Answers in Genesis (AiG) is an American
fundamentalist Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity.
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in t ...
parachurch organization. It advocates
Young Earth creationism on the basis of its
literal
Literal may refer to:
* Interpretation of legal concepts:
** Strict constructionism
** The plain meaning rule (a.k.a. "literal rule")
* Literal (mathematical logic), certain logical roles taken by propositions
* Literal (computer programmin ...
,
historical-grammatical
The historical-grammatical method is a modern Christian hermeneutical method that strives to discover the biblical authors' original intended meaning in the text. According to the historical-grammatical method, if based on an analysis of the gram ...
interpretation of the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
and the Bible as a whole. Out of belief in
biblical inerrancy, it rejects the results of
scientific investigation
Scientific study is a kind of study that involves scientific theory, scientific models, experiments and physical situations. It may refer to:
*Scientific method, a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, based on empirical or measurable ...
s that contradict their view of the
Genesis creation narrative and instead supports
pseudoscientific creation science. The organization sees
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
as incompatible with the Bible and believes anything other than the young Earth view is a compromise on the principle of biblical inerrancy.
AiG began as the Creation Science Foundation in 1980, following the merger of two Australian creationist groups. Its name changed to Answers in Genesis in 1994, when
Ken Ham founded its United States branch. In 2006, the branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa split from the US and UK to form
Creation Ministries International. In 2007, AiG opened the
Creation Museum, a facility that promotes young-Earth creationism, and in 2016, the organization opened the
Ark Encounter, a
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in ...
–themed amusement park. AiG also publishes websites, magazines, journals, and a streaming service, and its employees have published books.
Organization
Answers in Genesis resulted from the merging of two Australian creationist organizations in 1980, one led by John Mackay and
Ken Ham and the other by
Carl Wieland. The organization later became known as Answers in Genesis. It is based in
Petersburg, Kentucky, and has international offices in Australia, Canada, Peru, and the United Kingdom. Following turmoil in 2005, the AiG network split in 2006. The US and UK branches retained the AiG name and control of the AiG website under Ham's leadership. The Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and South African branches rebranded themselves as Creation Ministries International (CMI). In 2007, CMI filed suit against AiG-USA alleging a variety of wrongdoings, including publicly defaming their organization.
In June 2006, Answers in Genesis launched the ''Answers'' magazine in the United States and United Kingdom, followed by the ''Answers Research Journal'' in 2008, which was widely criticized in the media and scientific circles. Also in 2006, the
National Religious Broadcasters awarded Answers in Genesis their Best Ministry Website award. In May 2007, AiG launched the
Creation Museum in the United States. The museum received criticism from the
National Center for Science Education and petitions of protest from the scientific community.
Views and activities
From the outset,
Ken Ham did not share the interest of other groups promoting
creation science in aiming to produce evidence supporting
young Earth creationism,
although Answers in Genesis still maintain that "creation science is real science". Instead, Answers in Genesis focuses on presenting evangelicalism as an all-out battle of their biblical
worldview against a perceived
naturalistic scientific worldview.
Ham's message has had three central points:
* that teaching of
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
is an evil causing damage to society
* that the
first eleven chapters of the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
give a precise description of the process of creation of the universe and provide direct instruction on the organization of society
* that proper Christians must engage in a total conflict battling against
atheistic humanism
Answers in Genesis messages promote central young-Earth creationist doctrines, including the concepts of literal Creation of the Earth in six 24-hour days and
effects of a global flood. Still, they focus mainly on accepting the authority of their particular
literal reading of the Bible as a precondition for eternity in heaven. They present this as choosing one's personal ultimate authority for truth, with God's Word and human reason being the two possible options, and those choosing the latter over the former liable to perishment.
They hence introduce the concept of "biblical reasoning", where one is "never to attempt to reason in opposition to the Word of God", and thus claim that this biblical reasoning and biblical faith "work very well together".
The Answers in Genesis organization rejects key scientific facts and theories as established by
archeology,
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosophe ...
, geology,
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fos ...
, and
evolutionary biology and argues that the universe, the Earth and life originated about 6,000 years ago. (Creationism beliefs reject
natural causes and events in scientific explanations of nature and of the origin of the universe in favor of the
supernatural, and the
Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that creationism is religion.)
A book published by one of AiG's employees in 2006 accused
Hollywood of using subtle tactics to slip "evolutionary content" into ''
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...
'', ''
Lilo & Stitch'' and ''
Finding Nemo'', affirming that "As Christians we need to reflect the Bible's standards and not Hollywood's perverted version of reality."
In 2020, AiG launched its own streaming service, Answers.tv, intended as an alternative to
Netflix,
Disney+, and other streaming platforms.
AiG has objected to the
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble ...
