The first time I heard of The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, I thought someone was having me on. After all, who would possibly create an entire facility, much less something they would call a museum, dedicated to the idea that not only was the creation story (well, stories, actually) recounted in the Book of Genesis literally correct but that most of the more popular aspects of paleontology, geology, and anthropology could be reconciled with it – or, as needed, refuted by it. And even if someone did actually establish such a thing, who in their right mind would visit it?
As it turns out, lots of right (socio-politically, that is) minded people would, and have. Since it opened in 2007, millions of visitors have walked through its doors, strolled through its exhibits, met the animals in its petting zoo, and ridden on its zip lines.
Now, thanks to Johns Hopkins University Press, Righting America at the Creation Museum by Susan L. Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger, Jr. brings the curious and fascinating story of this unique institution to light. The authors, dedicated since 2008 to the study of both the Museum itself and its implications to American society and its perceptions and understandings of science, politics, and religion, have long maintained an extensive website about their research. Now with their work meticulously outlined in a single volume, I am very interested indeed to learn what they have thus far discovered.
