0 Votes

Creation Museum in Kentucky receives tour group of puzzled paleontologists. Ruh Roh!

The Immoral MinorityJuly 3, 2009

Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods — the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the velociraptor from the Upper Cretaceous — yet in each case, the date of demise was the same: around 2348 B.C.
“I was just curious why,” said Dr. Sato, a professor of geology from Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan.
For paleontologists like Dr. Sato, layers of bedrock represent an accumulation over hundreds of millions of years, and the Lower Jurassic is much older than the Upper Cretaceous.
But here in the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, Earth and the universe are just over 6,000 years old, created in six days by God. The museum preaches, “Same facts, different conclusions” and is unequivocal in viewing paleontological and geological data in light of a literal reading of the Bible.
The only problem with the above statement is that if the "same facts" lead to "different conclusions", then at least one of the conclusions is wrong.
Science does not "agree to disagree" they are looking for truth. And they will battle it out in scientific journals until one theory, having been tested and researched by many other scientists, emerges as the most valid. Then if new evidence is introduced which questions the validity of the theory, the whole process happens again.
That is how science works. So how is it possible that the so called "scientists" in the Creation Museum could come to such unscientific conclusions?
Near the entrance to the exhibits is an animatronic display that includes a girl feeding a carrot to a squirrel as two dinosaurs stand nearby, a stark departure from natural history museums that say the first humans lived 65 million years after the last dinosaurs.
“I’m speechless,” said Derek E.G. Briggs, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, who walked around with crossed arms and a grimace. “It’s rather scary.”
Dr. Mortenson and others at the museum say they look at the same rocks and fossils as the visiting scientists, but because of different starting assumptions they arrive at different answers. For example, they say the biblical flood set off huge turmoil inside the Earth that broke apart the continents and pushed them to their current locations, not that the continents have moved over a few billion years.
“Everyone has presuppositions what they will consider, what questions they will ask,” said Dr. Mortenson, who holds a doctorate in the history of geology from Coventry University in England. “The very first two rooms of our museum talk about this issue of starting points and assumptions. We will very strongly contest an evolutionist position that they are letting facts speak for themselves.”
The portions in bold are the underlying problem with how creationists approach "science" and how real scientists approach it.
Creationists are looking for evidence to back up their faith. And if they do not find it, they bend the perception of what they do find in a desperate attempt to make it fit what they WANT to believe.
By contrast scientists are looking for truth. They study the evidence and try to understand what it says without built in prejudice. They may start out accepting the prevailing theory, but if the evidence does not ultimately support it then the theory is challenged and eventually changed.
Science is filled with stories of new scientists looking at old bones found in the drawer of a museum and making new discoveries due to the fact that science had moved forward. New human ancestors have been discovered in this manner. Through further research and a better understanding the perception of dinosaurs has evolved from slow moving cold blooded giant reptiles into the fleet footed precursors of modern birds. In the same manner Evolution has been modified and re-modified a dozen or more times.
Science remains fluid, and responsive to new information and fresh eyes.
That is in stark contrast to the point of view stated by these creationist "scientists". How do they deal with information that disproves their assumptions? They refuse to accept it. How do they deal with people who argue with their point of view? They dismiss them as being a "pagan" or a "non-Christian". That is not how science functions.
Look personally I don't care what religion you believe in, or what you study in church. But parents bring their young children to this "museum" to learn about their version of "science". I am sorry but in my opinion that is a form of child abuse.
But what did the paleontologists think of the museum?
Many of the paleontologists thought the museum misrepresented and ridiculed them and their work and unfairly blamed them for the ills of society.
“I think they should rename the museum — not the Creation Museum, but the Confusion Museum,” said Lisa E. Park, a professor of paleontology at the University of Akron.
“Unfortunately, they do it knowingly,” Dr. Park said. “I was dismayed. As a Christian, I was dismayed.”

  • » Read Full Story
Welcome to HotFeederSubmit your site
Top 10 Weekly Entertainment News
Top 10 Weekly Technology News
Top 10 Weekly Politics News
Top 10 Weekly Business News
Top 10 Weekly Sports News
Top 10 Weekly World News
Top 10 Weekly Health News
Top 10 Weekly US News
Advertisement