By Gudrun Schultz
BIG VALLEY, Alberta, May 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s first museum devoted to a creationist view of the Earth’s origins is set to open June 5 in Big Valley, Alberta.
The Big Valley Creation Science Museum supports a literal interpretation of the Biblical account of creation and opposes evolutionary theory. The museum offers “a scientific and biblically based alternative to the evolutionary view of Earth history,” according to founder Harry Nibourg, in an interview with the Edmonton Journal.
The $300,000 museum is owned by 46-year-old Nibourg, an evangelical Christian who works in the oilfields. Most of the costs in building and stocking the museum were funded out of his own resources.
“I could’ve built a big house for myself by now,” he told the Calgary Herald. “But this is more important. This is real evidence and it’s not in the mainstream at all.”
He says after extensive reading on evolutionary theory, it just didn’t make sense to him.
“We believe the Bible to be true,” Nibourg said. “We believe evolution fails the facts.”
“When you look at it you can see which faith fits the facts, because both sides are faiths,” Nibourg told the Red Deer Advocate. “I looked deeper, read the books and evolution didn’t make sense to me, it didn’t answer the questions I was asking. It didn’t satisfy my curiosity for knowledge.”
Vance Nelson is executive director of the Red Deer-based Creation Truth Ministries. He serves on the museum’s board of directors.
“I have no problem with survival of the fittest,” Nelson told the Herald. “But survival of the fittest does not explain the origin of the fittest.” Creation science questions evolutionary theory’s assumption that complex microscopic systems and DNA evolved out of raw matter.
“At heart, evolutionary theory is as much an act of blind faith as creationism,” Nelson said. “Who was there to see the big bang? It’s based on presuppositions, assumptions and biases like all historical theory. Creationism and evolution are on the same level playing field and should be debated that way.”
Nibourg said his museum is based on science more than theology, saying there are more scientific theories than Bible references in the displays. He has offered to debate scientists across the country on creationism versus evolution, but most have declined. “They got the right to be wrong. We will scientifically debate anyone, we would love to debate Dr. David Suzuki on The Nature of Things, no problem. They don’t have a leg to stand on and they’re hoping to evolve one,” he said.
Opening in June, the museum contains fossils, DNA models and depictions of dinosaurs, with titles including Evidence From Plants, Terrible Lizards and Fossils and the Flood.
A US version of a creation museum has just opened in Petersburg, Kentucky on a much grander scale, at US $27 million.
While Darwinian evolution is often presented in the media and in the classroom as an irrefutable truth, over 700 doctoral scientists from prestigious institutions around the world have signed a statement publicly expressing their dissent from the Darwinian theory of evolution.
While most of these scientists do not embrace the strictly literal Biblical creation account, they nevertheless state that “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life,” the statement reads. “Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”
Museums such as the one in Big Valley and Petersburg KY hope to faciliate “careful examination of the evidence” by presenting a contrary theory and its evidence.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Over 500 PhD Scientists Proclaim Their Doubts About Darwin’s Theory
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022204.html
Ranks of Renowned Scientists Doubting Darwin’s Theory on the Rise – 700 Now on Public List
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07021402.html
Quebec Government Forcing Evangelical Private Schools to Teach Sex Ed, Darwinism
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102404.html