With a massive ark and museum, he spreads creationism a century after Scopes trial. He's not alone
The ark stretches one and a half football fields long — 'the biggest freestanding timber-frame structure in the world,' Ham says. It holds three massive decks with wooden cages, food-storage urns, life-size animal models and other exhibits.
It's all designed to argue that the biblical story was literally true — that an ancient Noah really could have built such a sophisticated ship. That Noah and a handful of family members really could have sustained thousands of animals for months, floating above a global flood that drowned everyone else in the wicked world.
'That's what we wanted to do through many of the exhibits, to show the feasibility of the ark,' says Ham, the organizer behind the Ark Encounter theme park and related attractions.
And with that, he furthers his goal to assert the entire biblical Book of Genesis should be interpreted as written — that humans were created by God's fiat on the sixth day of creation on an Earth that is only 6,000 years old.
All this defies the overwhelming consensus of modern scientists — that the Earth developed over billions of years in 'deep time' and that humans and other living things evolved over millions of years from earlier species.
But Ham wants to succeed where he believes William Jennings Bryan failed.
Bryan, a populist politician and fundamentalist champion, helped the prosecution in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, which took place 100 years ago this July in Dayton, Tennessee.
Bryan's side won in court — gaining the conviction of public schoolteacher John Scopes for violating state law against teaching human evolution. But Bryan was widely seen as suffering a humiliating defeat in public opinion, with his sputtering attempts to explain the Bible's spectacular miracles and enigmas.
The expert witness' infamous missteps
For Ham, Bryan's problem was not that he defended the Bible. It's that he didn't defend it well enough, interpreting parts of it metaphorically rather than literally.
'It showed people around the world that Christians don't really believe the Bible — they can't answer questions to defend the Christian faith,' Ham says.
'We want you to know that we've got answers,' Ham adds, speaking in the accent of his native Australia.
Ham is founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which opened the Ark Encounter in 2016. The Christian theme park includes a zoo, zip lines and other attractions surrounding the ark.
Nearly a decade earlier, Answers in Genesis opened a Creation Museum in nearby Petersburg, Kentucky, where exhibits similarly argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden.
The group also produces books, podcasts, videos and homeschooling curricula.
'The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true," Ham says. 'That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.'
Creationist belief still common
If Ham is the most prominent torchbearer for creationism today, he's hardly alone.
Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 37% of U.S. adults agreed 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.'
That percentage is down a little, but not dramatically, from its mid-40s level between the 1980s and 2012. Rates are higher among religious and politically conservative respondents.
'Scopes lost, but the public sense was that the fundamentalists lost' and were dwindling away, says William Vance Trollinger Jr., a professor of history and religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio.
But the reach of Answers in Genesis demonstrates that 'a significant subset of Americans hold to young-Earth creationism,' says Trollinger, co-author with his wife, English professor Susan Trollinger, of the 2016 book 'Righting America at the Creation Museum.'
Leading science organizations say it's crucial to teach evolution and old-Earth geology. Evolution is 'one of the most securely established of scientific facts,' says the National Academy of Sciences. The Geological Society of America similarly states: 'Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula.'
The issue has been repeatedly legislated and litigated since the Scopes trial. Tennessee repealed its anti-evolution law in 1967. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, and in 1987 it overturned a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court similarly forbade a Pennsylvania school district from presenting 'intelligent design,' a different approach to creationism that argues life is too complex to have evolved by chance.
Science educators alarmed
Some lawmakers have recently revived the issue. North Dakota's Senate this year defeated a bill that would have allowed public school teaching on intelligent design. A new West Virginia law vaguely allows teachers to answer student questions about 'scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.'
The Scopes trial set a template for today's culture-war battles, with efforts to expand vouchers for attendees of private schools, including Christian ones teaching creationism, and to introduce Bible-infused lessons and Ten Commandments displays in public schools.
Such efforts alarm science educators like Bill Nye, the television 'Science Guy,' whose 2014 debate with Ham was billed as 'Scopes II' and has generated millions of video views online.
'What you get out of religion, as I understand it, is this wonderful sense of community,' Nye says. 'Community is very much part of the human experience. But the Earth is not 4,000 years old. To teach that idea to children with any backing — be it religious or these remarkable ideas that humans are not related to, for example, chimpanzees or bonobos — is breathtaking. It's silly. And so we fight this fight.'