, saying "Sadly, many in this particular camp (sometimes ignorantly) have actually compromised Scripture by accepting the secular ideas being pushed by the JWST media at NASA (i.e., the big bang and evolution), thus rejecting the plain (biblical) reading of Genesis 1 and instead reinterpreting the days of creation to long ages. This is an unbiblical way of thinking that essentially elevates man's fallible ideas as the ultimate standard (i.e., humanism) over the infallible Word of God".
Creation Museum
AiG's Creation Museum is a museum displaying a
Young-Earth creationist
Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespre ...
worldview and
pseudoarchaeology. The facility has received much criticism from the scientific and religious communities, as well as from cultural commentators. The Creation Museum opened May 27, 2007, at a cost of $27 million raised entirely by private donations. The displays were created by Patrick Marsh, known for work on
Universal Studios Florida attractions for
King Kong and
Jaws.
A. A. Gill
Adrian Anthony Gill (28 June 1954 – 10 December 2016) was a British journalist, critic, and author. Best known for his food and travel writing, he was also a television critic, was restaurant reviewer of ''The Sunday Times'', wrote for '' Van ...
, a British writer and critic, described the museum as "battling science and reason since 2007", writing: "This place doesn't just take on evolution—it squares off with geology, anthropology, paleontology, history, chemistry, astronomy, zoology, biology, and good taste. It directly and boldly contradicts most -onomies and all -ologies, including most theology."
In 2012 a report noted that "public fascination" with the Creation Museum was "fading".
In November 2012 AiG reported that attendance for the year ended June 30 came to 254,074, which represented a 10 percent drop from the previous year and the attraction's "fourth straight year of declining attendance and its lowest annual attendance yet."
By mid-2015, 2.4 million people had visited the museum (about 340,000 visitors over seven years), and in 2017, AiG reported that in the year since its other attraction, the Ark Encounter, opened, the Creation Museum saw over 800,000 visitors, nearly triple the annual average of 300,000 visitors.
Ark Encounter
Answers in Genesis opened
Ark Encounter, a
theme-park, in
Grant County, Kentucky on July 7, 2016. The centerpiece of the park is a full-scale model of
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in ...
at long and high. After a visit to Ark Encounter,
Bill Nye, who had previously debated Ham, described his experience as "much more troubling or disturbing than
ethought it would be" and stated that "on the Ark's third deck, every single science exhibit is absolutely wrong". In December 2016, for the holiday season, AiG lit the Ark with
rainbow colors, aiming to "reclaim the symbol from the gay rights movement" and to remind viewers of the
Noahic covenant
The Hebrew Bible makes reference to a number of covenants ( he, בְּרִיתוֹת) with God (YHWH). These include the Noahic Covenant (in Genesis), which is between God and all living creatures, as well as a number of more specific covenants ...
.
By late October 2016, over 400,000 people had visited the attraction. This contrasts a state study that projected the attraction would receive 325,000 to under 500,000 visitors in the first year. AiG reported that the Ark Encounter in its first year of operation attracted over 1 million visitors and aggregated 1.5 million total visitors for both the Ark and the Creation Museum.
[
]
Workforce
In 2007 about 160 people including a chaplain worked at the Creation Museum (a division of AiG, so these were AiG employees) and another 140 people worked at the attached AiG headquarters.
[Dinosaurs, humans coexist in creationist museum]
. January 15, 2007. Each permanent employee of AiG including people who work at the museum must sign a statement of faith "in order to preserve the function and integrity of the ministry", indicating that he or she believes in young Earth creationism and the other teachings of Answers in Genesis. These include "Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation", "the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman", "the
great Flood of Genesis was an actual historic event" and "no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record". When applying for work a written statement of one's beliefs is required along with résumé and references.
[Ryan Clark.]
Creation Museum touches lives
." ''The (Cincinnati) Enquirer''. April 15, 2007 In 2007, ''
The Kentucky Post
''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publication and oneti ...
'' reported that the Creation Museum employed between 10 and 20 security guards armed with
.40 caliber
The .40 S&W is a Rim (firearms), rimless pistol Cartridge (firearms), cartridge developed jointly by American firearms manufacturers Smith & Wesson and U.S. Repeating Arms Company, Winchester in 1990. The .40 S&W was developed as a law enforceme ...
Glock handguns and three certified
law enforcement canines.
Creationist geologist
Andrew A. Snelling started working with AiG in 2007 as its director of research.
Reception
Creation science, which is supported by AiG, is a pseudoscience that "lacks the central defining characteristic of all modern scientific theories". Scientific and scholarly organizations, including the
National Academy of Sciences,
Paleontological Society,
Geological Society of America,
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal So ...
, and the
Royal Society of Canada have issued statements against the teaching of creationism. The National Center for Science Education, a science advocacy group, criticize AiG's promotion of non-science. In direct response to AiG,
No Answers in Genesis
Australian Skeptics is a loose confederation of like-minded organisations across Australia that began in 1980. Australian Skeptics investigate paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies. This page covers all Australian ...
is a website maintained by members of the
Australian Skeptics and retired civil servant John Stear for the purpose of rebutting claims made by AiG.
