Taken from: studentweb.eku.edu
From the Creation Museum website: "The Creation Museum is located just 7 miles west of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and within a day’s drive of almost 2/3 of the U.S. population (within 650 miles of the museum)."
The museum is located about 15 miles from my house, and is very near after getting off the Interstate. It is fairly easy to find and navigate, and in a very scenic and open landscape.
The parking lot was rather small. I came to the museum on a "family day" at 7:00pm, and the entire lot was filled, other cars were driving around searching for spots (I can't imagine opening day). Plenty of security and traffic coordinators made sure cars were able to park and pedestrians were able to walk safely.
The entrance to the museum was very minimal, but eye-catching. The outside definitely does not suggest how large the inside of the building actually is. The giant globe that is supposed to be outside the main entrance has not been installed, yet. A tent was set up for the media and possibly an event held for "family day."
The curved portico serves as an area to purchase tickets and look at glass cases of exhibits and a reconstruction of the stratigraphic column of the Grand Canyon.
The large wall of windows supposedly were not in the original plans, but were added to increase attraction to the large wall of recreated rock.
The geology of this opening room will carry on throughout the museum, especially in the Slot Canyon and Ranger Station that soon follows.
This hall serves as an entryway to the Stargazers Planetarium as well as the beginning of the "Creation Walk." From this hallway, the Dragon Hall Bookstore and Noah's Cafe are accessible.
Lining the walls of the main hall are reconstructed rocks, trees, plants, and animals. A lightly-clad boy is crouching in the brush, and a dinosaur is standing guard across the room atop a set of fossils.
Continuing the Grand Canyon motif, the Slot Canyon is a winding recreation of a tunnel of rock. This leads to one of the first exhibits, the Ranger Station.
Most exhibits are taught through video instead of large signs filled with text. This was obviously done to attract a crowd that doesn't enjoy reading (probably much of today's society). The issue with these videos is that you may come to a video halfway through, and would have to wait to see it all from the beginning. Some videos move slower than you could read a sign, and it takes a while to watch entire videos--I did not watch every second of every video at the museum, I simply didn't have enough time in my two hours.
The Ranger Station is housed inside a wooden structure with images of the Grand Canyon and Mount St. Helens, with a flat panel television between them. It introduces another rebuttal to an old Earth in the form of the Grand Canyon. The video claims that there are many thousand years missing between stratigraphic layers of rock. If such a long time actually took place, the video says, each layer should be eroded. (Does it mean eroded flat?)
Taking its cue from the previous room, this area describes the idea of different "starting points" in more detail by giving specific examples. Included are discussions of dinosaurs, the formation of the oceans, human ancestry, and more.
As soon as you walk into the Starting Points room, you are greeted by a rather menacing looking dinosaur, standing next to a sign about the evolutionary idea of dinosaur fossils and the creation idea of dinosaur fossils. Instead of the dinosaur dying, slowly rotting away, leaving behind only solid, hard material, and gradually becoming a fossil (if future paleontologists are lucky), the creationist section of the sign attributes the dinosaur's death to the flood, and the development of the fossil is attributed to a rush of sediment (a LARGE rush of sediment) from a surge of flood water.
The obvious difference between the comparisons is the fact that the evolutionary ideas take a longer amount of time than the creationism ideas. That, and the creationism signs all rely on the Bible as a starting point.
This dark room is covered in cracks, dust, debris, and overall grunginess. It is a large step from Martin Luther to this modern representation of religion. On one wall is a line of windows, looking inside will reveal a lit up image of people doing "ungodly" things, such as surfing the internet while a father lies lazily on a couch. Voice-overs flow from the windows describing each situation.
On the opposite wall, a church facade is seen being demolished by a wrecking ball bearing the title "100 Million Years." A window of the church is blown out, and a church congregation dully listens to a modern testimony reflecting the horridness of current society.
This room is a small theater with bench seating and a long wall with three overlapping projector screens. The video itself is very flashy, well created, and interesting. It basically does a (overly) dramatic reading of the creation described in Genesis. The voiceover sounds like the guy that does the action movie trailers, and images are constantly flashing across the screen. The end of the short film has a shot of Adam and Eve watching the sunset, as a pair of Brontosaurs lift their long necks up and become silhoutted in front of the sun.
The the blood and guts will be missing for a few rooms, now, Methuselah's tent strikes a new fear. This animatronic old man bends over, right into your face, in some weird Barnum & Bailey circus tent, telling the story of the Ark. I wasn't able to listen to everything the robot had to say, but I was impressed with the detail in his body and the way he moved.
The tent was bare except for Methuselah, maybe more items will be included once the museum officially opens. The animatronic robot stands alone on a stage, the room only holds about 10 people, maximum, forcing you to get up close to this scary scary man.
This video was the corniest of them all, and proved very difficult to not be laughed at. It begins with a man sitting at a campfire (who resembles the creationist paleontologist from the Dinosaur Dig Site room), talking about how he trusts the Bible to be completely accurate and inerrant. He begins to tell the story of Mary and Joseph, as Mary fades on the screen and takes over the talking.
Her talk sounds like an awkward informercial customer testimony, and it is basically an interview with her while she washes her clothes. She discusses how she miraculously became pregnant with baby Jesus after she became engaged (of course) with Joseph.
The story of Jesus is told, right up until his crucifixion, complete with the gory hammering of the nails. Images of a lamb being sacrificed to God intersperses the film, drawing connections between the Christ and previous sacrifices. A Roman soldier is interviewed, and he describes how seeing Jesus on the cross (though he is a Roman, nothing scares him) shook him with fear, and he knew that the man nailed there was the actual Son of God. The Roman soldier seemed like one of those guys that lives in a trailer, drinks too much alcohol, and visits Wal-Mart to buy a new seat cover for his truck because he spilled his can of chewing tobacco all over his old one.
I made sure to look around at the reactions of people as the gruesome images filled the screen. Everyone was at the edge of their seats. At one point someone walked out, but then I saw that he was only receiving a phone call.
I didn't see the Chapel, but I imagine a lot of people would want to go inside to pray after seeing their Savior sacrifice himself for the good of everyone else. Around this area, however, I did see a little display that discussed Ken Ham's parents. It gave a short biography and included his father's personal Bible, filled with notes, and a hand-crafted model of Noah's Ark.
The Palm Plaza serves as a place to cool down from the video that undoubtedly got you hot and bothered (for whatever reason). It is a very calming and beautiful room, a waterfall at one end, palm trees standing in a line in the center, and plenty of seating areas.
The walls have inset cases which house fossils ranging from a chambered nautilus to a T-Rex skull--casts, of course. The fossils have no description, as far as I remember, and at the very least, they did not have signage that tied them to the idea of creation. They just seemed to be items in a case to attract attention.
The Palm Cafe was closed when I got to the plaza, but it is supposed to resemble a coffeeshop such as Starbucks. I forgot to notice the prices of their drinks, but I'd imagine they aren't too reasonable.
Morris/Whitcomb Room
The Morris/Whitcomb Room looked like a classroom, or meeting room of some sort. We did not go inside, but I caught a glipse through the doorway as we passed.
The Children's Play Area was blocked off by a miniature model of the Ark that must be on its way to the Voyage of the Ark room. This was a little upsetting to me, because I love to see play areas for kids--makes me wish I were small enough to still jump on rubbery plastic Moses' back and part the waters.
I'm not so sure this room existed. I just remember a not well lit room in this area, and then a staircase that leads to the front entrance of the museum, upstairs.
