The Creation “Museum” Science Fair

They're going to have a "Science" Fair at the Creation "Museum", which seems extremely cruel. Little kids with some enthusiasm for science are going to show up at that circus and be misled about what science actually is, and see their careers stunted before they even begin.

But let's be charitable and see what they're going to do. They're going to emphasize hypothesis testing, experiment, and good methodology, and they also have a restriction against product comparisons (the stuff of commercials: is Brand X paper towel actually more absorbent than Brand Y?) and simple demonstrations, like baking soda volcanoes. I approve of that, and would like to see conventional science fairs do the same.

Read further into their guidelines, though, and the anti-science emerges. All the projects have to be tied to a Bible verse. Why? I don't know. It seems to be an arbitrary constraint that the creation science fair held here in Minnesota requires, too.

The real killer, though, is that they demand that the kids adhere to their statement of faith, which dictates what their conclusions should be. They've decided what the answers are before the experiment is done.

1. Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation.
2. The days in Genesis do not correspond to geologic ages, but are six [6] consecutive twenty-four [24] hour days of Creation.
3. The Noachian Flood was a significant geological event and much (but not all) fossiliferous sediment originated at that time.
4. The 'gap' theory has no basis in Scripture.
5. The view, commonly used to evade the implications or the authority of Biblical teaching, that knowledge and/or truth may be divided into 'secular' and 'religious', is rejected.
6. By definition, no apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record. Of primary importance is the fact that evidence is always subject to interpretation by fallible people who do not possess all information.

They might as well announce that no biology, geology, or physics will be allowed in their "science" fair — any discipline with a historical component is forbidden, because they have decided what history occurred. The last restriction is the best, though: no evidence but the Bible can be accepted.

The poor kids.