Creating a Universe of Certainty, or, If You Remove Reason, You Remove Doubt
Article Series - If You Remove Reason, You Remove Doubt
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Here is a visual tour of the Answers in Genesis’ Creation Museum in Kentucky. I went with my dear friends Tom and Mike in August 2007. I’ll walk you through our experience exhibit by exhibit with my commentary.
Arrival
We reached the Museum in a caravan of three vehicles. Mike and I were heading on to St. Louis from there, and Tom had to return to Wilmore. I was driving a U-Haul
I was forced to park our U-Haul behind the Museum… can you guess why?
We entered the Museum and purchased our tickets - only $17 if you sign up for their email list! While I was in line, I overheard a family (the right proper nuclear family â„¢ - mom, dad and 3 boys) announce to the ticket-seller that this was their third visit to the Museum (open since Memorial Day 2007) and that they were seriously considering buying lifetime passes (a mere $1,000 per person, presumably adjusted for inflation). Once inside, we milled about looking at various odd displays before venturing into the bookstore.
Inside the bookstore, we found this on top of a tall bookshelf:
On the way out of the bookstore, we saw this:
Now, you can’t really tell, but it’s a bust of St. George slaying a dragon (maybe the bookshelf dino’s sister or something?). Above it is inscribed a text from the St. George legend (myth?).
We left the bookstore (to return afterwards). On our way into the Tour of Biblical History, we passed an animatronic cave-girl feeding a carrot to a squirrel while anamatronic velociraptors drank from a nearby stream:
And so, on that note, we began our journey.
Entering the Tour de Exhibits
Immediately upon entering into the Museum Proper, we were faced with a series of displays that forced the singular question upon which the Museum’s entire theology rests: Do you trust in Human Reason or God’s Word?
The choice is clear… we must follow either human reason and God’s word. But what’s the worst that could happen if we don’t choose God’s word? So glad you asked! Walk this way!
The Consequences of Following Human Reason
We next enter into an exhibit that displays the consequences of choosing Human Reason. First, a twisted hallway painted all black with news clippings pasted all over the walls. What news, you ask?
Yes, this was the “the gays are going to clone themselves” wall (abortion wall not pictured). Apparently the only possible outcome of using your brain is that you become gay, then clone babies and kill them before they reach term. Clearly, brothers and sisters, human reason is evil and bad. How are we to stand before the terror of their cultural onslaught? Fortunately, we were then able to see some heroes who preserved God’s Word for us so that we could have good and true guidance that in no way requires us to think:
According to the next display, the Jews are evil because the added Oral Tradition to God’s Word. Jesus (who, I guess wasn’t a Jew and didn’t use Oral Tradition) tried to tell them how silly they were, so they killed him. And then the Catholics came along and messed up Jesus’ teachings by adding a bunch of silly Church Traditions to it. So, last but not least, we are presented with the man who, according to the placard in front of him, saved us from the Jews and Catholics. Ladies and Gentlemen: Martin Luther himself!
Now that we’ve rescued the Bible from all those who doubt, what does God’s Word say about how we got here? Stay tuned for the next installment of pictures guaranteed to be more outrageous than the first!
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Comments
Oh no. We went on like a Wednesday and it was STILL pretty packed. The Elderly (in the form of massive church groups) and Right Proper Nuclear Families (TM) with young children.
Well, maybe not packed. But busy.
It isn’t just faith and reason that they’re putting into contrast. By placing the Descartes quote in opposition to God’s self-existence, they actually have to question whether we can know we exist, since that’s all Descartes was arguing. But if I can’t be sure even that I exist, how could I possibly know that anything does, including God? They’ve pulled out the foundation of all human knowledge and thus undermined the very faith that they’ve held up as the positive contrast to philosophy.
They also fail to realize that Descartes’ “cogito” comes from St. Augustine. That’s right…THE St. Augustine…
Travis, virtually no one gets that right, though. I always do my part. I spend more time on Augustine’s discussion than I do Descartes’ when I teach it in my history of philosophy intro class, but I doubt most philosophers even know that Descartes basically plagiarized it from Augustine.
[...] to Theology of the Masses and read about the first part of his experience (pictures included!) :: Creating a Universe of Certainty, or, If You Remove Reason, You Remove Doubt (part one) . Immediately upon entering into the Museum Proper, we were faced with a series of displays that [...]
Was the museum busy? From the pictures, it looks like you guys had the place to yourselves.
I visited the Institute For Creation Research Museum in Santee, CA and it was pretty much empty except for a few employees and some visitors.
Young Earthers do have some really good literature to support their claims. I was really impressed from some of their literature but haven’t had a chance to get into the details.
Edgar.