One of the latest "temples" to be built in the USA cost almost million. This beautiful building and its complex technology are being used to indoctrinate at least 120,000 school students each year, in the religious belief that they are just animals in a fight for survival in this evolving world.
Where do we find this structure? At the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri. But BEWARE! This "temple" is really a prototype of similar "temples" that the designers hope will be built throughout the world.
In the zoo's media information kit, we read that the state-of-the-art educational center, called "The Living World," is "expected to lead zoos of the world into the 21st century." Its purpose? " . . . to combine high technology with live animals to present a unified view of how life evolved. . . . " The Hall of Animals, called "An Introduction to the Animals," will take visitors on a tour of the animal kingdom, a journey in which visitors will be able to trace life's evolution from one-celled creatures to jellyfish, worms, and insects, then to the parade of vertebrates, fish, frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals. One wall of fish includes lamprey eels, the first to develop a spinal cord, a prerequisite for coming on land as amphibians.
CHARLES DARWIN ROBOT
As part of this spectacular display, "A life-like animatronic robot of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution explains the diversity of the animal kingdom, will greet visitors to the hall and will introduce Darwin's Theory of Evolution.... The final exhibit in the evolutionary journey is the computer game Homo nextus, in which visitors make guesses about what species will replace our own. A computer builds a three-dimensional image based on those guesses."
FALSE INFORMATION
At the Natural Selection exhibit, visitors are told that Darwin did not realize that "a major evolutionary change was taking place around him—the larger night-flying species of moths of England were evolving a darker color!" Everyone who visits the display is taught classic Darwinian evolution as FACT.
MISLEADING INFORMATION
In the press kit we received a number of photographs, including one of "Lucy." We are told that Lucy is the "oldest erect-walking human ancestor ever found. The original skeleton, from which this replica was meticulously reconstructed, is about 3.5 million years old and was found in 1974 in a remote region of Ethiopia." At the actual display, we are told that "This is a reconstruction of an adult female Australopithecus the earliest direct ancestor of humans." From the display, one would get the idea they had a whole skeleton of a human apelike ancestor that is accepted as fact by all scientists!
MILLIONS TO SEE EXHIBIT
The St. Louis Zoo is the first in the world for which citizens voted tax support. It is one of only three major zoos that charge no admission and is one of the largest tourist attractions, with more than 2.5 million people visiting annually. Robert Hyland, president of the St. Louis Zoo commission, said that the St. Louis Zoo has become an international leader in changing the mission of zoos. It is the vision of the designers that this type of exhibit be adopted by zoos around the world.
Some of the many other statements made at the exhibit include: "Terrestrial vertebrates evolved from the lobe-finned fishes; amphibians were the first vertebrates to walk on land; reptiles evolved from amphibians 300 million years ago; mammals first appeared on earth along with dinosaurs about 190 million years ago; humans evolved from Australopithecus, a small ape a little larger than a chimpanzee."
It is good to remind ourselves of Romans 1:22-25: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever."
THE CONSEQUENCES
What will be the consequences of this beautifully presented evolutionary propaganda? Millions of people will be graphically told that science has proved they are just animals in the fight for survival. But if this is so, why should they not then act like animals? For instance, why not take whatever you can get and why not indiscriminate sex, or violence, just like any other "animal" in the jungle?
What do impressionable school students, as well as adults, learn from this exhibit? We came from slime for no reason. We don't know why we are here, and we don't know where we are going (who knows what "Homo next us" will be, as the display informed us?). In America today, the leading cause of death among teenagers, other than accident, is suicide. And, no wonder! Evolution teaches we are just animals, and there is no purpose or meaning to life.
WOE UNTO THEM
On the opening day of this exhibit, much praise was given for the construction of this center—yet students don't even hear of the possibility of creation; those who wrote the script have ruled it out. Isaiah had a warning concerning this: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20).
The prime mover behind the project was Mr. Robert Hyland, recipient of many awards for his various achievements. He certainly has received the praises of men: "Magistral Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from Pope Paul VI; the Abe Lincoln Award from the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission; the St. Louis award for Outstanding Contributions to the Community, 1975. In 1980, he was named Churchman of the Year by the Religious Heritage of America for contributions to the religious life of our country." The list goes on. Even the governor, in his address at the Grand Opening in June this year, said, "I wish God's richest blessing on this institution—on all of you that have worked so hard to make it successful."
WARNING
Each one of us must stand before God the Creator one day to give an account of our works. I, for one, would not look forward to standing before the Creator to give an account of the millions of people led astray because I had helped to indoctrinate them in the pagan and evil philosophy of evolution. "Be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation" (James 3:1).
What would you do if your zoo adopted this kind of exhibit?
BACK TO GENESIS
The Institute for Creation Research, with the help of God's people, is doing something about this terrible situation. We are conducting "Back to Genesis" seminars across the nation to inform people on the truth of Creation and the evils of evolution. Two such programs are being conducted in the St. Louis area, November 10-11. See our "Speakers Schedule" in this issue for details. Bring your friends to this exciting program that gives glory to the Creator and equips people with the knowledge necessary to defend creation and confront this evolutionary belief.
DID YOU KNOW . . .
that the peppered moth does not prove evolution?
Years ago, back before the industrial revolution in England, the common peppered moth existed in two shades, light and dark. Most were of the lighter variety, for the lichen-covered trees provided an effective camouflage for them. The darker ones were more easily seen by birds, therefore more easily victims of prey, and thus fewer in number. Together, they constituted one freely interbreeding species, with parents capable of producing both light and dark, much like both brown and blue-eyed children being produced within the same family.
Industrial pollution in the late 1880's, however, darkened the trees, making the darker moths less likely to be eaten, and causing them to become the more common shade. Now, as the environment has been somewhat cleaned up, the lighter shade is making a comeback.
Is this a good example of evolution? Many textbooks and exhibits claim it to be the proof of evolution! But where is the change? The peppered moth has not changed, only the ratio of light-to-dark individuals. Both shades were there at the start, in the middle, and at the end. This is an example of natural selection, but this is not evolution!
