steve Aldred

Whiteville

More Fireworks

Regarding Bruce VanWyngarden’s recent 4th of July fireworks Editor’s Note (July 10th issue) and subsequent letters to the editor: There has been serious congestion and gridlock downtown during and immediately after any large public event in the last 25 years or so. And for the last several years, anytime between the hours of, say, 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Fridays, Saturdays, and some Sundays, the same problem exists, which is why “no cruise” areas were initiated.

Our family chose to view the fireworks from the top of one of the multi-tenant buildings in the central business district. Afterward, we rode down the elevator to our condo and then walked to dinner, just off South Main. Rather than moving to Germantown, I say support downtown Memphis. Buy a condo!

J. Tucker Beck

Memphis

Editor’s Note: In last week’s Politics column, the following names should have been spelled: Phil Trenary, Jim McGehee, and Michael Floyd.

With science and religion doing ever more battle in the classroom, public interest in creationism and evolutionary theory are at an all-time high. (At least since a certain trial about a certain teacher and certain monkeys, right here in Tennessee back in 1925, that is.) For the most part, however, creationism is found almost exclusively in churches (and now, on the Web), while evolution enjoys the freer domain of classrooms, textbooks, and museums.

Until now!

While there have been biblically themed science museums before, the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (just outside of Cincinnati and a mere 490 miles from Memphis), is the world’s largest and — inaugurated in May — the newest.

Boasting 130 stationary and animatronic figures, 52 educational videos, a special-effects theater, a state-of-the art planetarium, and designs by the architect of Universal Studio’s theme park King Kong and Jaws rides, this facility is on par with some of the best museums in the world in terms of collection, resources, and size. But unlike almost every other museum at this level, this one not only insists on the factuality of Adam and Eve but suggests that they co-existed with dinosaurs. Think The Flintstones, though Adam probably did not use a brachiosaur as a crane or a ceratosaurus as a timeclock.

The $27 million Creation Museum is an extension of Answers in Genesis, a ministry founded by author/broadcaster Ken Ham in 1994 as a means of reconciling scientific questions and phenomena with, well, answers in Genesis. According to Genesis, and as illustrated in the exhibits of the museum, the Earth is only about 6,000 years old, not billions, as traditional science would suggest. The Earth was also created in a single day, as was light, the waters, the animals, etc. Noah did exist and did build an ark, and a globally catastrophic flood did occur roughly 4,300 years ago — as did the plate tectonics responsible for our continents and the fossilization of dinosaurs and other organisms.

Creation Museum

The compression of the fossil record from millions to thousands of years and the co-existence of dinosaurs and man will rile most scientists. Questions logically arise: How did a Tyrannosaurus rex and a goat peacefully live side by side in that big boat for so long? Where did Cain get his wife? Wouldn’t he have been marrying his sister? The answers are simple: All creatures were vegetarians until after the flood. Marrying your sister was okay back then, because there was no possibility of genetic mistakes; humans were perfect. (And besides, there wasn’t anybody else!)

For skeptics, a team of scientists from accredited universities is on hand to answer questions about geologic ages, carbon dating, mineralogy, and astrophysics. But make no mistake. This museum is a component of a ministry, and each exhibit illustrates sections of the Bible. And, while the ministry is scientific by nature, it is not to be confused with the recent Intelligent Design (ID) movement.

ID suggests that an intelligent designer is responsible for the creation of the universe but leaves open the question of who that designer may be: God, Buddha, George Burns, whoever. The Creation Museum makes no bones about it (pun intended): The creator is God, the father of Jesus, and the scientific record is inextricably linked to a literal interpretation of Genesis and part of a master plan that begins with creation and ends with the consummation of all evil and corruption. (For further reading, see the Bible’s exciting conclusion, Revelation.)

Open-minded visitors will be surprised by the respectful tone that is taken of traditional science. In fact, for each biblical explanation of a geologic event, the traditional scientific explanation is listed alongside, in precise and nonjudgmental language. And even critics will have to admit that the presentation of the museum’s materials is top-notch. The facility — at 60,000 square feet — is gorgeous. And while the robot dinosaurs occasionally move like — you guessed it — robots, you may easily find yourself creeped out looking into the eyes of a very real looking velociraptor. You may also be creeped out that that the same velociraptor lives in Eden and that Adam and Eve are skinny-dipping just a few feet away.

www.creationmuseum.org