The Creation Museum

The Creation Museum and The Ark Experience are both the brainchild of Answers in Genesis founder, Ken Ham. 

Ken Ham is an Australian Christian apologist and young earth creationist who began his career as a teacher. He was appalled at the fact that his students believed the evolutionary science they were being taught, left teaching, and dedicated his life to teaching others about the “literal” interpretation of young earth creationism.

The Creation Museum opened in 2007 after years of fund raising. 

The majority of the museum focuses on the events that happened in the first few chapters of Genesis. There are multiple diorama scenes with Adam naming the animals, meeting his wife, Eve, and having their sons, Cain and Abel. 

According to the “literal” interpretation, he supposes this all to have happened in 6 – 24 hour periods.

It continues to the time of Noah and explains that the flood was a global flood with Pangea (all land was one continent) breaking apart to form the 7 continents we have today all within that 40 day to 1 year period.

We were led into the 4D theater where we watched a movie that showcased the Answers in Genesis Biblical creation model. There were pillars of water rising out of the oceans, mountains being formed and eroded in a twinkle of the eye, vegetation covering the earth in a matter of minutes, and dinosaurs walking the face of the earth in the next. He believes that none of these animals were carnivores before the fall, so T-Rex was chomping down on a juicy watermelon. 

Ham seems to have a fascination with dinosaurs. They are found in the Creation Museum and The Ark Experience in abundance. “Why are they not named in the Bible?” one sign reads, “because the name wasn’t given to them until the 1800s.”

The rest of the museum is set up to present an apologetics case of how evolution is disproved in favor of a 6,000 year Biblical creation model.

He doesn’t present a lot of scientific facts, but beliefs based on what he calls “observational science.”

“Were you there?” he asks, then how do you know? A sentiment reiterated by his famous debate against evolutionist, Bill Nye, in 2014. 

There were, however, several displays that didn’t fall into the “observational science” realm.

He pointed out several archaeological finds, such as Joseph’s palace in Egypt, that help to support the Bible’s legitimacy. He also talks about the astronomical probabilities of the prophecies of Jesus coming true. These were interesting finds! 

If you are wondering, I am not a young earth creationist. I’m an old earth creationist. I was very familiar with Ham’s beliefs on the matter before going to the museum, but was stunned by the amount of guess work and unscientific reasoning used throughout the museum. Much of the counter arguments were left out of the displays. I understand his desire to educate the lost and wandering to come to Christ, but the lack of scientific basis in the museum is not going to move a scientifically minded individual. IMHO, the only people the museum would convince from an apologetics standpoint are those that already believe it.

The Ark Experience

The Ark Experience was a much better depiction of a Biblical story than the Creation Museum.

Although Ham brings forward his global flood, dinosaurs on the ark, possibility of unicorns, and judicious use of artistic license, he also made the experience of being on a life-sized Noah’s Ark a real eye-opening adventure. 

The proportions of the ark were built to size with 3 decks, and an open cover or window on the top. It was interesting to see just how massive this boat had to have been and how well they had to have designed it to fit not just the animals, but all the food and fresh water as well. (He had more than one window in his version, but again artistic license was used.)

They also had to consider what they were going to do with the waste, oil for the lamps, fresh air for the smell, quarters for the family, and a host of other dilemmas that would have come up.

There is a diorama of Noah and his family praying to God in the midst of the storm. I believe this was being spoken in Hebrew. 

This part was also very interesting. They put many of the world’s flood stories on a map on the wall and depicted in books what each one was about. Many of them closely tie to the Biblical account, while Gilgamesh set sail in a cube that looked like Borg ship. Lol! Still, all the flood stories throughout the world hold to the idea of a man and his family being saved while a flood ravages the Earth. Very neat display to go through!

These were a few of the cages that would have held some of the smaller animals. They artistically added food and water feeders for each of the animal’s cages to help with the daily chores of the crew.

Ham claims that there would have been 85 kinds of dinosaurs on the ark. 

Unicorns or rhinos? His claim here is that some older translations use the term unicorns when it should be translated rhino.

For being on a boat for a year, they sure spent enough time decking out their own quarters. Again, artistic license was taken, but interesting none the less. I’m not sure where he got the information, but the women were named in the exhibits. Perhaps from an apocryphal book?

He talked briefly about climate change.

Now this was a head scratcher. Ham put animals into the cages according to their kinds, but a few of the kinds may be a bit of a stretch. This was the giraffe kind… the rather short-necked giraffe. 

Oh yes, and one of the many dinosaurs he claims were on the ark. They seem to be enjoying their corn. 

Off they go as soon as the ark came to rest and the doves were set free! 

This is a globe in Noah’s wife’s display area that depicted Pangea. Seems they’d need to update that when the flood is over.

This palm frond was a real fossil supposedly from the flood area and a big one at that.

There was a video on display on one of the levels. I’m sorry to say we were not impressed. It seemed to be directed to the teenagers with outlandish mannerisms, wild hair and boisterous personalities trying to interview Noah for their newspaper. The movie bordered on blasphemy and a group of Amish walked out. I don’t blame them! We looked up the video later and noted that it was only rated 5/10 stars. Frankly, I’m surprised it received that many stars.

We enjoyed the Ark Experience much more than the Creation Museum, but again, Ham likes to take his personal views, mix them with artistic license, and pepper the displays with his beliefs. It would have been a much better experience had all of his suppositions been left out of the exhibits. 

Still, if you’re in the area, the Ark is worth a visit, if not just for the sense of scale and awe of it all.