Ken Ham's Blog, page 465

Miami University Professors Essentially Admit Evolution Has Connections to Dismal Science and Math Scores

In a slam against the Ark Encounter project, three university professors from Miami University in Ohio wrote a misinformation-filled article with scoffing anti-Christian rhetoric. Actually, it's quite amazing that such qualified professors would write such non-scholarly ridicule, but then again, that's what these secularists often have to resort to these days.

What is amazing to me is this statement they make:

This anti-science museum and theme park are particularly disturbing, knowing the performance of U.S. high school students in science and math is so dismal, compared to other developed countries. Students in 17 countries, led by Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea, outperform U.S. students in mathematics, and those in 12 countries surpass our students in science. An interactive science technology theme park would be more appropriate to educate the public and inspire schoolchildren to be more competitive in math and science and to aspire to regain America's leadership in the global market…We will not regain our pre-eminence in science and technology if we don't teach our children how to distinguish faith-based myth from scientific fact.

Think about it: Creation, prayer, Bible, etc. have all basically been thrown out of public schools years ago. Evolution/millions of years is taught as fact in the public school system and secular (and even many Christian) universities—and has been for many years. These professors are bemoaning the poor science and math scores in U.S. schools and relating it to the Creation Museum/Ark Encounter! The illogic is incredible. The science and math scores have gone down as evolution has been taught as fact, and they blame creationists who have hardly any influence in secular education. Amazing!

Actually, it is obvious that the more anti-Christian the schools and curricula have become, the more the science and math scores have decreased.

They go on in their article and state the following:

Ark Encounter, a planned theme park of Answers in Genesis (the Creation Museum) of Northern Kentucky and Ark Encounter LLC of Louisville, will hijack science. The centerpiece of their effort is an attack on evolution itself. Here we go again.

Building a "life-sized replica" of the ark in a Genesis-themed park in Kentucky, with publicity reaching even to The New York Times, strikes a severe blow to the teaching of evolution after 150 years of accumulated scientific knowledge that is based on proven and testable scientific evidence generated by hundreds of thousands of scientists from many different disciplines in physical and biological sciences.

Wow! I guess I should be impressed! Despite all the public schools and secular universities teaching evolution as fact, the enormous numbers of secular evolutionist museums across the country, and all the television programs on a numerous TV channels (PBS, TLC, Discovery, etc), one Creation Museum and now one future Ark Encounter are enough to strike "a severe blow to the teaching of evolution."

Then of course they try to use the money angle, which is so old; secularists continue to try to do that with the AiG ministry and Creation Museum in general. And they are worried that the "park will continue to influence visitors, especially schoolchildren, into thinking evolution is wrong and the biblical account is factual." That would be sad wouldn't it? These evolutionary secularists want to influence children and tell them they are just animals and there is no meaning and purpose in life! They don't want Christians influencing children to tell them they are made in God's image and are very special. Here is what they say:

Aside from money, one wonders about the motivation behind the establishment of the Noah's Ark theme park. One possibility is to undermine the scientific foundation of biological evolution, defined as descent with modification from a common ancestor, resulting from natural selection, acting on genetic variation. Both the museum and the theme park will continue to influence visitors, especially schoolchildren, into thinking evolution is wrong and the biblical account is factual.

It is hard to believe but three university professors wrote this piece:

J.K. Bhattacharjee is professor emeritus of microbiology, G.R. Janssen is a professor of microbiology and T.G. Gregg is professor emeritus of zoology at Miami University in Oxford.

I encourage you to read the entire article.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Secularists Respond to My Comments on the Pope and the Big Bang

I thought I would include comments from three secularists who responded to my blog post commenting on the Pope's acceptance of the Big Bang belief. As you can see, there is the usual mocking, which is not surprising. These were sent to me by people who get what are called Google alerts.

Note the third comment in particular. This atheist knows that the Big Bang is incompatible with Scripture and that evolution is incompatible with Scripture. Sadly, the atheist understands the compromise whereas many church leaders do not!

1.  "Ol' Hambo has posted a fiery, frenzied, foaming-at-the-mouth, carpet-chewing rant at his blog: The Pope on the Big Bang."

2.  "And isn't the pope supposed to be the representative of your god on earth? So … If he's wrong that must mean that your god is wrong to? Chomp on that while your hunting for gopher wood . . . "

3.

