The Creation "Museum" in Vanity Fair

Saddled ceratopsian at the Creation "Museum"Saddled ceratopsian at the Creation "Museum"

A. A. Gill reports on his visit to Answers in Genesis's Creation "Museum" in the February 2010 issue of Vanity Fair — "a breathtakingly literal march through Genesis, without any hint of soul." "The Creation Museum isn't really a museum at all," Gill writes. "It's an argument. It's not even an argument. It's the ammunition for an argument. It is the Word made into bullets. An armory of righteous revisionism. ... This place doesn't just take on evolution — it squares off with geology, anthropology, paleontology, history, chemistry, astronomy, zoology, biology, and good taste. It directly and boldly contradicts most -onomies and all -ologies, including most theology."

Accompanying Gill was the actor Paul Bettany, who plays Charles Darwin in the film Creation. (Creation premieres in the United States on January 22, 2010, in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Boston. Remember, a strong opening weekend improves the chances that the film will subsequently appear in further cities, so NCSE encourages its members and friends to show up in force!) A number of Bettany's photographs from their visit to the Creation "Museum" appear on Vanity Fair's website, although he seems to have missed the ceratopsian accoutered with a saddle (photographed by Daniel Phelps).

NCSE's previous coverage of the Creation "Museum" includes Daniel Phelps's review and overview and Timothy H. Heaton's account of his visit. NCSE also sponsored a statement signed by over 1200 scientists in the three states surrounding the museum — Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana — expressing their concern about the effect of the scientifically inaccurate materials displayed there: "Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis."