Museum Day
by John D. Morris, Ph.D.
Bruce Wood leads a tour on Museum Day.
On Saturday, April 30, the ICR Museum of Creation and Earth History participated in National Museum Day proclaimed by the Smithsonian Institute. It called for museums all over the country to hold an open house, and sponsor programs for all ages. ICR was invited to join in.
The day was well-attended and everyone who came enjoyed the festivities. Individuals from throughout the American Southwest were here, along with some from greater distances. Hourly discussions were hosted by each of the ICR science staff, interspersed by Museum tours, live animal exhibits, and films.
Some visitors were glad to see ICR on the Smithsonian list of recommended museums, and delighted that ICR chose to participate. They wondered if the Smithsonian is supportive of creationist thinking. Since the Smithsonian is America's national museum, supported by tax money collected from creationists and evolutionists alike, shouldn't they be neutral on this worldview issue? Can't we work more closely with them?
The Smithsonian Institute is really a suite of museums and research programs, covering subjects from historical, to cultural, to science, to inventions, to music, etc. Each American should spend a vacation there. While national institutions seemingly should respect viewpoints from all serious citizens, reality points otherwise. Over the years, ICR has had numerous contacts with the Smithsonian. In most instances their conduct has been professional, others have been dismissive or confrontive.
An editorial in the May issue of Smithsonian Magazine by secretary Lawrence M. Small, sheds light on their perspective. He writes, "in accordance with a newly created strategic plan for science, [the Smithsonian] has decided to concentrate its resources over the next five years on addressing four questions . . . What is the nature and origin of the universe? How was the Earth formed and how has life on our planet evolved? How did early humans develop and how did they adapt . . . ? How can we best sustain the Earth's fragile biological diversity for future generations?"
Obviously, the Smithsonian has "evolved." No longer simply a suite of museums, documenting American life and history, it has become a worldwide science research conglomerate, enjoying an immense budget. At taxpayer expense, it has accomplished much of value, for which we all are thankful. But it is also evolutionary to its core, promoting a materialistic worldview of the past in the name of science. As long as ICR maintains a Christian view of nature, we can expect little affiliation with the Smithsonian.
On the other hand, as long as they insist on a naturalistic origin of all things, eliminating the possibility of personal, supernatural input into the universe's beginning, ultimate truth will elude them. Much money will be misspent. It could be better used in trying to more fully understand the record of origins given by the Creator. His written account doesn't give all the details. There's plenty of room for research, but the basics are present to answer the four questions identified by the Smithsonian.
1) "In the beginning God created the heaven[s] and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). He created even the heavenly bodies for man's use, expects us to understand what we can about them, and I suspect has a grand destiny for us involving them.
2) The complexity of life on earth exceeds the potential of natural processes. Wherever life exists, it was created by an Intelligence far exceeding our own.
3) The earth, created for man, will ultimately melt with fervent heat (II Peter 3:12) and be replaced by the new earth. Humans were created directly from "the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7), and endowed with His "image" (Genesis 1:27). Man was intelligent from the start, but lost his standing when he chose to rebel against his Creator, only now regaining a shadow of what he could have become.
4) God's image in man was given stewardship over the earth, to understand it and use it wisely (1:28). The modern environmental movement has taken a false turn into pantheism, but protecting the environment deeply concerns the Christian.
Much that the Smithsonian and other researchers discover has great value. Creationists and evolutionists completely agree in all issues relating to the nature of the universe and how it operates in the observable present, but we do disagree on how it originated in the unobserved past.
With all due respect for my scientific colleagues, you will not discover truth about origins if Truth is presuppositionally eliminated from your worldview, before your investigation begins.
