On Evolution

The $27,000,000.00 Creation Museum was recently opened in Kentucky. I find this a bit depressing for a number of reasons.

1. Its foundation is ignorance. "Creation Science" is the easy way. It is the tempting way. It says here, you don't really need to pay attention in biology class. Just read this one chapter in the Bible and you will know all you need to know. A deeper study, however, of both the Biblical account of our origens and of the explanations offered by science leads to a much better understanding of the issue.

2. It is based on a lie. The fundemental reason for building a museum dedicated to Creation is a false dichotomy set up by certain members of the Christian community between creation and evolution. The idea that they are fundamentally incompatable was first posited by athiests in the late 19th century. It is a lie designed to do damage to the church. Creation and evolution are not incompatible. They can, in fact, work quite nicely together.

3. It is destructive. Religious debate is a very tempting thing. The idea that I can somehow convince you that this is true is alluring. It even works from time to time and can be a good thing. But it is often addictive and destructive. When our goal becomes to prove ourselves right rather than to discover truth, this type of debate destroys relationship and faith. And it is precisely this that a Creation museum encourages. "Here is how you can prove to others that they are wrong."

4. It is wasteful. When Jesus told the story of the sheep and the goats He didn't say "I thought I was once a monkey and you convinced me otherwise." He said "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison, and you came to visit me." Think about how much $27 million could help advance one of these goal. It could be a serious endowment for longterm ministry projects around the country or world. Instead it goes to a fance museum. That doesn't even include the 5 million a year they hope to raise in ticket sales. (or for that matter the millions spent every year on phillip Johnson books)

5. It is exploitive. Taking $20 a person as an entrance fee to a second rate museum is just wrong.

It is really the fourth that gets to me the most. You can feel free to believe what you want to believe and argue about what you want to argue about. I don't think your salvation hinges on what you belive about creation/evolution. But I just don't understand how you could see this as the best use of 27 million dollars when there are so many people in the world, starving, naked, thirsty, without shelter, enslaved, refugeed, etc. I think it is sick that someone could be so blinded to the mission of the church. We are called remember, to make this place better, and to help those in need...not to get into petty arguments.