The Creation Museum One Year Later

According to Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in Genesis and guiding light behind the Petersburg, Kentucky creation museum, success has been overwhelming. The International Herald Tribune reports that over 550 thousand people in a little over a year, according to the museum. So, what has been the local effect?

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 doesn't draw nearly the numbers of visitors as the nation's top science museums, which boast larger facilities and government funding. 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.

Still, Ham can be proud of the draw that it has been. It has clearly been a success.