Re: Creation Museum's Attendance Exceeds Expectations By Far

Wombat <trigby@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 12 June, 04:35, j...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (John S. Wilkins) wrote:
Steven L. <sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ye Old One wrote:
On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:01:00 -0400, "Steven L."
<sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> enriched this group when s/he wrote:

June 10, 2009

Creation Museum's attendance exceeds expectations

Attendance of 720,000 exceeds expectations

PETERSBURG, Ky. -- A school bus hissed to a stop near a giant concrete
dinosaur perched outside the Creation Museum, a $27 million,
70,000-square-foot natural history museum-meets-Biblical theme park.

Three dozen middle school students tumbled out the doors, stretching
after the 113-mile drive from Westside Christian School in Indianapolis
for a field trip to augment their science lessons.

Inside, the students learned from displays that, contrary to
mainstream textbooks, science supports the Bible's accounts of the
Earth's creation in six days; that the Grand Canyon was created
suddenly in Noah's flood; that dinosaurs and humans lived together;
and that animal poison did not exist before Adam's original sin.

"Creation makes more sense -- what's here just confirms it," said
seventh-grader Nick Johnson of Westside Christian.

Two years after its controversial opening, the Creation Museum has
drawn 720,000 visitors, far more than the 250,000 annually
organizers predicted. It brought in $7 million in receipts last
fiscal year, with organizers saying it has had an economic impact
of more than $20 million.

Along the way, it has become a popular science field trip
destination for Christian schools, religious and home-school groups
and public-school clubs. Students represent many of the museum's
group visitors, which make up roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of
overall attendance, officials said.

Several public schools have made the trip, museum officials said,
declining to identify them. Some public-school religious clubs from
as far as New Jersey have made the trip to a destination that
continues to draw international media attention, partly because of
the ongoing commemoration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.

Now, the museum is planning next year to expand its reach to young
people, including a "Knee High Museum" of interactive displays and
activities for young people. And it's increasing its reach by
sending representatives to meet with teachers at religious schools
and planning exhibits to counter Darwin's theory.

"Children should be exposed to alternative views," said Mark Looy,
a museum co-creator. "Where do you go to get an opposing view? To
the Creation Museum."

Fear of pseudo-science

Scientists and secular educators fear those students are being led
astray by pseudo-science that they say distorts accepted scientific
findings, including a fossil record that shows life becoming
progressively complex over billions of years. They also argue it
fosters a distrust of science.

"The poor students who go there thinking they will learn some
science are done a great disservice," said museum critic Lawrence
Krauss, a physicist who directs the Origins Initiative at Arizona
State University.

The National Center for Science Education asserts that "students
who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to
succeed in science courses at the college level."

Yet religious schools are flocking to the museum, including schools
from Louisville that view it as a valuable educational resource.

"It really helped supplement our curriculum" and "shed a lot of
light" on earth sciences, said Dan Delaney, principal of
Louisville's Northside Christian School, who objects to evolution
"propaganda" in museums and textbooks.

That opinion is shared by Ann Shively, high school principal at
Evangel Christian in Louisville. Shively said her school's visit
last year confirmed "there's just too much fact and research that
goes to prove that there's an intelligent design behind the
universe."

The museum, which includes a digital planetarium, 150 exhibits and
an effects theater, is the work of Answers in Genesis, a
conservative religious group with a $24 million annual budget that
is part of the "young Earth" creationist movement.

They believe that the Bible's book of Genesis literally depicts how
the world was formed in six days.

As a result, they say that dinosaurs must have co-existed with
humans and that the story of the flood and the ark are true.

Creator Ken Ham, who started the ministry in his native Australia
and raised money to build the museum, says he uses "the same
science" as evolutionists, but interprets it differently.

Displays assert that genetics and archaeology had "confirmed"
various Biblical stories and that complex human organs couldn't have
evolved from simpler forms.
"Science tries to discredit God," said Della Davidson, a parent
accompanying Westside's field trip with her 12-year-old daughter,
Kyla. The museum "shows how God can discredit science."

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090610/NEWS01/906100383

Surely it is about time someone took legal action against this scam?

A scam, or fraud, is defined as an intentional deception.

But Ken Ham really believes the message of his Museum.

There's no law against being incorrect.

If there were moves to prevent people from expressing religious views,
no matter how stupid or antiscience, I would defend the religious. I do
not want to live in a society where people have a legal right to repress
ideas they do not like, because I cannot guarantee that later on the
religious would not be able to do that to me or mine. Moreover, I do not
trust *any* single group with control over thought and expression, no
matter how scientifically accurate they may be.

The right way is to ensure that people are taught correct science and
correct ways to reason early on. If they decide to go against that
later, that is their right, but they also have a right to be properly
informed first.

Yes, but as the Jesuits used to say "give me the boy and I will give
you the man" (or something like that). If these children have been
brainwashed by the likes of Ken Ham how easy will it be for them to
break free?

Well that is a justification of proper education (if you hear the
science early you might be less inclined to believe everything your
pastor tells you), but that is really a problem one cannot solve by
force.
--
John S. Wilkins, Philosophy, University of Sydney
http://evolvingthoughts.net
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre

.

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