Nye says evidence is overwhelming, ranging from fossils layers to the distribution of species. 'There are trees older than Mr. Ham thinks the world is,' he adds.
One weekday in March, visitors milled about the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum, which draw an estimated 1.5 million visits per year (including duplicate visits).
'We are churchgoing, Bible-believing Christians,' says Louise van Niekerk of Ontario, Canada, who traveled with her family to the Creation Museum. She's concerned that her four children are faced with a public-school curriculum permeated with evolution.
The Creation Museum, van Niekerk says, 'is encouraging a robust alternate worldview from what they're being taught,' she says.
Many religious groups accommodate evolution, though.
Gallup's survey found that of Americans who believe in evolution, more say it happened with God's guidance (34%) than without it (24%). Catholic popes have shown openness to evolution while insisting the human soul is a divine creation. Many liberal Protestants and even some evangelicals have accepted at least parts of evolutionary theory.
But among many evangelicals, creationist belief is strong.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest evangelical body, has promoted creationist beliefs in its publications. The Assemblies of God asserts that Adam and Eve were historical people. Some evangelical schools, such as Bryan's namesake college in Tennessee, affirm creationist beliefs in their doctrinal statements.
There's a larger issue here, critics say
Just as Ham says the creation story is important to defend a larger truth about the Christian Gospel, critics say more is at stake than just the human origin story.
The Trollingers wrote that the Answers in Genesis enterprise is an 'arsenal in the culture war.' They say it aligns with Christian nationalism, promoting conservative views in theology, family and gender roles, and casting doubt on other areas of scientific consensus, such as human-made climate change.
Nye, too, says the message fits into a more general and ominous anti-science movement. 'Nobody is talking about climate change right now,' he laments.
Exhibits promote a 'vengeful and violent' God, says Susan Trollinger, noting the cross on the ark's large door, which analogizes that just as the wicked perished in the flood, those without Christ face eternal hellfire.
And there are more parallels to 1925.
Bryan had declaimed, 'How can teachers tell students that they came from monkeys and not expect them to act like monkeys?' The Creation Museum, which depicts violence, drugs and other social ills as resulting from belief in evolution, is 'Bryan's social message on steroids,' wrote Edward Larson in a 2020 afterword to 'Summer for the Gods,' a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Scopes trial.
More attractions are planned
The protests that initially greeted the museum and ark projects, from secularist groups who considered them embarrassments to Kentucky, have ebbed.
When the state initially denied a tourism tax rebate for the Ark Encounter because of its religious nature, a federal court overturned that ruling. Representing Ham's group was a Louisiana lawyer named Mike Johnson — now speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Despite those blips, Ham's massive ministry charges forward. Expansion is next, with AIG attractions planned for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri — both tourist hubs offering more opportunities to promote creationism to the masses.
Todd Bigelow, visiting the Ark Encounter from Mesa, Arizona, says the exhibit vividly evoked the safety that Noah and his family must have felt. It helped him appreciate 'the opportunities God gives us to live the life we have, and hopefully make good choices and repent when we need to,' he says.
'I think,' Bigelow adds, 'God and science can go hand in hand.'