Astronomer
Hugh Ross's organization
Reasons To Believe, a
progressive creationist organization, is a critic of Answers in Genesis.
The BioLogos Foundation, which promotes
evolutionary creationism, has stated that the views of Answers in Genesis have "force
many thoughtful Christians to lose their faith," while The Biologos Foundation "protect
the Christianfaith." In 2011 skeptic
Brian Dunning listed it as #5 on his "Top 10 Worst Anti-Science Websites" list.
Richard Dawkins interview
In 1998, Answers in Genesis filmed an interview with
Richard Dawkins, a prominent evolutionary biologist at
Oxford University, resulting in a controversial video that AiG posted on its website. Dawkins addressed it in the essay: "The 'Information Challenge'", published in ''
A Devil's Chaplain'' in 2003. The "suspiciously amateurish" interview included, according to Dawkins, "the kind of question only a creationist would ask in that way" (namely, to "give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome"). Realizing that he had been duped, Dawkins, at his admission, was angry at the thought and initially refused to answer the question but relented and continued the interview. Dawkins wrote: "My generosity was rewarded in a fashion that anyone familiar with fundamentalist tactics might have predicted. When I eventually saw the film a year later, I found that it had been edited to give the false impression that I was incapable of answering the question about information content. In fairness, this may not have been quite as intentionally deceitful as it sounds. You have to understand that these people really believe that their question cannot be answered!"
The Australian Skeptics wrote that AIG edited the film to give the appearance that Dawkins was unable to "give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome" and that a segment that shows him pausing for 11 seconds was a film of him considering whether to expel the interviewer from the room for not revealing her creationist sympathies at the outset. Dawkins reported to the Australian Skeptics that the interviewer shown in the finished film was not the same person who had originally asked the questions. Dawkins and Barry Williams also said that AIG had subsequently changed the question to make it look like Dawkins, who answered the original question put to him, was unable to answer.
Legal action by Creation Ministries Int'l
On May 31, 2007, Creation Ministries International filed a lawsuit in
Supreme Court of Queensland against Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis seeking damages and accusing him of "unbiblical/unethical/unlawful behaviour" in his dealings with the Australian organization.
Before the split, the Australian group had been producing periodicals, ''Creation'' magazine and ''Journal of Creation'', which were then distributed in other countries by local groups. The Australian group had no access to the list of subscribers in the US. AiG discontinued the distribution arrangement, and produced a new magazine of their own, called ''Answers'', and represented that to subscribers as a replacement. Creation Ministries International claimed $252,000 (US) in damages for lost revenue by misleading and deceptive conduct in relating to lost subscriptions.
[ Photocopy supplied at the CMI website; official court file summar]
here
.
An editorial analysis of the situation, including reference to estranged co-founder John Mackay's allegations in 1986 of necrophilia and witchcraft against Ken Ham's personal secretary is offered in an account in the ''Reports of the National Center for Science Education''. In February 2009, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered Australian-based Creation Ministries International into arbitration with Answers in Genesis over copyrights and control of affiliates in other countries. In April 2009, the ministries reached a settlement and ended their dispute.
Anti-atheism billboards
In the spring of 2009, Answers in Genesis posted a billboard in Texas with a young boy aiming a gun towards the viewer with the words, "If God doesn't matter to him, do you?" The same image was used in a TV ad. In 2014, the organization purchased space in
Times Square to run a 15-second video advertisement addressed "To all of our intolerant liberal friends". According to AiG, the goal of the billboard was to "challenge the secularists who are increasingly intolerant of the Christian message". The Christian ''
Relevant Magazine'' described the ad as "passive-aggressive" and "weirdly combative".
Here's the Controversial Billboard 'Answers in Genesis' Is Displaying in Times Square Tonight
, '' Relevant Magazine'', 2014
Great Homeschool Conventions
In March 2011, the Board of Great Homeschool Conventions, Inc. (a young Earth Christian group) voted to disinvite Ken Ham and AiG from future conventions due to Ham's words about other Christians making "unnecessary, ungodly, and mean-spirited statements that are divisive at best and defamatory at worst". The controversy stemmed from Ham's commentary on the position expressed by Peter Enns, of The BioLogos Foundation, who advocated a symbolic rather than a literal interpretation of the fall of Adam and Eve. Writing on his blog, Ham accused Enns of espousing "outright liberal theology that totally undermines the authority of the Word of God", which led to his invitation being revoked.
See also
* Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate
The debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham on the question "Is Creation A Viable Model of Origins?" was held February 4, 2014, at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.
Ken Ham, founder and chief executive officer of the Young Earth creationis ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Answers In Genesis
Young Earth creationism
Creation science
Creationist organizations
Evangelical parachurch organizations
Christian organizations established in 1994