The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality - International Voices in ...

Betwixt Text and Nature, God and Evolution 155
accessibility of the terrain at which its message is presented most
imposingly.
6.2 Staff of the Creation Museum
According to Mr. Looy, the Creation Museum employs three
hundred staff members, which includes creative 52 and library staff,
and a small number of scholars. The latter is of particular interest.
A small group of about six academics are in the fulltime employ of
the Creation Museum, all qualified with advanced degrees in the
natural sciences. Their tasks comprise research, including the
publication of scholarly articles, public speaking engagements, and
answering questions on the Answers in Genesis webpage.
Naturally, all these activities take place from the vantage point of
creationism, with two main thrusts: pointing out problems they
perceive with evolution as a model of science, and presenting
alternative explanations, often in the vein of intelligent design.
Being published in mainstream scientific journals, however,
presents particular difficulties.
In an interview with David Menton, holder of a Ph.D. in
Biology from the ivy league Brown University, these aspects were
discussed quite frankly. His expectation, he said, was that the
52 A South African note: Very early on during my visit to the Museum’s
premises, waiting for my first appointment, I was surprised to be greeted in my
home language, Afrikaans. During two conversations it became clear that this
was an ex-South African, now resident in Cincinnati, who was one of the seven
employees involved with the design of the Creation Museum’s webpages. She
had been engaged as a graphic artist, while still living in Pretoria, at the
Transvaal Museum (www.gauteng.com/content.php?page=Transvaal%20
Museum; it has since been renamed the National Museum of Natural History),
which has a substantial collection of ancient fossils on prominent display, with
the thinking behind it, however, as would be expected, the acceptance of current
scientific consensus, also as regards evolution. On my prompt, the respondent
affirmed that she felt at home within the ideological climate at the Creation
Museum.