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
A record catch of krill near Antarctica could trigger an unprecedented end to fishing season
Ocean-Fisheries-Antarctic-Krill MIAMI (AP) — Trawling near Antarctica for krill — a crustacean central to the diet of whales and a critical buffer to global warming — has surged to a record and is fast approaching a never before reached seasonal catch limit that would trigger the unprecedented early closure of the remote fishery, The Associated Press has learned. The fishing boom follows the failure last year of the U.S., Russia, China and two dozen other governments to approve a new management plan that would have mandated spreading out the area in which krill can be caught and creating a California-sized reserve along the environmentally sensitive Antarctic Peninsula. In the first seven months of the 2024-25 season, krill fishing in Antarctica reached 518,568 tons, about 84% of the 620,000-ton limit that, once reached, will force the fishery to automatically close. In one hot spot, the catch through June 30 was nearly 60% higher than all of last year's haul, according to a report from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, or CCAMLR, the international organization that manages the world's southernmost fishery. The report, which has not been publicly released and CCAMLR said contains confidential data, was shared with The AP by someone concerned about overfishing in Antarctica on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. 'The vast majority of the krill take is from an increasingly smaller area,' said Capt. Peter Hammarstedt, campaign director for conservation group Sea Shepherd Global, which this year made its third voyage to Antarctica to document the fishery. 'It's the equivalent of a hunter saying that they're only killing 1% of the U.S.' deer population but leaving out that all of the deer were shot in Rhode Island.' Threat from climate change, advances in fishing Krill is one of the most abundant marine species in the world, with an estimated biomass of 63 million metric tons. But advances in fishing, climate change and growing demand for krill's Omega-3 rich oil – for fishmeal, pet food and human dietary supplements — have increased pressure on the krill stocks. In the 2023-24 season, a fleet of 12 industrial trawlers from mostly Norway and China caught 498,350 tons of krill — until now the largest harvest since CCAMLR began collecting catch data in 1973. AP journalists traveled to the icy waters around Antarctica in 2023 and observed how factory ships trawl in close proximity to whales whose numbers are still recovering from a century of industrial culling that nearly drove them to extinction. Underscoring the competition between humans and whales, three humpback whales were found dead or seriously injured last year in the long, cylindrical nets deployed by the vessels to vacuum up the paper-clip sized crustacean. Officials have been negotiating for years a new management plan that would balance the growing market for krill with calls for greater protection of the Antarctic Peninsula, the continent's northernmost point and an area teeming with whales and, increasingly, tourists. Currently, less than 5% of the Southern Ocean is protected — well behind CCAMLR's target and a United Nations goal to preserve 30% of the world's oceans by 2030. But a tentative deal fell apart at last year's CCAMLR meeting over a last minute proposal by the United Kingdom and Australia for an even lower catch limit than the one agreed to during talks, AP reported last year. China, objecting to the persistent Western demands, then withdrew its support for the marine reserve and refused to renew the existing management system. 'The truth was it was the UK,' Matts Johansen, chief executive of Norway's Aker BioMarine, the world's largest supplier of krill-based products, said at the United Nations Oceans conference in June. 'Just a couple days before the vote, the UK threw another suggestion and that's when the Chinese backed off.' A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office rejected that characterization and said the British government continues to push for a krill management strategy that better safeguards Antarctic marine species and vulnerable ecosystems. Catch limit restrictions expire In the absence of a deal, restrictions adopted 15 years ago to spread out the catch limit expired, allowing the krill fleet to essentially fish anywhere at any time, including in smaller habitats preferred by whales and other animals such as penguins and seals. Krill aren't just vital to marine ecosystems. Increasingly, researchers are focusing on their role as a bulwark against climate change. One peer-reviewed study last year found that krill remove from the atmosphere and store in the ocean 20 million tons of carbon annually. That's the equivalent of taking off the road 5 million cars every year. CCAMLR declined to comment on the report obtained by the AP. Ship tracking data analyzed by Global Fishing Watch at the request of the AP also showed a higher concentration of trawling. Activity in one popular fishing ground, denoted Sub-Area 48.1, appears to have more than doubled so far this season compared to the entire 2023-2024 season, according to the the U.S.-based group, which supports sustainable fishing. Javier Arata, the executive director the Association of Responsible Krill harvesting companies, whose members are responsible for 95% of the krill taken from Antarctica, said the catch limit that lapsed was always intended as an interim measure. His group supports the creation of marine protected areas in Antarctica. But it rejects waiting for a conservation deal to adopt 'ready-to-go measures' raising the quota, which he said can be much higher. 'The failure to advance management was political, not scientific,' he said. The current fishing levels, although higher than previous limits, remain sustainable and reflect the consensus recommendation of scientists before last year's deal fell apart, Arata added. — This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. __ Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
