Do you know why dinosaurs became meat eaters? After Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the Garden of Eden, even grass-eating dinosaurs started killing other animals.
Turning evolution on its ear, this is one of the theories being offered on the "Biblically Correct" tour at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
And never mind about the Earth being 4.5 billion years old or that dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago because the world is only 6,000 years old.
"Evolution is nothing more than a philosophy," Rusty Carter tells an audience of about 25 children from a private Christian school on his guided tour at the museum.
Carter, who has a degree in biblical studies from Colorado Christian University and earns his living doing floor maintenance, cheerily challenges evolution as he leads students from one exhibit to another.
The museum and the scientific community in general do not endorse the information espoused by Carter, although he conducts his tours just like any other school group going through.
"We welcome everybody to the museum and I'm happy to see the kids being exposed to the science world," said Kirk Johnson, chief curator at the museum. "But I completely disagree with their message."
Creationists take a literal approach to the origin of the Earth, meaning they believe God created the world in six 24-hour days.
The 6,000-year figure, first calculated by a 17th-century Irish Anglican bishop, James Ussher, adds up the life spans of patriarchs listed in the book of Genesis, starting with Adam and Eve.
Carter goes for the drama. Hitler believed in evolution, he tells the students, but is careful to emphasize he does not mean people who believe in evolution are racists.
For a little hometown shock he calls Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two Colorado teenagers who killed 13 people at Columbine High School before killing themselves, evolutionists.
"Creationism values each person," Carter says before ending the tour with a prayer.
The Bible-oriented tour has been a fixture at the museum for 15 years, but is getting more attention thanks to the renewed US debate over evolution. The attack on evolution has been growing in recent decades and the Kansas State Board of Education has ordered teachers to discuss intelligent design -- a belief the universe is so complicated a supreme being must have planned it -- along with evolution.
Even US President George W. Bush has advocated teaching "both sides" of the issue.
"I'm not against evolution in the museum, I just wish creationism were also here," Carter tells students at the museum as he stands in front of a depiction of an archaeopteryx, whose fossil is believed by scientists to be a link between birds and dinosaurs.
Carter has no room for theistic evolution, a belief held by most Christian churches, including the Catholic Church -- that God created the universe and then allowed evolution to proceed through billions of years. Throughout the tour, he challenges fossil records and carbon dating.
He urges the students from the Truth Christian Academy, a private religious school, to always ask how does one know if something is true.
"That's a great question," the museum's Johnson said. "But the problem is they're teaching them how not to think."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese