Creationism museum plans on hold

A controversial organization’s bid to build a museum devoted to creationism on Saipan appears for now to be on hold due to a need for funding and land for the project, according to a spokesman.

In a statement, David Crandall of the group Answers in Genesis said that building a museum on creationism—the belief that the biblical account of the Earth’s origins is literal truth—in the CNMI is still on the group’s agenda.

“Unfortunately, at this time no progress has been made of this project,” Crandall said. “We are certainly hopeful that the necessary funding and location for such a project will become a reality.”

Last year, representatives of Answers in Genesis met with Gov. Benigno Fitial to talk about the prospect of Saipan serving as a site for a creationism museum.

Answers in Genesis is a non-profit Christian organization that promotes the ideas of so-called “young earth creationism.” Founded in 1980 as the Creation Science Foundation, the group largely rejects the consensus views of the world’s scientific community on subjects like paleontology, geology and evolutionary biology, favoring instead a series of hypotheses that its leaders and supporters claim are valid to back theological views linked to the Book of Genesis.

For example, materials produced by the group suggest that dinosaurs roamed the Earth in the same era as humankind, that the Grand Canyon was carved by the global flood described in the Old Testament and that the Earth—contrary to scientific estimates that place its age at around 4.5 billion years—is less than 10,000 years old, views that the group has said are supported by scriptural passages.

Answers in Genesis previously funded the 70,000 square foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, which features displays detailing an account of the universe’s history drawn from the Bible. The museum, opened in 2007, attracted 500,000 visitors within its first nine months of operation, the group has said.

The scientific community has long criticized Answers in Genesis and organizations like it, however, for misinforming the public about science.

In a 2007 statement that was signed by more than 800 scientists after the opening of the Creation Museum, the National Center for Science Education said that students “who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis.”