7 Wonders Museum
The Mount St. Helens Creation Information Center (previously the 7 Wonders Creation Museum), also 7 Wonders Museum of Mount St. Helens, is a ministry, museum, and bookstore dedicated to promoting young Earth creationism. The museum is located along the main road off of I-5 at Castle Rock, Washington near Silverlake, Washington (or Toutle, Washington) near Mount St. Helens, United States. Admission is free, and often accompanied by a guided tour of volcano sights.[1][2]
The two-room museum was founded in 1998 by Lloyd and Doris Anderson, and is now directed by Paul and Geraldine Taylor. Lloyd Anderson has a master's degree in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, and is a retired pastor; his wife Doris has worked as a registered nurse and journalist.[1][2][3] The 7 Wonders Museum takes its name from seven Mount St. Helens land features that changed in no more than a few years. The Museum presents geologic evidence and facts about Mount St. Helens as being consistent with the Bible as "without error in the original writing."[1] The eruption and rapid formation of structures are presented as divine evidence for a young earth.[4]
Criticism
Most of the scientific community currently considers creationism to be pseudoscience.[5][6][7] As a result, science organizations, such as the National Center for Science Education, criticize the promotion of creationism as a form of non-science. Scientists say the museum rejects modern science because of the museum's preconceived religious views, and misleads visitors by extrapolating very special geologic events into equivalence with much longer-term events.[2]
Wilfred Elders, an emeritus professor of geology at the University of California-Riverside and a former chairman of the Education Committee of the Geothermal Resources Council of the U.S.A. stated:[2]
The 7 Wonders Creation Museum is an example of the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’ of the young-Earth creationist movement. It is good in that it actually reports geological observations. It is bad because it ignores the scientific method in interpreting them. ...Constrained by a view of biblical chronology, young-Earth creationists infer that the seven days of creation occurred less than 10,000 years ago, and that the next significant event in the history of the Earth and of life was the flood of Noah. The 7 Wonders museum ignores or rejects anything that disagrees with that view. In doing so it rejects modern science.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Paulu 2004.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Johnson 2005.
- ↑ Sundeen 2005.
- ↑ Lewis 2004.
- ↑ Project Steve 2008.
- ↑ Delgado 2006.
- ↑ Martz & McDaniel 1987 "By one count there are some 700 scientists (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life forms did not evolve but appeared 'abruptly'"
References
- Delgado, Cynthia (July 28, 2006). "Finding the Evolution in Medicine". NIH Record.
- Johnson, Alex (May 2, 2005). "The Stirring on the Mount". MSNBC.
- Lewis, Mike (October 9, 2004). "Creationist sees clear proof in volcano". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- Martz, Larry; McDaniel, Ann (June 29, 1987). "Keeping God out of the Classroom" CIX (26). Newsweek. pp. 23–24. ISSN 0028-9604.
- Paulu, Tom (2004-08-06). "Case for Creation". The Daily News.
- "Project Steve: FAQs". National Center for Science Education. 2008. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
- Sundeen, Mark (February 2005). "Eruptus Interruptus". Outside.
External links
- 7 Wonders Museum of Mount St. Helens official site
Coordinates: 46°19′16″N 122°45′14″W / 46.321°N 122.754°W