Make Museums Count for Creation | The Institute for Creation Research

 
Make Museums Count for Creation

"When weasels breed together, they produce more weasels, just like themselves." This was one of the captions I read as I entered the display on Darwin and natural selection at the British Museum of Natural History, in London. As I continued on through the display, I discovered that dogs breed dogs and that moths breed moths. In fact, each kind of animal talked about in the display breeds its own kind, not an animal of a different kind. Certainly there was variation within a kind, but dogs always stayed dogs, and weasels always stayed weasels.

I have seen similar displays in museums across the states. As I was contemplating this, I realized that Christians should not be intimidated by these museum displays. Yes, they are set up as great evolutionary propaganda machines, but, armed with a good understanding of the evidence for creation and against evolution, it is easy to give a guided tour through these museums to show our children that there is no evidence for evolution.

In fact, secular museums can be some of the best places to take our children so they can see for themselves that these institutions, with supposedly the best collections of evidences for evolution from around the world, in reality do not have any evidence for evolution.

The Bible teaches us, in John 3:19, that "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." When you view these museum displays, it becomes obvious that many scientists will go to extraordinary lengths to attempt to explain all the evidence without God. But when you look closely and realize how futile an attempt this is your children may ask you how these scientists can be so blind. You need to remind them that "the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the Image of God, should shine unto them" (II Corinthians 4:4).

The following is a list of a few of the simple things you can use to point out that these secular museums, despite all their attempts to the contrary, actually support what the Bible teaches about creation and the flood, as well as other events in Biblical history.

  1. "After his kind" is a phrase that occurs ten times in Genesis 1 concerning the creation of plants and animals. God did not create each kind after a different kind, but only after its own kind. Thus these organisms would exist only in distinct groups, or kinds, although there can be much variation within each kind. Ask your children to go through a museum display and try to find an animal that is a transitional form—that is, one that is obviously evolving into something else, and therefore has some features that are only half formed, etc. They will not find one!
  2. "Where wast thou . . . ?" (Job 38:4). I like to summarize this verse this way: "Were you there?" In the dinosaur or fossil exhibit, you will often see beautiful colored pictures showing all sorts of creatures (including many that are now believed to be extinct), swamps and plants, with a caption saying something like, "200 million years ago." It almost looks like someone with a camera 200 million years ago had taken a picture. Point out that no scientist was there to take this picture it is totally conjecture. At this stage, you can teach a good lesson on the limitations of science.
  3. "And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth" (Genesis 7:18). Have your children look at the fish fossils. Usually museums have exquisite specimens, beautifully preserved. Sometimes they have large rock samples containing numerous fish fossils, and they may say that these came from a deposit of millions of such fossils. In a museum in Minnesota, scientists had constructed a display of such fossils to show the public how they believed these fossils formed. The display consisted of a series of pictures showing fish dying, sinking to the bottom, and slowly being covered by mud so that they eventually turned into fossils. Most people look at these displays but don't ask questions, such as, "When fish die, do they usually sink or float?" The fact is, they usually float. and by the time they do sink, they have started to rot and fall apart. Not only that, but to form the beautiful specimens we see (particularly such deposits as the Miocene shales of California containing evidence that a billion fish died within a four-square-mile area), fish would have to be buried quickly—suddenly—just what we would expect from an event like the flood of Noah's day. Look for fossils of raindrop impressions and ripple marks. Discuss how rapidly these must have been covered to be preserved this way.
  4. "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind" (Genesis 1:25). Have your children look closely at the ages scientists attribute to the fossils. You will see such things as the following: cockroach fossils, 350 million years old and centipedes, 380 million years old. The cockroaches and centipedes look just like the creatures, which live today, and there are many other such examples you can view at these displays. Ask the question, "Why is it that these creatures, supposedly millions of years old, look just the same as the ones which are alive today? Why haven't they evolved, when other organisms supposedly have evolved?"
  5. "And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" (Genesis 1:6). Often museums have displays concerning the origin of life, or chemical evolution. They sometimes even inform the public that they know the "recipe" for how life formed: "An atmosphere millions of years ago consisted of methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor. Lightning, in this atmosphere, produced amino acids that eventually joined together to form life. Oxygen could not be present for the evolution of life, as that would basically destroy the complex molecules necessary for life. It all sounds so simple and convincing. However, ask questions such as, "Where do they keep the sample of the original atmosphere?" They DON'T have a sample! The composition they talk about is a guess! Not only that, but even evolutionists today have to admit that the evidence indicates oxygen was present from the beginning, just as we would expect, when God made the atmosphere on Day 2 of Creation Week, ready for life that first appeared on Day 3.

These are just a FEW of the many ways you can use museums to your advantage to teach the evidence against evolution and for creation. Remember, as Christians, we are to be light and salt in the world. When we visit a museum with our children, it is vital that we are prepared, so we can be light and salt to them in this pagan environment—and who knows maybe someone listening to your explanations will be challenged. Let's be the salt and light God has called us to be.

In the flyer accompanying this issue of Acts & Facts, we have listed some of the book titles I consider excellent materials to help educate you and your children to prepare for a museum visit. These titles include: Fossils: Key to the Present, Fossils: Hard Facts from the Earth; Origin of Life; Bomby, The Bombardier Beetle; Hummy and the Wax Castle; Fossils, Frogs, Fish and Friends.

Also, to see the positive evidence for creation, I encourage you to visit ICR's Museum of Creation and Earth History at our headquarters in San Diego. This is a great place to bring your children. You can also receive a free newsletter outlining our museum programs with a calendar of events. Special programs are run for children or adults. Bring your school, your Sunday School class, etc. Call the curator, Mr. John Raija, at ICR for details. Also write or call to be put on our list to receive our periodic ICR Museum Calendar.

Cite this article: Kenneth Ham. 1991. Make Museums Count for Creation. Acts & Facts. 20 (2).

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