Museum founded to counter claim that humans 'came from slime'

A CREATION MUSEUM in Boone County, Cincinnati, will counter the theory of evolution, using an ambitious "walk through history" experience that will bring children face to face with dinosaurs.

According to the museum's scriptwriter, Michael Matthews, the dinosaurs - "held hostage for nearly 200 years by the enemies of God" - are now free to set the record straight: "No more lies. No more false testimony. No more propaganda."

Animated young Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs will greet their young visitors in the lobby of the 50,000 sq. ft complex with the assertion: "Of course we lived at the same time as humans! God made dinosaurs on the same day as Adam. And later we drank from the same water as Adam's children."

The museum, due to open fully in 2007 if its $25-million target is reached, is an offshoot of the American organisation Answers in Genesis (AiG).

Dinosaurs are at the heart of the debate about the age of the earth and the authority of the Bible, says the organisation. It contends: "Our generation has been brainwashed with stories about dinosaurs who died '65 million years ago'. Yet most people don't realise that this is just a façade to keep them from trusting the history on which the gospel is based."

The museum will feature a 180-seat special-effects theatre, where visitors will be able to experience everything from the "warm, pungent breath" of the dinosaurs on their necks to "raindrops as the Flood begins", and perhaps even a taste of the gale forces that parted the Red Sea.

Donations towards the project are averaging $303,000 per month, and although that needs to increase to $418,000, the target last month had reached $15.4 million. Donations in kind, in the form of labour or materials, are also being invited.

The founder and president of AiG, Ken Ham, defends a literal interpretation of the Bible in a popular daily radio feature, Answers . . . with Ken Ham. Asked in his Tuesday webcast this week whether "evolutionary indoctrination in government-run schools" affected students in any way, he suggested that the purposelessness and hopelessness engendered by teaching young people that they "came from slime" and were "just animals" could be a factor in the rate of teenage suicide.

Twenty American states are currently preparing to challenge the teaching of evolution theory in schools.

The museum is intended as "a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural history museums that are turning countless minds against the gospel of Christ and the authority of scripture", say its originators.

"This 50,000 square-foot facility will proclaim to the world that the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice, and in every area it touches on."