Harvard University, one of the world’s leading centers for scientific research, has established that creationism is becoming increasingly more powerful in the world and that the global center for this is the work of the Science Research Foundation (BAV). The latest edition of the book The Creationists, from Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design devotes a special section to the work of the BAV in setting out the fact of creation. The section in question is summarized as follows in a report headed “Creation Museums and the Rise of Global Creationism:”
An unusual phenomenon that seems to be popping up a lot lately—the creation museum. America's first one is set to open this spring in Petersburg, Kentucky. The $26.4 million facility boasts animatronic dinosaurs and a state-of-the-art SFX theater, all designed to convince visitors that God created the world exactly as it’s described in the Bible.
And it's not just in the US. Like everything these days, creationism is going global, as evidenced by a campaign to open small creation museums across Turkey (a typical one, located in an Istanbul kebab shop, greets visitors with a portrait of Charles Darwin framed in dripping blood). Matt Mossman reports in this month's issue of SEED Magazine:
“In its latest campaign, BAV [Bilim Arastirma Vakfi, or "Scientific Research Foundation"] has opened more than 80 "museums" in restaurants, malls, and city halls across Turkey, each stocked with fossils, posters, and eager volunteers. Oktar's disciples use tactics cribbed from US organizations like California's Institute for Creation Research, instructing passersby that evolution cannot explain biology's complexity and is against the word of God.”
BAV runs quite a sophisticated operation, as evidenced by its website, which, according to Mossman, offers downloadable Power Point presentations and questions with which students can challenge their evolution-loving science teachers. And the affinity with US creationists isn't mere coincidence--a BAV spokesman traveled to the US last year to testify in the Kansas Board of Education's intelligent design hearings. Beyond the US and Turkey, creationist movements in Britain and Australia (where they seem to be particularly strong) suggest a growing global trend.
For some time, the standard account of the rise of global creationism has been Ronald Numbers's The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. In November, HUP will publish an expanded edition of this classic, which tracks the development of creationist thinking over the centuries. Two new chapters chronicle the intelligent design movement and the new thrust of global creationism, which we can see at work in the examples above.
