D.C. Trip Travel Log 8

Tuesday, August 7, 2007.

We spent yesterday driving to Answers in Genesis's new Creation Museum, and we spent today visiting it.

It was wonderful. One of my favorite aspects of its beautiful design and construction was the typography and layout, which matched their website, magazine, and brochures. The presentation consisted mainly of life-size Biblical sets (e.g. the Garden of Eden and Noah's ark), small and large plaques, and videos. Almost every exhibit had a video screen - even the menu of Noah's Café was on a screen. While artifacts and information were a bit sparse, the style, atmosphere, and effect were very impressive.

The main focus was on the gospel message, and the central part of the museum was a large tour of the seven Cs of history: Creation, Corruption (the fall), Catastrophe (the flood), Confusion (Babel), Christ, Cross, and Consummation (the second coming). The last three Cs, not being from Genesis, were all bundled into one (good) evangelistic video at the end of the tour. A major theme through the exhibits was how Creationists and Evolutionists come from different starting points to interpret the same scientific facts differently.

One excellent plaque on scripture's inerrancy made me smile by referring to Voltaire as "the infidel philosopher Voltaire." "Infidel" is not a common word these days. It was fun to see that the photograph of Voltaire that they used featured the sculpture I had just seen at the National Art Gallery in Washington.

One difference between this museum and the Smithsonian ones was the cheerfulness of the staff. Here, every worker acted glad to be on the job, and the cheerfulness was contagious.

Overall, the museum was a very God-honoring presentation of Genesis and its importance. Both Ken Ham and the creation movement were hardly mentioned. The beginning of life as recorded in the Bible was displayed very artistically, and further information was available in the large bookstore. While I would like to see a museum that starts with the Bible but focuses more on science than on creation, I know that that is not feasible until creation gains more acceptance in the scientific community. Answers in Genesis has done an amazing job putting together the only creation museum in the world.

Thursday, August 9, 2007.

After two straight days of driving, we are home. The vacation was wonderful, but so is the end of it. Thanks for reading this!