The Museum of Earth History has opened as part of the New Holy Land theme park in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Its intention is to blend dinosaurs with Creationism, which holds that the Earth is just a few thousand years old and that the biblical account of Genesis is fact.

"Dinosaurs are mentioned 25 times in the Old Testament," insists the Museum of Earth History's web site. "The reason the actual word dinosaur doesn't appear in the Bible is simple: it did not exist when the Bible was written."

The modest-sized, circular museum is divided into several sections, each illustrated with casts of dinosaur skulls and skeletons in front of original murals. In Eden, for example, Adam and Eve live in harmony with the big lizards. Even T. Rex is a vegetarian. As one passes by "The Curse" and "The Great Flood," however, things go bad. At the end, in "Ice Age," cold and hungry cavemen wipe out the last of the dinosaurs. Another exhibit, "The Tower of Babel," is part of the museum, but what it has to do with dinosaurs is not immediately clear.

New Holy Land is also home to Christ of the Ozarks, an impressive Mega-Messiah. The Creation Truth Foundation Inc., which co-founded the Museum of Earth History, is planning a much larger museum in Dallas.

[06/02/2005]