Tomorrow I head out with an outstanding group of teenagers and chaperones to Cincinnati, OH for a mission trip. We will be helping out a church plant in it first weekend of operation. One perk of this trip is an afternoon excursion to The Creation Museum. This 70,000 square foot museum is 7 miles outside the Cincinnati airport, just across the state border in Petersburg, KY. This will be my first trip to the museum but I have heard great things about it.

I knew there has always been animosity directed toward creation science from those within the scientific community. At the institutional level many other natural history museums mock The Creation Museum and call it pseudo-science. Well, here is something ironic! The Smithsonian (unknowingly, I’m sure) has used a photograph of one of the dinosaurs inside The Creation Museum on a major promotional brochure for its popular IMAX shows.

This little (plagiaristic and therefore illegal) mix up was uncovered by a true detective. Hannah, an 8 year old tourist, who was visiting the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. She recognized the dino’s ugly mug (yet artfully and professionally crafted) as the same one in The Creation Museum in her home state of KY. After some internet research the parents alerted The Creation Museum of the infringement.

President Ken Ham of the Creation Museum and Answers In Genesis is calling the Smithsonian out on it!

“I’m sure the Smithsonian will be horrified when they find out where this photo was taken. (We just alerted officials there about its copyright violation.)  Now, AiG/Creation Museum does own the copyright on this dinosaur of ours, and the Smithsonian or its ad agency obtained it from a commercial site that is not licensed to sell this photo.  Now, we would be happy to give permission to the Smithsonian to use this photo if they request it, but I’m sure once the word is out that this photo is of a dinosaur at the Creation Museum—well, I wonder what they will do?  After all, we are accused by the secularists of not doing real science—yet the Smithsonian chose one of our dinosaurs (albeit unwittingly) to feature on a major promotional piece.  Now, we are prepared to offer the Smithsonian a license for free, though it would require our copyright notice near the dinosaurs. Regardless, we are not asking the Smithsonian to throw out all their brochures with our dinosaur on them.” (read the full article in his own words here.)

Seems like the Creationists have the upper hand. 🙂  And it is always nice to get a pat on the back for professional, scientific, quality work…especially from the Smithsonian, even if it was unintentional.

Way to go Hannah keeping a close eye on the big shots. We need you to stay on your toes in case they try any other shenanigans. Keep it real Creation Museum, and keep it classy!

Your fellow worker in the field, Adam