If you’ve been following the comment threads lately, you already know that we’ve had a new arrival who has been inspiring much hilarity, Pastor Tom Estes. He seems to be much dismayed at us atheists, and is promising to meet us at the Creation “Museum” on Friday, to discuss matters. He also has a blog where he has been fulminating about the event and wallowing in his own incomprehension. It’s funny stuff — he doesn’t understand why we would care about the Creation “Museum”, and at the same time claims that the myth of Genesis is supported by science. Now if only he would realize that those two claims answer each other: we care because people like Pastor Tom and Ken Ham are misrepresenting the science.

Getting back to the hatred of Ham and the Creation Museum, why? Why do you all care? Especially when you consider that you have the truth? Why not leave us goofy Christians alone on this one? I cannot help but believe that atheists are threatened by Ken Ham because he doesn’t need the Bible to disprove evolution, he uses science.

That’s right, sacred science.

And not only that, he doesn’t care what the scientic community’s lemmings think of him. And then, on top of that, he has the nerve to educate as many as possible about the truths of science, which is what the Creation Museum is all about. Thus, he needs to be brought down.

But how? What is Myers going to do? I ask because I’ve been to the Creation Museum, and it’s all science. There’s not going to be any Bible-thumping going on. Ken Ham shows how science proves the Bible, and not the other way around, so Myers will have his hands full. (I know atheists are chuckling, but I assure you, it’s true.)

Something stands out in that little wail: Ken Ham “doesn’t need the Bible to disprove evolution”? “There’s not going to be any Bible-thumping going on”?

Pastor Tom doesn’t know his hero very well. All you have to do is look at the Answers in Genesis mission statement:

Goal: To support the church in fulfilling its commission

Vision: Answers in Genesis is a catalyst to bring reformation by reclaiming the foundations of our faith which are found in the Bible, from the very first verse.

Mission:

• We proclaim the absolute truth and authority of the Bible with boldness.
• We relate the relevance of a literal Genesis to the church and the world today with creativity.
• We obey God’s call to deliver the message of the gospel, individually and collectively.

Bible-thumping is right there at the heart of the organization. That’s their whole premise, that the Bible is literally true and all science must conform to it. The Creation “Museum” isn’t about science at all, but is entirely about a peculiar, quirky, very specific interpretation of the Bible.

I’ve also read Jason Lisle’s book, The Ultimate Proof of Creation, which isn’t the ultimate anything, contains no proofs, but does boldly proclaim the absolute truth and authority of the Bible. Right at the beginning, it asserts that the Bible is a central tool in their proselytizing, and that the good creationist should reject the blandishments of secular tempters who demand evidence other than the Bible. (It really is an awful book, too — long, preachy, and whining non-stop about logical fallacies — with the author commits freely — and nowhere does it provide a scrap of reason why we should accept the literal account of the Bible).

But don’t just take my word for it. I recently and fortuitously received a copy in the mail of the closest thing to a scientific publication ever authored by Ken Ham, thanks to a generous reader. Even better, it’s a double-whammy: it’s authored by two of the biggest names in creationism, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and John Morris of the Institute for Creation research. These are authorities in their little wacky subdomain of pseudoscience.

Here is that science text:

In this book, geared towards the level of intelligence of your average creationist, we get a plain, clear statement of the Biblical foundation of their beliefs.

(Click for larger image)

What’s this? Dinosaurs and people together? Some scientists think that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, long before humans lived on the earth. But the Bible tells us the real story. The Bible tells us that God made the dinosaurs on day six of Creation week, only thousands of years ago. Do you know who God also made on day six to care for the world? Adam and Eve, the first two humans, our great, great, great, great…grandparents. Do you know what this means? Dinosaurs must have lived at the same time as Adam and Eve. Wow! Wouldn’t that have been exciting?

That claim completely contradicts all of the geological evidence. It’s false all the way down — dinosaurs died approximately 65 million years ago, and modern humans arose a few hundred thousand years ago. There was no overlap. The earth itself is far older than a few thousand years. There is no “science” there.

There is, though, a good reason for being pissed off at these frauds. They are lying to little kids.

Morris J, Ham K (1990) What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs. Master Books, Green Forest, AR.