The museum exhibits are taken from the Old Testament, but the special effects are pure Hollywood: a state-of-the-art planetarium, animatronics and a big model of Noah's Ark, all intended to explain the origins of the universe from a biblical viewpoint.
The Creation Museum, which teaches life's beginnings through a literal interpretation of the Bible, is claiming attendance figures that would make it an unexpectedly strong draw less than a year and a half after it opened. More than 500,000 people have toured the Kentucky attraction since its May 2007 opening, museum officials said.
For creationists -- Christians who believe that the Bible's first chapter of Genesis is the literal telling of the universe's start -- the museum is a godsend. Many have returned with family and friends, some from faraway states, saying that it is one of the few with a Christian worldview.
Many scientists say they fear damaging effects on science education when young people tour the museum and fail to square its lessons with what they are learning in school. One display shows humans co-existing with dinosaurs -- despite the two species being separated by 65 million years in most science texts.
"We're depressed, I think," said Dan Phelps, the head of the Kentucky Paleontology Society, who toured the museum soon after its opening. "There's been such a push in recent years to improve science education, but stuff like this still hangs around."
Phelps said he fears that some teachers, shying away from the origins controversy, may choose to omit mentioning evolution studies in the classroom.
State education officials said they have seen no sign of students challenging science teachers in their classrooms based on conclusions drawn from visits to the Creation Museum.
"It's not been a huge issue. In fact it's almost a nonissue for public schools," said Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education. "Teachers have been dealing with these things long before the Creation Museum came into being."
The Creation Museum does not draw nearly as many visitors as the nation's top science museums, which are larger and are financed by the government. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington attracted 5.8 million visitors in 2006; the Children's Museum in Indianapolis brought in 1.2 million that year, according to a list compiled by Forbes magazine.
But for its size and budget -- it took $27 million in private donations to build -- the museum has been an overwhelming success, founder Ken Ham said.
The museum in rural northern Kentucky, a 30-minute drive south of Cincinnati, has drawn more than 550,000 visitors in 151/2 months, by its own count.
Regular visitors pay $20 for admission, but about 10 percent were admitted for free over the past 15 months, museum officials said. Ham said that it draws families, home-schooled children, Christian- school groups and even skeptics.
Inside, evolution is replaced with the Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve as the first humans, and Noah preserving the human race from a worldwide flood.
Ham feels that the sleek presentation puts it on par with well-financed science museums. Patrick Marsh, who helped create exhibits at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., was brought in as the museum's director of design.
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