"Creation Museum" by Chris Gentle
NOTE from Adam: Several weeks after mentioning the Creation Museum, I received an email from Chris Gentle. He told me that he and his family had planned their vacation to the Cincinnati area in order to visit the museum because of the interest the articles had raised. [Click here for article I, here for article II and here for article III.] I asked him to write an article describing his experience. Has been gracious enough to do so, and to do a great job. At the end of the article is a link to some pictures from his family’s trip. There are about 115! We want to thank Chris for doing this. His words follow.
Our Trip to the Creation Museum
In May 2007, Adam Faughn had a couple of small articles on his blog about the opening of the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. This is a museum dedicated to the biblical creation, God’s creation, as told in Genesis.
My wife and I decided to plan our summer vacation so that we could visit the Creation Museum. We have three small children, ages 4-10, and wanted to expose them to something that would reinforce God’s truth. Lately I’ve noticed an alarming number of children’s television shows that are trying to desensitize our kids to terms like “evolution” and the idea that the earth is “millions of years old”. It’s time for something different.
I must say right up front, this was an awesome trip. We try to do something different every summer with our kids and I guess you could say this was the “God’s Creation Tour”. We visited the Cincinnati Zoo, the Creation Museum and the Newport Aquarium. These are all things that young children can enjoy and they get a chance to see God’s handiwork. It’s good for some of us older folks too.
We arrived at the Creation Museum early. It opens at 10:00, we got there at 9:00. Not sure why that happened, I guess we got mixed up on the time. It worked out just fine though. They have a nice nature trail, complete with streams and waterfalls, swinging bridges, flower gardens, and life-sized dinosaurs.
We returned to the main entrance to wait for the doors to open. As we sat and watched, several big groups arrived, including a number of Church of Christ groups. One thing that struck me was the absence of young people. This was a recurring theme throughout the day. If anyone needs to hear and see the things this museum has to offer it’s our young people.
The doors opened about 15 minutes early. We were at the front of the line so we didn’t have to wait long.
Planetarium
First up was the planetarium. Tickets for the planetarium must be purchased separately from the regular museum tickets. While waiting in line for the planetarium, some members of the staff jokingly mentioned that the museum has not had to do much advertising. The negative press they received when they opened gave them all the advertising they can handle for a while. The atheists and evolutionists were all on hand to protest the opening of the museum, giving them some national news coverage as an added bonus.
The planetarium is an interesting theater with nice reclining chairs and a movie that is displayed on the ceiling. The point of the movie is to show the immense size of the universe in relation to the tiny speck that we live on. I was immediately impressed by the quality of the presentation.
The 7 C’s
The museum is divided into seven main sections, called the 7 C’s. These are Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation. Much time is dedicated to the first four C’s, Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe and Confusion. The remaining three C’s are dealt with in a single area called the “3 C’s Room”.
Creation
Several things throughout the museum really made an impression on me. One of my favorite things was a 4 1/2 minute movie presented at the beginning of the Creation section of the museum. It was a very dramatic reading of the the first chapter of Genesis accompanied by very scenic and descriptive video on a very wide screen. Young kids have an attention span of about 4 1/2 minutes so this worked out really well for them too. My kids were wide-eyed and glued to the screen the entire time. So was I.
The Creation section features a huge number of life-sized exhibits. These exhibits cover Adam’s naming of the animals, Adam and Eve in the Garden, and a peaceful scene of Adam and Eve underneath a waterfall with a serpent looking on from a tree. This section also shows a number of dinosaurs in the Garden, all living peacefully together with the other animals.
Corruption
The Corruption section begins with Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden. We see Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, the expulsion from the Garden and Adam and Eve offering sacrifices to God.
Next, we briefly jump forward to modern times. A movie shows modern day results of the sin in the Garden. We see clips of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, scenes of war and destruction, starvation, disease and nuclear devastation.
As we move through the Corruption section, dinosaurs are now shown preying on other animals. Adam is shown working the ground and Cain murders Abel.
Catastrophe
The next section is my favorite. The Catastrophe section is all about the Great Flood. Like many other people, I’ve always been fascinated by the Great Flood. After all, the flood can explain so many of the things that evolutionists require “millions of years” to explain. The Creation Museum did such a great job with this section. I could have spent a lot more time there.
We are introduced to this section by Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah. He ends his message by telling us that something big is coming. Next we see a huge life-sized section of the Ark being built. Many of the exhibits here are talking animatronics. We see the scoffers who mocked Noah for building the Ark. Oddly, we see a number of “workers” assisting with the construction of the Ark. The exhibit mentions that Noah was probably a wealthy person and could afford to hire workers to help out with the building of the Ark. This is a bit of a stretch from what we read in Genesis.
A lot of time is spent in the Catastrophe section. Much scientific evidence is presented that supports the idea of a “young earth”. There are a lot of documentary-style movie clips showing throughout this area on high-quality flat panel displays. They cover things such as the Ice Age, the shifting of the continents, and the forming of canyons and other geologic structures.
One of the most interesting documentaries I saw showed the tremendous geologic changes that took place after Mount St. Helens errupted back in the 1980’s. They showed how that the terrain was changed so drastically by such a relatively “small” event. Canyons were created in minutes, carved into solid rock. The kind of changes that were seen after the eruption are the same types of things that evolutionists need “millions of years” to explain. The purpose of this documentary was to reinforce just how traumatic the flood must have been for the Earth itself. It’s easy to understand how the continents were moved around, mountains were created and the whole face of the earth changed.
Confusion
The Confusion section covers the events at the Tower of Babel, the separation of people into different languages and races. Other themes such as racism and genocide are addressed. One of the most interesting parts of this section was a brief discussion of “cavemen”. While evolutionists teach that cavemen were the first humans, the museum offers a much more believable explanation.
They state that after the flood a rapid cooling of the earth caused the Ice Age. As civilization began to put itself back together, caves were used for shelter.
The 3 C’s Room
Finally, we move into the “3 C’s Room”. This basically centers around a movie called “The Last Adam”. This was a very moving video about Christ and the Cross. I’m not sure who actually narrated the movie but he was very good. The movie told the story of the birth of Jesus from the standpoint of his mother. It went on to tell about the crucifixion from the standpoint of a Roman centurion who was responsible for overseeing the executions on the cross. Overall it was one of the most moving videos I’ve ever watched.
However, towards the end of “The Last Adam” they attempted to present the “plan of salvation”. Most of what they said was right, except that they left out the part about baptism. My 10 year old son even picked up on this. I overheard two ladies sitting behind me jokingly say, “My Bible also mentions baptism. I guess their’s didn’t.”
The Dinosaur Den
The last major attraction in the museum is the “Dinosaur Den”. Several life-sized dinosaurs are on display, including T-Rex, Stegosaurus and a skeleton of a Triceratops. Other smaller dinosaurs are also present. This is a big hit with the kids.
Men In White
After we saw all of the various sections of the museum we went into the “Special Effects Theater” and watched a movie called “Men in White”. This was a very entertaining movie about two angels who come to Earth to help a young woman who is struggling with whether to believe in Creation. They present even more arguments against the theory of evolution. The theater has a great sound system, vibrating floors and seats and a few other surprises!
Conclusion
Overall, I can’t say enough about this museum. It’s something our society and our children desperately need. It’s nice to see that someone has finally declared war on the evolutionists and those that teach and promote such nonsense.
We plan to take our children back as they get older. This is such a great way to reinforce the truth of God’s word. I believe they will remember the things they saw at this museum for the rest of their lives. But besides that, it was just great fun!!
Feel free to browse my pictures:
Click here.
