Creation Evidence Museum Explained

32.2303°N -97.8053°WThe Creation Evidence Museum of Texas, originally Creation Evidences Museum,[1] is a creationist museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, United States. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying exhibits that support creationism, it portrays the Earth as six thousand years old and humans coexisting with non-avian dinosaurs, disputing that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 65.5 million years before human beings arose.[2] [3] [4]

History and projects

The Creation Evidence Museum was founded by Carl Baugh, a young Earth creationist, after he came to Glen Rose in 1982 to research claims of fossilized human footprints alongside dinosaur footprints in the limestone banks of the Paluxy River, near Dinosaur Valley State Park. He claims to have excavated 475 dinosaur footprints and 86 human footprints,[5] which form the basis of the Creation Evidence Museum as well as other exhibits.[6] Baugh, who does not have an accredited degree, remains the director and main speaker for CEM.[7]

In 2001 Baugh and Creation Evidence Museum were featured on The Daily Show where Baugh likened human history to The Flintstones and the show poked fun at his claims about the hyperbaric biosphere, pterodactyl expeditions, and dinosaurs.[8]

The Creation Evidence Museum sponsors continuing paleontological and archaeological excavations among other research projects, including a hunt for living pterodactyls in Papua New Guinea,[1] [9] and expeditions to Israel.[10] Materials from the museum have been recommended by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools,[11] but the NCBCPS curriculum has been deemed "unfit for use in public school classrooms."[12]

One of the museum's projects is a "hyperbaric biosphere", a chamber which the museum hopes will reproduce the atmospheric conditions that these creationists postulate for Earth before the Great Flood, and enable them to grow non-avian dinosaurs. Baugh says that these conditions made creatures live longer, and get larger, smarter and nicer.[5] He claims that tests under these conditions have tripled the lifespan of fruit-flies, and detoxified copperhead snakes. A much larger version is under construction in the new building.[6]

In 2008, a descendant of a family that provided many original Paluxy River dinosaur tracks in the 1930s claimed that her grandfather had faked many of them, including the Alvis Delk Cretaceous Footprint.[13] Zana Douglas, the granddaughter of George Adams, explained that during the 1930s depression her grandfather and other residents of Glen Rose made money by making moonshine and selling "dinosaur fossils".[13] The faux fossils brought $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, they "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."[13]

In 2015, Baugh said the museum was receiving 15,000 visitors annually.[14]

Exhibits

All of the creationist exhibits have been strongly criticized as incorrectly identified dinosaur prints, other fossils, or outright forgeries.[15] [16] The second floor balcony of the museum features prominently a 12feet high statue of Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry.[17]

Displays in the Creation Evidence Museum include:

In 1982 - 1984, several scientists, including J.R. Cole, L.R. Godfrey, R.J. Hastings, and Steven Schafersman, examined Baugh's purported "mantracks" as well as others provided by creationists in Glen Rose. In the course of the examination "Baugh contradicted his own earlier reports of the locations of key discoveries" and many of the supposed prints "lacked characteristics of human footprints." After a three-year investigation of the tracks and Baugh's specimens, the scientists concluded there was no evidence for any of Baugh's claims or any "dinosaur-man tracks".[36]

Criticism from creationists

Young Earth creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International have criticized Baugh's claims saying he "muddied the water for many Christians ... People are being misled."[1] Don Batten, of Creation Ministries International wrote: "Some Christians will try to use Baugh's 'evidences' in witnessing and get 'shot down' by someone who is scientifically literate. The ones witnessed to will thereafter be wary of all creation evidences and even more inclined to dismiss Christians as nut cases not worth listening to."[37] Answers in Genesis lists the "Paluxy tracks" as arguments "we think creationists should NOT use" [emphasis in original].[38] The old Earth creationist organization Answers In Creation also reviewed Baugh's museum and concluded "the main artifacts they claim show a young earth reveal that they are deceptions, and in many cases, not even clever ones."[39]