This California forest has a tree that's nearly 5,000 years old. But its location is a closely guarded secret
High in the arid mountain forests of eastern California there is a living tree that's older than the pyramids of Giza and the ancient city-state of Babylon — but its location is a secret. The Methuselah tree, named after an especially long-living character in the Book of Genesis, is estimated to have started growing roughly 4,857 years ago in the White Mountains just north of Death Valley. That would put its germination date around 2,833 B.C., nearly 3,000 years before the foundation of the Roman Empire and older than all Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Scientists believe it is either the oldest or second-oldest living tree known to humanity — excepting clonal colonies, in which individual trees live and die as part of the same ancient collective organism. Even so, the Forest Service does not disclose the exact location of the Methuselah tree and has not marked it in any way, in order to protect it from vandalism. Methuselah is the oldest known tree in the Methuselah Grove, which stands at nearly 10,000 ft above sea level in what is now Inyo National Forest. It's a standout example of the Great Basin bristlecone pine, formally known as pinus longaeva. Because they are adapted to live in such harsh environments the trees are extraordinary resilient and resistant to infection. Through a process called 'strip barking', even a tiny sliver of the tree can remain alive after the rest expires, with thin strands of living matter twisting up through a dense shell of dead wood. But bristlecone pines aren't the only arboreal survivors on Earth. Some scientists believe there is a Patagonian cypress tree in the rainy mountains of Chile that is around 5,400 years old. Known as the Millennial Alerce, or sometimes Gran Abuelo (Spanish for 'grandfather'), the tree's age was estimated using a new statistical method that is not yet broadly accepted among researchers, rather than by the traditional way of counting rings of wood within the trunk. Clonal colonies — that is, groups of trees that have all sprouted off from the same ancient ancestor — can persist for many millennia, even as the individual trees live and die. One colony of quaking aspen in Utah, known as Pando, is thought to be between 9,000 and 16,000 years old, but is taking a beating from climate change. There is also one bristlecone in California's White Mountains that may be even older than Methuselah and more secret. Back in 2009, according to the tree age researcher Peter M. Brown, another researcher named Tom Harlan began studying old tree samples left to him by his predecessor. Harlan apparently found one sample he estimated to be 5,062 years old and told Brown the tree it came from was still alive. But the actual sample seems to be missing and if Harlan knew the tree's location he took it to his grave.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
This California forest has a tree that's nearly 5,000 years old. But its location is a closely guarded secret
High in the arid mountain forests of eastern California there is a living tree that's older than the pyramids of Giza and the ancient city-state of Babylon — but its location is a secret. The Methuselah tree, named after an especially long-living character in the Book of Genesis, is estimated to have started growing roughly 4,857 years ago in the White Mountains just north of Death Valley. That would put its germination date around 2,833 B.C., nearly 3,000 years before the foundation of the Roman Empire and older than all Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Scientists believe it is either the oldest or second-oldest living tree known to humanity — excepting clonal colonies, in which individual trees live and die as part of the same ancient collective organism. Even so, the Forest Service does not disclose the exact location of the Methuselah tree and has not marked it in any way, in order to protect it from vandalism. Methuselah is the oldest known tree in the Methuselah Grove, which stands at nearly 10,000 ft above sea level in what is now Inyo National Forest. It's a standout example of the Great Basin bristlecone pine, formally known as pinus longaeva. Because they are adapted to live in such harsh environments the trees are extraordinary resilient and resistant to infection. Through a process called 'strip barking', even a tiny sliver of the tree can remain alive after the rest expires, with thin strands of living matter twisting up through a dense shell of dead wood. But bristlecone pines aren't the only arboreal survivors on Earth. Some scientists believe there is a Patagonian cypress tree in the rainy mountains of Chile that is around 5,400 years old. Known as the Millennial Alerce, or sometimes Gran Abuelo (Spanish for 'grandfather'), the tree's age was estimated using a new statistical method that is not yet broadly accepted among researchers, rather than by the traditional way of counting rings of wood within the trunk. Clonal colonies — that is, groups of trees that have all sprouted off from the same ancient ancestor — can persist for many millennia, even as the individual trees live and die. One colony of quaking aspen in Utah, known as Pando, is thought to be between 9,000 and 16,000 years old, but is taking a beating from climate change. There is also one bristlecone in California's White Mountains that may be even older than Methuselah and more secret. Back in 2009, according to the tree age researcher Peter M. Brown, another researcher named Tom Harlan began studying old tree samples left to him by his predecessor. Harlan apparently found one sample he estimated to be 5,062 years old and told Brown the tree it came from was still alive. But the actual sample seems to be missing and if Harlan knew the tree's location he took it to his grave. Solve the daily Crossword