Ken Ham is not happy with the Pope. If the Pope claims that his god started the Big Bang, that is an acknowledgment that the Big Bang, which is not in the Bible, actually happened, and you know what that leads to? Madness!

Now, if the book of Genesis is an allegory, then sin is an allegory, the Fall is an allegory, the need for a Savior is an allegory, and Adam is an allegory—but if we are all descendants of an allegory, where does that leave us? It destroys the foundation of all Christian doctrine—it destroys the foundation of the gospel.

Yes! Exactly!

If Genesis is an allegory then the first marriage is just an allegory, so marriage can be anything one wants to define it as!

QED!

Yay! Ken Ham has demolished Christianity! I think I'll go have some tea to celebrate. Maybe take a nap, or read a comic book.

I often do not include the references of such bloggers as their sites often contain objectionable material and language.

All this does is to burden me to pray even more for the compromising Christians who also do not accept Genesis as real history—and the fact that it teaches against the Big Bang! And of course, we do need to pray for these secularists, that the Lord would open their hearts and minds.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Pray for Illinois Outreach

AiG speaker and researcher Dr. Terry Mortenson sent me this report last night:

I will  be driving to Illinois [Saturday] to speak at a church and Christian school in Tilton, IL (near Danville).  I speak 10 times at the church Sun through Wed and twice at the school. Pray for my voice to be strong all the way through and that the truth of God's Word and His creation will have great impact on the people. This church has quite an outreach with "Upward Basketball." About 1000 kids and parents come to the church during one or more of the games Friday night and all day Saturday. Many of them are unchurched and they have been invited to the seminar. Pray that God will draw many of these people to at least one of the meetings.

Pray for Terry's outreach in Illinois. For more information, go to the event calendar.

Buddy Davis Fans

For all you Buddy Davis music fans (and he's also popular for his children's workshops, DVDs, and impressive dinosaur models in our Creation Museum), make sure you check out Buddy's new Facebook page—the whole family (including children) will love it.

Here are a couple of comments that were posted on Buddy's Facebook:

Buddy – you are one of my favorite "babysitters" for my kids. they love watching the dino show from AIG! Lord bless ya!

Hi Buddy! Just want to let you know that your songs are well-loved even here in the UK! 'D is for Dinosaur' is my favourite song, I've always been a fan of dinosaurs especially when I was a kid! Keep up the great work!

Facebook

Also, if you have not done so already, why not join over 4,000 others to be one of my friends on my personal Facebook page?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Big Visitors

Over the past few months we've had many professional athletes tour the Creation Museum.  That included several players with the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team in October, a group which included a former Cy Young award-winner (for best pitcher in the league).

This week we had two players with the Cincinnati Bengals football team visit and who are on-fire Christians: a retired player, Ken Moyer (an offensive lineman for a few years with the Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles—and the chaplain to the Bengals) and Reggie Kelly, the starting tight end of the Bengals. Reggie is known as a "blocking machine," although he told us that the late great Reggie White (who also had a wonderful Christian testimony) could be a handful! Reggie's longevity in the NFL is unusual—the average player lasts only about three years, and Reggie's been around more than a dozen and in a tough position.

Both these guys towered over me when I met them on Thursday! Here they are at the FotoFX area in the museum's portico, but the photo doesn't really show how massive these guys are.

Find out more about Reggie at: http://www.bengals.com/team/roster/Reggie-Kelly/e55f261b-53be-4bbd-b1b4-beed923e860b

Ken's ministry with Athletes in Action is mentioned on his personal website:  http://web.me.com/themoyers/Moyers/

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying



Ken

The Pope on the Big Bang

One of the major news items yesterday had the headline: "God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope." The Yahoo news item stated the following:

God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday… He said scientific theories on the origin and development of the universe and humans, while not in conflict with faith, left many questions unanswered.

Now here is the problem with so many church leaders—they accept the fallible ideas of man (e.g., Big Bang) and claim there is no "conflict with faith," but there is an irreconcilable conflict with God's Word! The Big Bang has the sun and stars before the earth, but God said He made the earth before the sun and stars. Furthermore, the Big Bang has the earth beginning as a hot molten blob, but the Bible has the earth at the beginning covered with water.

The article continues:

The Catholic Church no longer teaches creationism — the belief that God created the world in six days as described in the Bible — and says that the account in the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the world.

