God meets science in US creation museum

The 27 million Christian project in Kentucky seeks a balance between the Bible8217;s version and evolution

Ken Ham8217;s sprawling creation museum isn8217;t even open yet, but an expansion is already under way in the state-of-the art lobby, where grunting dinosaurs and animatronic humans coexist in a Biblical paradise.

A crush of media attention and packed preview sessions have convinced Ham that nearly half a

million people a year will come to Kentucky to see his Biblically correct version of history. 8220;I think we8217;ll be surprised at how many people come,8221; Ham said as he dodged dozens of designers working to finish exhibits

in time for the May 28 opening.

The 27 million project, which also includes a planetarium, a special-effects theater, nature trails and a small lake, is privately funded by people who believe the Bible8217;s first book, Genesis, is literally true. For them, a museum showing Christian schoolchildren and skeptics alike how the earth, animals, dinosaurs and humans were created in a six-day period8212;not over millions of years, as evolutionary science says8212;is long overdue.

While foreign media and science critics have mostly come to snigger at exhibits explaining how baby dinosaurs fit on Noah8217;s Ark and Cain married his sister to people the earth, museum spokesman and vice-president Mark Looy said the coverage has done nothing but drum up more interest. 8220;Mocking publicity is free publicity,8221; Looy said.

Besides, US media have been more respectful, mindful perhaps of a 2006 Gallup Poll showing almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve, but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

The museum8217;s team of Christian designers include theme park art director Patrick Marsh, who designed the 8220;Jaws8221; and 8220;King Kong8221; attractions at Universal Studios in Florida, as well as dozens of young artists whose conviction drives their work. 8220;I don8217;t think it8217;s going to be forcing any viewpoint on non-believers, but challenging them to think critically about their evolutionary views,8221; said Carolyn Manto, 27, pausing in her work painting Ice Age figures for a display about caves in France.