Creation Museum

On my last day "in" Greencastle, I had the privilege of traveling down to Kentucky with Lifebuilder Community Church to visit the Creation Museum. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it! After my first year of teaching middle school science in a Christian school, I found myself asking a lot of questions about how to practically integrate science and the Bible. We learn that all truth is God's truth, so it naturally follows that God's word is the basis for everything we ever study. But defending God's truth gets challenging and downright intimidating when non-Christian scientists, archeologists, geologists, and the like begin pointing out all the places where "science" and the Bible disagree. Of course, the world's response to those discrepancies is that the Bible is wrong because science can't be wrong, and this becomes a basis for refuting the Christian faith.

With as many theology classes as I've taken, and as many times as I've read through the Bible, and as long as I've been studying God's word in Bible studies, Sunday school, and church, I still feel as though I am not worthy of engaging in discussions about science and theology. After visiting the Creation Museum, though, I feel like there's hope for me, and everyone else who has ever felt like they can't defend their faith. One of my biggest reasons for wanting to learn more about this topic is my students. It's ok for me to not know the answers to everything, but how can I expect to teach my students if I myself am not fully confident in my ability to defend my beliefs?

I still don't feel like I have all the answers, but there are some things about God that we can never expect to understand. My eyes were opened to a lot of things that I think we as Christians just take for granted, and I found answers to questions I didn't even know I had! It's hard to say what was the best part, because the whole thing was amazing. There were, however, a few things that truly stood out to me.

First, I was blown away by all the things that came into the world as a result of Adam and Eve's sin. We think of the obvious things like labor pains and hard work, but what about the fact that all animals were vegetarians before the fall (Genesis 1:30)?

Second, I was fascinated by the idea of dinosaurs living along side humans. Furthermore, I had never EVER considered the fact that dragons might actually have been living creatures! When you look at all of the legends and myths from cultures around the world and the descriptions of the animal in Job 41, dragons co-existing with humans certainly becomes a possibility.


Third, I was really interested by the exhibit on Noah's Ark and the concept of evolution versus natural selection. When we think of the animals on Noah's ark, we picture trying to fit every animal known to man. In reality though, God created every animal to contain ALL the genetic information necessary to represent all of the various species we know today. Noah only needed to gather two of each kind of animal - two dogs, two cats, two reptiles, two amphibians, etc. The coyotes, wolves, and dingoes that we see today are variations of the original dog kind that Noah took on the ark. Scientists have tried for years to use this idea to support evolution, but no matter how many times the dog "evolved", it always stayed a dog. The horse kind "evolved" into zebras, giraffes, ponies, etc. but a horse was always a horse, a dog was always a dog, and a cat was always a cat. A cat never evolved into a dog, and a dog never evolved into a horse.

Finally, I was challenged and motivated by the way in which all the information was presented. From the very beginning, the point was made that evolutionists and Christians are both looking at the same pieces of evidence. The assumptions and presuppositions that you hold prior to viewing the evidence will inevitably bias your interpretation of the evidence. If you approach the evidence from the side of human reasoning, there will be areas of disagreement with Scripture and in order for you to uphold your views, you would have to see Scripture as inaccurate. If you approach the evidence from the basis of God's Word as inerrant and God-breathed, then you will see how so-called scientific evidence does not truly add up. This is one of the biggest things I want my students to see; if you confess to be a Christian and hold God's Word to be the ultimate authority, you must accept God's Word as true in EVERY aspect of your life. God's Word is living and active, the absolute truth, and you don't get to pick and choose which parts to believe and which parts to toss aside.


So like I said, if you ever get the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum, DO IT! If you can, make a weekend out of it and pay a few extra dollars for the two-day pass so that you can get the full effect of the walk through exhibits and have time to attend all the shows. Most are included in the cost of your admission, but the Planetarium (which I didn't have time to see) is extra. In the meantime, check out the museum's website as well as the Answers in Genesis website for some interesting and challenging reading material. I'm SO excited now to teach this again next year!!