Now, if the book of Genesis is an allegory, then sin is an allegory, the Fall is an allegory, the need for a Savior is an allegory, and Adam is an allegory—but if we are all descendants of an allegory, where does that leave us? It destroys the foundation of all Christian doctrine—it destroys the foundation of the gospel.

If Genesis is an allegory then the first marriage is just an allegory, so marriage can be anything one wants to define it as! Jesus in Matthew 19 quotes from Genesis as real history to build the basis of marriage being one man and one woman.

There are many articles on the AiG website teaching very clearly that Genesis is history—not allegory—and the history in Genesis is foundational to the rest of the Bible!

Bottom line: if the Pope believes in the Big Bang and the Pope believes Genesis is an allegory—he is teaching something that contradicts and undermines the Word of God.

You can read the entire Yahoo news report at this address:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110106/ts_nm/us_pope_bigbang

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

A School "Winterim"

Over the past three and a half years, we have seen a number of Christian schools bus their students to the Creation Museum—some have come from as far as Texas! We are also thrilled to see schools (like Statesville Christian School from North Carolina) make the Creation Museum a regular part of their school program. I asked the science teacher from this Christian school in North Carolina who was visiting this week to explain why he has been bringing students to the Creation Museum. He wrote:

We have been so privileged here at Statesville Christian School to take about 45 of our students and alumni to the Creation Museum over the last 3 years.  Every year for the first 2 weeks of January, SCS has "Winterim" classes for our students that can range from learning to fly airplanes, to mission trips abroad, to coming to Northern KY for intense and enjoyable training with the PhD scientists here at Answers in Genesis.

As a Christian high school AP biology and AP chemistry teacher, I try to integrate the truths of Genesis all throughout the curriculum so that our students are well challenged and prepared academically and spiritually for what the world will dish out to them.  Coming to the Creation Museum for these 3 days of training is so valuable for both the students and for me!  I thank Answers in Genesis for going above and beyond what they are required to do and would recommend it to any Christian school who is serious about their students' spiritual growth!

In Christ, Jeff Durham  (Science Teacher)

If only more Christian schools would understand the importance of conducting such a trip and holding training sessions for their students.

Here is a photograph of the students, teachers, and parents with myself taken this week at the museum:

One of the young people told me this was his second visit. He explained that when he visited two years ago, at that time he had been accepted into an architectural engineering program at a prestigious school—that in itself was quite an honor. After going through the Creation Museum, he was burdened to help build people's hearts and minds for Christ instead of building physical structures. He changed course and enrolled at a Bible college. He has a burden to be a pastor or a lecturer at a Christian institution. This is just one example of how the Lord has used the Creation Museum to direct a young person for ministry.

You can find out more about this school on their website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Correcting Blatant Error

Recently, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper published an editorial (written by the newspaper's editors) against the Ark Encounter project here in northern Kentucky. This editorial had blatant error and was obviously meant to mislead people and misinform in an effort to discredit the Ark Encounter project and AiG in general.

This same editorial has been reprinted in at least two other newspapers.

AiG's Chief Communications Officer, Mark Looy, has spent a lot of time writing responses to these error-laden articles/editorials and other pieces that have popped up around the country. It didn't get much prominence in the Pittsburgh paper, and there was no retraction by the editors (I guess the editors don't like being shown up for their agenda-driven, error-filled pieces), but at least Mark's response was printed as a letter to the editor. Here is what Mark wrote:

Some basic research by the Post-Gazette would have revealed that its Dec. 29 editorial was incorrect in stating that Kentucky taxpayers would be subsidizing the operation of the Ark Encounter, a themed attraction featuring a full-size Noah's Ark in northern Kentucky ("Biblical Outrage: Public Dollars May Go to a Creationist Theme Park,"  Dec. 29).

In actuality, the only people to pay for the ark's operation will be the Ark Encounter visitors, who will purchase tickets and also pay sales tax at the attraction. If the ark's application is approved by the state, Kentucky will rebate a portion of the sales tax to the Ark Encounter LLC based on attendance performance.

In reality, the state's coffers will benefit tremendously when the Ark Encounter opens. The part of the sales tax that the state will keep, plus payroll and property taxes collected from the 14,000 employees estimated to be working in the region at the Ark Encounter and at other new businesses generated, will be significant. The sales tax collected by the many local businesses created by the Ark Encounter's ripple effect will also add revenue to the state treasury (e.g., from new hotels, gas stations, restaurants, etc.). A feasibility study by renowned researcher Britt Beemer estimates that 1.6 million people would visit the ark the first year.