The "Burdick track" and "fossilized finger" were featured on the controversial NBC program The Mysterious Origins of Man, aired in 1996 and hosted by Charlton Heston.[40] Creationist Ken Ham criticized the production in the February 1996 Answers in Genesis newsletter in a review titled "Hollywood's 'Moses' Undermines Genesis." Ham attacked Baugh's claims, saying, "According to leading creationist researchers, this evidence is open to much debate and needs much more intensive research. One wonders how much of the information in the program can really be trusted!"[41]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.dallasobserver.com/1996-12-12/news/footprints-of-fantasy/ "Footprints of Fantasy"
  2. http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2006/07_28_2006/story03.htm Finding the Evolution in Medicine
  3. Larry Martz & Ann McDaniel, Newsweek CIX(26): 23-24, June 29, 1987, ISSN 0028-9604
  4. Web site: IAP STATEMENT ON THE TEACHING OF EVOLUTION . https://web.archive.org/web/20060705140010/http://www.interacademies.net/Object.File/Master/6/150/Evolution%20statement.pdf . dead . 2006-07-05 . 2007-10-02 .
  5. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/8196 "Creation Evidence Museum, Glen Rose, Texas"
  6. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A283058 "Creationism Alive and Kicking in Glen Rose"
  7. News: Some Questionable Creationist Credentials . talk.origins. May 31, 2002 . Brett . Vickers . 2007-02-19.
  8. News: Tyrannosaurus Redux . . November 14, 2001 . 2007-02-19.
  9. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-27-me-dinosaurs27-story.html "Adam, Eve and T. Rex"
  10. http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/archivesearch/local_story_036154557.html "Bronstein, head of Israeli Department of Antiquities, lectures in Glen Rose"
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20070328214016/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1601845,00.html "The Case for Teaching The Bible"
  12. Brown. Amanda Colleen. Winter 2007. Losing My Religion: The Controversy over Bible Classes in Public Schools. dead. Baylor Law Review. 59. 193–240. https://web.archive.org/web/20080820115248/http://www.bibleliteracy.org/site/News/bibl_newsBaylorLawReview071010.htm. August 20, 2008.
  13. News: Human footprints beside dinosaur tracks? Let's talk. . August 10, 2008 . Bud . Kennedy . B02.
  14. Web site: Malcolm . Timothy . Next to Texas' famed dinosaur fossils is an anti-evolution museum . Chron . August 4, 2024 . August 6, 2024.
  15. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1989/PSCF3-89Armstrong.html "Seeking Ancient Paths"
  16. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1988/PSCF9-88Hastings.html "The Rise and Fall of the Paluxy Mantracks"
  17. Web site: Moore . Randy . Going Back to Glen Rose . . 2009 . 30 June 2013 .
  18. News: If I Had a Hammer . . Winter 1985. 1 . 5 . 2007-02-19.
  19. News: The London Hammer: An Alleged Out-of-Place Artifact . The Paluxy Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy . 14 July 2006 . 2007-02-19.
  20. Web site: Glen . Kuban . Summary of Paluxy "Man Track" claims . . 1992–2010. 30 June 2013 .
  21. News: The "Burdick Print" . The Paluxy Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy . 2008 . Glen . Kuban . 2008-08-19.
  22. Book: Isaak. Mark. The Counter-creationism Handbook. 12 January 2007. University of California Press. 9780520249264. 112. en.
  23. Conrad, Ernest C. 1981. "Tripping Over a Trilobite," Creation/Evolution Issue VI, pp. 30-33. http://ncse.com/cej/2/4/tripping-over-trilobite-study-meister-tracks
  24. Stokes, William Lee. 1986. "Alleged Human Footprint from the Middle Cambrian Strata, Millard County, Utah." Journal of Geologic Education Vol. 34, pp. 187-90.
  25. Strahler, Arthur N. 1987. Science and Earth History Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. pp. 459-461.
  26. News: The "Meister Print" . talk.origins. 1998 . 2008-02-19.
  27. http://75.125.60.6/~creatio1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=11 "Creation Evidence Museum Online - Museum Displays"
  28. News: Alleged Human Hand Print in Cretaceous Rock . talk.origins. 2006 . 2008-02-19.
  29. http://www.answersincreation.org/rebuttal/cem/cem.htm "Creation Science Rebuttals - Creation Evidence Museum Lacks Evidence!"
  30. http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/archivesearch/local_story_210103057.html "Rock solid proof?"
  31. https://web.archive.org/web/20080603055755/http://75.125.60.6/~creatio1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=24 "Creation Evidence Museum Online  - Alvis Delk Cretaceous Footprint"
  32. https://web.archive.org/web/20080928220610/http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/local/local_story_224120721.html "One step at a time"
  33. http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/local/local_story_225091209.html "Rock's finders discovering celebrity not always pleasant"
  34. News: Transparent fakery . . July 28, 2008 . 2007-02-19.
  35. Web site: Kuban . Glen J. . The Delk Print . 30 June 2013 .
  36. News: Creation/Evolution . . Winter 1985 . 5 . 1 . 2007-02-19.
  37. News: What About Carl Baugh?. . 1998 . 2007-05-17.
  38. News: Arguments we think creationists should NOT use . . 2008 . 2007-05-17.
  39. News: Review of Carl Baugh's Museum . . 2008 . 2007-05-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080905065319/http://answersincreation.org/rebuttal/cem/cem.htm . 2008-09-05 . dead .
  40. http://paleo.cc/paluxy/nbc.htm "A Review of NBC's 'The Mysterious Origins of Man'"
  41. News: NBC's Origins Show . . March 1996 . Dave . Thomas . 2007-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070203134301/http://www.csicop.org/sb/9603/origins.html . 2007-02-03 . dead .