Creation Museum Being Built in Kentucky

BOONE COUNTY, Ky. – A new museum being built in Kentucky will have some of the classic staples of natural history museums — dinosaurs, fossils and a mineral collection. But it will also have something most museums don't: a viewpoint based solely on the Bible.

"We wanted to present an alternative, a scientific alternative to the natural history museums, which present evolution as fact," explained Mark Looy, spokesman for Answers in Genesis (search), the Australia-based group building the Creation Museum (search).

Challenging a widely held belief of modern scientists, the museum founders aim to counter the notion that man evolved from apes.

"We believe that dinosaurs were created alongside of man on day six of creation," said Looy. "They did not die out 65 million years ago."

Critics such as the Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor of St. Peter's United Church of Christ (search) in nearby Cincinnati, say museum leaders are twisting Bible verses to support an agenda.

"It's silly. It's a silly, silly argument," said Adams. "They use what I consider to be a flawed analysis of Scripture."

But the Creation Museum is getting a great deal of support. Millions of dollars in donations have come in from around the world.

The money's been used to build a theater, a planetarium and a nature trail on 50 acres of land, all focused on teaching the Bible in some way.

Half a million visitors a year are expected. That worries many scientists, who say the museum will attempt to undo a person's scientific education.

"They're pretty much saying that scientists around the world have colluded to pretty much lie to people," said Dr. William Anyonge, a paleontologist and assistant professor of biology at Xavier University (search) in Cincinnati. "I think that is really a slander to science."

Looy counters that the museum's message is well supported.

"Yes, the content will be very different from what you'll hear presented from mainstream scientists," he said, "but it's still good science nonetheless."

The museum plans to open in the spring of 2007.

Click in the video box above for a full report by FOX News' Jeff Goldblatt.