Contrary to the Post-Gazette's claim, the tax incentives will not be a grant out of state funds to help operate the Ark Encounter. No money will be taken from state programs (like education, which the paper suggested) to help build and/or operate the Ark Encounter.

Writing that "taxpayers will be on the hook" for the ark is simply untrue.

MARK LOOY

Chief Communications Officer

Answers in Genesis/The Creation Museum (partners in the Ark Encounter LLC)

Petersburg, Ky.

Here is the link to the letters-to-the-editor page of the newspaper:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11004/1115318-110.stm#ixzz1A79NIVuv

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Pray for Missionaries

I often meet missionaries from all over the world at the Creation Museum. I just praise the Lord as I hear from them and how they are using AiG resources to reach people for Christ.

Recently, I met the Stensaas family.

They told me how they are using AiG resources in Uganda. Since most people there can understand and speak English, they have shown AiG videos.

One never knows where AiG resources are ministering to people.

Please pray for the many missionaries around the world that are using AiG resources.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

"Biblical" Flood in Australia?

A news report on the msnbc.com news website had the headline, "First victim dies in Australia's 'biblical' flood."

The article then goes on to report on the devastating floods that have occurred recently (and are still occurring) in my homeland. Half of my home state of Queensland is affected. Lives have been lost. Property destroyed and damaged. Massive loss of crops. There is no doubt the floods (local floods) have resulted in terrible tragedy.

At one stage in the article we read, "'In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions,' Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in the flooded city of Bundaberg on Saturday."

But is it really a "biblical flood," and is the flood disaster of "biblical proportions"?

The answer is no—not even close. As devastating as these floods have been, they can't even be compared to the biblical Flood of Genesis 6–9. The real biblical Flood was a global catastrophe. Even if the whole of Australia was flooded, it is still not even close to the Flood of Noah's day. We need to understand that Noah's Flood was worldwide—all (and this is repeated a number of times in the Bible) the land under the whole of heaven was covered.

And if you want to see what such a global Flood would do, then look at the layers of the Grand Canyon and observe at the bottom where the devastating Flood sheared off the basement rock. These layers give just a little glimpse of the catastrophism that occurred over the entire globe at the time of Noah's day.

Even many Christians don't really understand how catastrophic Noah's Flood actually was.

Now our hearts certainly go out to the many people in Australia affected by this local catastrophe. But even here we can be reminded of another great truth from Scripture. God established the rainbow covenant after the Flood (Genesis 9) to be a reminder that He will never again Flood the earth as He did in Noah's day (which was a judgment because of man's rebellion/sin). We have seen lots of local floods since Noah's day. We are seeing lots of local floods right now in Australia. But there will never be another global Flood—next time the global judgment will be by fire, according to 2 Peter 3 (now that is the global warming that is coming that we can all be sure about).

And that rainbow promise is one more piece of biblical evidence that the Flood was global. Because if it was merely a local flood in the Mesopotamian Valley (modern-day Iraq), as many Christians who are compromised with millions of years believe, then God lied to Noah. Only a global Flood fits the rainbow promise.

Here is the passage from Genesis:

"And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth."

And God said, "This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

And God said unto Noah, "This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth." (Genesis 9:11–17)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Wise Men Thought-provoking

This year's special Christmas outreach at the Creation Museum called "Christmas Town" has been a real hit. Over eight evenings, we had well over 20,000 people visit for the Live Nativity, spectacular Garden Lights, Dramas, Village, and Garden Walk. We have received so much positive feedback. I thought I would share this one with you about the wise man drama (presented by one of our accounting staff, Tom Hill):

The wiseman's presentation was my favorite part, I think. It was the first time I had really thought about what the wisemen were thinking. They are so often given a fractional role in the Christmas story, but I found it thought-provoking to hear the story told from their perspective.

AiG Conference in Lego

I shared a photo on my Facebook page about a youngster, Ryan Jackson. Ryan is a Lego fan, and he is also an AiG fan. His father sent me the photographs below, with this message:

Ryan created this on his own with spare Lego pieces. It's you speaking at a pulpit, a guy working the camera in the back, satellite dishes broadcasting your message all over the world, and Indiana Jones in the audience. He wanted me to send this to you.

Actually, I think "Indiana Jones" is really Buddy Davis of our staff, who is something of an adventurer.

It is thrilling to see young children responding so positively to the AiG ministry.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken