DefCon's campaign against the Creation Museum -- a $27 million institution dedicated to promoting the lie that science supports the notion of a 6,000 year old Earth -- is beginning to get some serious attention from the religious right.
And rightly so. In the last week we've collected over 3,200 signatures from all 50 states for our Educators Petition opposing this attempt to institutionalize a lie, and another 15,500 signatures for our Citizen's Petition.
The religious right's response to our campaign has been interesting. Answers in Genesis, the organization behind the museum, has launched two separate pages on their website about our campaign here and here. On Tuesday, Focus on the Family's Citizenlink also decided to take on our campaign, publishing this article on their website.
The article carries the subhead "Claims Biblical truth and science are not compatible," and was written based upon an email I sent to Focus. As usual they took what they wanted and ignored what they found inconvenient -- including my acknowledgment that in fact it is only people like Ham who make science and religion incompatible, that Focus actually carries literature on their site contradicting the Creation Museum, and lastly that AiG seeks to institutionalize the lie that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, which they left out for this quote from Ham; "'What's our lie?' Ham asked. 'We're saying the Bible's true.'"
Below is the email I sent on Tuesday to Focus on the Family:
Wendy thanks for your email. DefCon focuses on a number of issues – one of the most important is fighting attempts to undermine science education and scientific understanding.
AiG has every right to build the "Creation Museum" and we’re not challenging that. Our campaign is focused on exposing AiG’s attempt to institutionalize a lie; namely that science supports the notion of a 6,000 year old earth. To be clear, science does not.
To claim that the Earth is only 6,000 years is simply not scientifically sound – your own website reveals this reality as it discusses the Cambrian Explosion which you acknowledge was "an event that began 530 million years ago." (http://www.citizenlink.org/...)
Millions of faithful Americans acknowledge the important role science plays in our country and our culture – from medicine to travel to the internet. These two areas are only exclusionary when people like Ken Ham declare that you can’t believe in God and evolution. That’s preposterous.
Unfortunately, Ken Ham has spent $27 million to target children and create a controversy where none exists. Our opposition to the museum has nothing to do with religion, it’s about bad science. We want Ken Ham as well as the rest of America to know that Americans are opposed to his war on science education, and we call on him to stop promoting this falsehood at the expense of our children.
Lastly, representatives from DefCon have in fact visited the museum – including our board member Chris Hedges. AiG has also made no secret of what is inside the museum, including a virtual tour.
Hope this helps.
We're doing all we can to shine the light on this attempt to confuse children and undermine scientific understanding. Join our effort at DefConBlog.org