Atheist Activist Group Objects to Public School Visits to Ken Ham’s Creation Museum
ICC Note: The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) recently issued letters to three public schools in the US, urging them to cancel field trips to the Creation Museum. Although the trips are voluntary for students and do not cost the school districts any money, the FFRF alleged that the trips exclude non-Christian students. The group has suggested that schools should instead take students on trips to secular museums.
By Heather Clark
05/02/2016 United States (Christian News Network) – A professing atheist activist organization is expressing its objection to three public schools that either have already or plan to visit Ken Ham’s Creation Museum in Kentucky.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) recently sent letters to officials with Brookville High School in Dayton, Ohio, Jackson Independent School District in Kentucky, and the Big Beaver Falls School District in Pennsylvania to urge the cancellation of the trips to Petersburg.
“It is unconstitutional for a public school to take students on a field trip to a religious venue such as the Creation Museum, a Christian museum which promotes the religious doctrine of creationism and lists is mission as ‘to point today’s culture back to the authority of Scripture and proclaim the gospel message,’” the letters read.
A press release from the organization also notes that Ham’s 75,000 square foot museum features “a diorama of a human and a dinosaur together, implying that they existed simultaneously. Each display contrasts science with a literalist interpretation of the Bible.”
FRRF says that the school trips to the Creation Museum “excludes non-Christian and non-religious students” and are not permissible even though attendance is voluntary and comes at no cost to the districts.
Jackson City School and Brookville High School have already visited the venue, and Big Beaver Falls High School plans to attend later this month. FFRF advised district officials that they should rather take the children to secular venues rather than those who provide evidence for biblical creation.