The Society Of Vertebrate Paleontology Speaks Out On The Creation Museum

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/The_Society_Of_Vertebrate_Paleontology_Speaks_Out_On_The_Creation_Museum_999.html

by Staff Writers
Northbrook IL (SPX) Jul 26, 2007

Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the
misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in
Petersburg, Kentucky. The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public
as a "reasoned, logical defence" for young-earth creationism by Ken Ham,
the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation
Museum. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and
educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends
that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has
been scientifically disproven for over a century.
The Creation Museum's fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive,
include a vast number of scientific errors, large and small. These errors
range from implying that the Earth's sedimentary rocks were deposited by a
single biblical Flood, to claiming that humans and dinosaurs lived
alongside one another, to denouncing the reality of transitional fossils.

"Ken Ham is not recognized as a scientist or educator among experts in the
fields of geology and paleontology, and his views on the interpretation of
Biblical texts are extremist. Visitors to his 'museum' may arrive knowing
little about these sciences, but they will leave misled and intellectually
deceived," said Dr. Kevin Padian, professor and curator, University of
California, Berkeley and president of the National Center for Science
Education.

The fossil exhibits at the Creation Museum discount the last 150 years of
paleontological and geological discovery. Not only are transitional
fossils, including snakes with limbs and dinosaurs with feathers, abundant
in the fossil record, but radiometric dating allows paleontologists to
pinpoint the timing of major events in the ancient history of the earth.

For example, Tyrannosaurus rex existed over 65 million years ago, whereas
modern humans didn't show up on the scene until 200 thousand years ago.
They never walked side by side. The Creation Museum neglects to include
this critical data in its analysis of the history of life on earth. "Most
of us in the public view museums as places to get the latest information on
scientific discovery. In this case, the Creation Museum is using the
disguise of science museums and centers without including an iota of
science inside," said Dr. Kristi Curry Rogers of the Science Museum of
Minnesota.

"That's the real danger of such a place - undermining the basic principles
of science, eroding the public's confidence in science, and causing a
general weakening of science education in the country," commented Dr. Glenn
Storrs of the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Dr. Catherine Badgley, a professor at the University of Michigan and
president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, remarked, "according
to the Creation Museum, the history of life is short, sin-ridden, and laden
with moralizing imperatives. In contrast, the real fossil record shows that
this long history is brimming with discoveries of new kinds of animals,
plants, and environments, inviting people to use their unusual minds to
question, to reason, and to wonder at life's remarkable variety."

Founded in 1940, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is the leading
North American scientific and educational organization concerned with
vertebrate paleontology. The purpose of the society, which has 2200 members
from 40 countries, is to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology,
including the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of
vertebrate animals, as well as the field occurrence, collection, and
geological context of fossil vertebrates. The society is also concerned
with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites. It publishes The
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a leading journal in the field.

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