America One Spoke At a Time: In the Beginning

Dinosaur Museum in Glendiv, MT

Just before leaving Montana we finally got an opportunity to visit a dinosaur museum. Montana is a paleontologist’s dream come true. Buried across Montana are the fossilized bones of short-armed Tyrannosaurus rexes, horned triceratops, velociraptors (those famous critters from the Jurassic World movie franchise) and other dinosaurs who roamed here millions of years ago.

Jay attempted a dinosaur museum visit in the tiny town of Rudyard, MT, but the museum was closed. So when we noticed that the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum was just across the street from our motel, we did not hesitate.

Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis

The two-story museum is unique in two aspects. One, the displays of articulated dinosaur skeletons are exceptionally well done. Two, this museum is run by an organization called Foundation Advancing Creation Truth (FACT). Among the truths advanced are that dinosaurs and humans co-existed on earth and Noah included dinosaurs on his ark. Evolution is de-bunked and Biblical explanations such as The Great Flood are provided to explain findings revealed at dinosaur dig sites.

As Unitarian Universalists we are encouraged to conduct a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This was our first creationist museum so we remained open to the arguments presented. We were disappointed that the “evidence” provided only worked if you already believed in creationism.

Alvis Delk Track

A key artifact “confirming” that dinosaurs and humans co-existed was the Alvis Delk Track showing a dinosaur footprint and a human footprint together. The museum tries its best to provide scientific proof of authenticity of the two overlapping footprints, but a quick Google search while standing before the display reveals that the footprints are a hoax. We did, however, find the miniature replica of Noah’s ark with dinosaurs roaming about in the foreground convincing to the un-questioning eye. A Biblical diorama of the Great Flood circling the earth was less comprehensible.

Stegosaurus and Noah's Ark

We have travelled far and wide and have seen the devotion in which others hold their religious beliefs. The Hindus have their own creation stories. The Blackfeet Indians believe that the creator Napi fashioned the Sweet Grass Hills from the rocks left over from the formation of the Rocky Mountains. Who are we to judge a belief as unworthy of respect?

The rub comes when a religious group claims that they hold the ultimate and single truth, then tortures science to achieve a pseudo legitimacy to compel others to accept their point of view. We had our own local fight few years ago (in Georgia) when a religiously motivated school board insisted on placing disclaimer stickers in textbooks stating, “Evolution is a theory, not a fact, concerning the origin of living things.” An attorney from our church was among those who returned science to the classroom and religion to the church.

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