Well, we finally managed to get the family packed up for a trip to the Creation Museum. If you can go on a Monday in November, you will have a great opportunity to experience the exhibits without having to peer over someone's sholder. With a few exceptions, such as the Stargazer Planetarium and the Special Effects Theater, we had our pick of seats, and the lines were non-existent, giving us the opportunity to take as much or as little time as we needed. After a handful of guests stopped and talked to Dr. Georgia Purdom after her talk, my wife and I had her all to ourselves in the Dragon Hall bookstore, as we peppered her with questions on how to evangelize, how to get a church fired up over this issue, etc. Dr. David Menton's "Microscarium" presentation where we used a flat screen tv to view what kinds of God's creatures could be seen by peering into a drop of water from the pond outside, was an impressive look at just how complex a "simple" single celled protozoa can be as we watched them twirl like tops to gather their food.

Despite having the whole museum pretty much to ourselves, we had to scramble to see everything in one day, and in fact missed quite a bit. The kids didn't get to partake in the two Dino Mite Readers programs, I missed a talk, as well as a second Planetarium exhibit on the planets. You could easily spend over a day there. It was almost too cold to visit the petting zoo, but that, feeding the fish off of the deck, and the maze, all outdoor activities, were some of the favorites on their list. The kids also enjoyed the entryway, with the exhibits and live animals, tremendously, along with the Dinosaur Den, and the treasure hunt. The more things that can keep the kids captivated, the better the family experience will be.

It was great to see the Museum completed, since the last time I was there it was under construction. While in town, we talked up the Museum as much as we could. We were amazed to find out how few locals have been there, despite the Museum breaking all projected attendance estimations. While some have never heard of it despite living 20 minutes away, others complained that it was too expensive. We urged them to go regardless. The Museum is top notch, and of the highest quality, and I have no doubt the operating budget is immense. I'm sure any financial barrier that could be removed, has been, so that more people have a greater opportunity to experience the Truth at this unique institution.

It was a great trip. I hope to do this once a year, and would like to organize a church trip, though coordinating a weekend trip to a destination five hours away and getting back back for Sunday Morning Service would be quite a challenge.

As the head of a poor midwestern family, it is my frugal duty to plan a cost-effective annual vacation. As the family matures, however, demands on the pocketbook increase and make for quite the challenge for this cheap charlie. No longer is a trip to the park considered a vacation by my children. No longer can I get away with calling my dandelion-infested back yard a trip to a "botanical garden," and sadly, running through the sprinkler no longer passes for a "water park." So I have had to improvise.

First stop - the Saint Louis Zoo - and another visit to my old friend, the animatronic Charles Darwin. You know, I get nostalgic thinking about how bull headed I once was to believe in a special creation, even it if is strongly supported by observational science, especially when I realize the error in my ways, according to the scientifically-unsupported theory he popularized.

I'm wondering, with all the million-dollar Darwin museum projects in North America popping up in attempt to counteract the effect the fabulous Creation Mueseum is having, whether Mr. Darwin too has received a face lift. (Full report forthcoming.)

So with my trip approaching, I'd like you to take a step back in time with me as I reflect on my experience the last time Chuck and I got together to discuss origins.

A friend of mine is in an ongoing email conversation with an evolutionary atheist, who recently wrote her the following.

I know this probably sounds odd to you, but I can't be too interested because I am not interested in heaven. I am thankful for life and and try to make of it what I can, but I have no ambition to live eternally. As for Jesus, I admire his actions -- or the stories told of his actions. I see inherent value -- most of the time -- in turning the other cheek, for instance. I try to take the high road in life, which I think is largely what Jesus preached. But Ghandi preached that as well, and I also respect him. I am sorry but I don't see either Jesus or Ghandi as a god. Christianity paints a nice story, but to me it is just a story. If people draw strength from it and if causes them to live good lives, then that is a good thing. I suspect the same can be said for Judaism, Islam and other world religioins.

My friend asked me for comments, and this is how I responded. I could break them down further into individual arguments, but I don't have the time. So this is just a summary of my thoughts

The person quoted above is an evolutionist who has not been convinced by your arguments for special creation. He has no interest in Heaven because he does not believe in it. He does not believe in it because he chooses to believe instead in a lie - that life somehow arose from nothing, and progressed via random chance processes to a point where he has been given, through dumb luck, the profound and incredibly complex abilities to see, to hear, to feel (both physically and emotionally), to react, and ultimately, to think for himself. However, this thought process of his has failed him - because his belief system cannot be supported scientifically, and he has therefore willfully committed intellectual suicide in order to escape God's righteousness. He is therefore on the wide path that leads to destruction. How? Because of the false presuppostions that guide his way.

His incorrect axioms have let him to be deceived into not giving Christ credit, because he could never give the Bible the credit it deserves, because it could never have been Spirit-led, because there's no Spirit. (Am I using the word "because" too much?) .

And because he does not know of Christ's love, living his life for himself, while still managing to be a "good person," and when dying, it's truly the end, has great appeal. Knowing a bit about that, I can say that you have an uphill battle indeed.

You're evangelist efforts are commendable. They have been barbaric (that is a GOOD thing!) and sincere. It's the parable of the seed and the sower. You should continue to be his friend - that goes without saying - and you really shouldn't give up, which I know you won't. What comes next in your dialogue, other than pointing out that he has a presupposition and that it is faulty, is something I will pray for.

Because many of my friends know that I believe in a young earth, they often bring to me new articles on supposed evidence for an old earth. It should not be long then that I'm sent the most recent (90 million year old) snake fossil find.

So I wanted to give you the modus operandi of evolutionary teaching via news sources in this ongoing, full scale assault on creationism in their hopes to hopefully slow the rapidly spreading cracks in the facade of evolution.

Step 1: Begin with a forceful headline
Knowing that many readers have a short attention span, this is a common tactic used, something like:

"Ethiopian fossils link humans to 4.4 million-year-old apelike creatures, researchers say."

Step 2: Lead with a strong opening statement:

"Fossil hunters scouring Ethiopia's harsh and rocky Afar desert have uncovered fresh evidence linking our human ancestors of 3.5 million years ago with more primitive apelike forebears who lived a million years earlier and had not yet emerged from woodland habitats.

Step 3: Bury ambiguous rationale in the last paragraph.

"The major noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus' bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said."

So, following this logic, my wife has bigger teeth than mine is evidence that she is further along than I on the evolutionary chain.

Once again, I've been proven correct: This is further evidence that I definitely married up. Thank God Random Chance Processes for Storybook Science!