Introduction

At the Creation Evidence Museum an entire section is dedicated to displays featuring the “Creativity of Man.” It begins with the construction of the 25-foot Replica by Dale Muska and his assistants; it continues with the creativity displayed in the engineering of the 1904 Oldsmobile, the artistry in the clay statue of coach Tom Landry by artist Robert Summers, the speech employed by Chief American Horse (featuring the actual attire he wore while negotiating peace between the Red Man and the White Man after the Battle of Little Big Horn), and the design in the space exploration instruments constructed by aerospace engineer Robert Helfinstine and his associates. These displays are actually in place at the museum. We should also mention the invention of the Gutenberg Press with movable type. The first book to be printed was the Gutenberg Bible! (The premier replicator of the Gutenberg Press is currently building a full-scale replica for our museum).

I.  The Unparalleled Mind of Man

At the heart of the creativity of man is his awesome mind, designed to reflect the image of the Creator Himself. The human brain’s three pounds represent a mere two percent of the body weight…the quartful of brain is so metabolically active that it uses twenty percent of the oxygen we take in through our lungs…A third of our genes code for one or another aspect of the brain.”[1]

The brain allows the finger to feel vibrations of 8/1000 of an inch…Allows the eye to see 10 million different colors.[2] [T]he brain’s complexity is beyond anything [we had] imagined…the total number of synapses in a brain roughly equal the number of stars in 1,500 Milky Way galaxies![3] At the subconscious level “people can actually reason, anticipate consequences, and devise plans – all without knowing they are doing so.”[4] This introduces us to the power of the human mind and its amazing creativity.

Scientific American reports: “ [M]ounting evidence indicates that…a large mental gap separates us from our fellow creatures.”[5] “[O]ur species alone creates soufflés, computers, guns, make-up, plays, operas, sculptures, equations, laws and religion. Not only have bees and baboons never made a soufflé, they have never even contemplated the possibility.”[6]

The author lists various intriguing feats that animals accomplish and explains that “animal thoughts are largely anchored in sensory and perceptual experiences…We alone ponder the likes of unicorns, and aliens, nouns and verbs, infinity and God.”[7] The same article lists four unique ingredients of the human mind. (1) Generative computation enables humans to create a virtually limitless variety of words, concepts and things. (2) Promiscuous combination of ideas allows the mingling of different domains of knowledge – such as art,…space, causality and friendship – thereby generating new laws, social relationships and technologies. (3) Mental symbols encode sensory experiences both real and imagined, forming the basis of a rich and complex system of communication. (4) Abstract thought permits contemplation of things beyond what we can see, hear, taste or smell.”[8]

II.  The Ark of Noah

Our 25-foot (1/20 scale) Replica of the Ark is the culmination of over forty years of research, months of working with our draftsman, eighteen months of actual craftsmanship on the vessel itself, and the sacrifice of dear people who contributed to make it possible.   The original Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high[9]. The cubit is normally considered to be about 18 inches in length. Often the ”royal cubit” was given as up to 26 inches. Our research indicates that the cubit was very close to 20.5 inches. This would make the original Ark 500 feet long, 86 feet wide, and 52 feet high.

III.  The Gutenberg Press

The art of printing originated in China. Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han dynasty inadvertently inspired this invention in AD 175 when he commanded that Confucian classics be engraved in stone. Bi Sheng invented a form of movable print during the reign of the Emperor Renzong of the Song dynasty, between AD 1041 and AD 1048. He took thin pieces of clay mixed with a sticky substance, carved a mirror image Chinese character on each piece and baked it in a kiln. When printing, he placed the characters in proper order on a coated metal plate.

Johannes Gutenberg (c.1395 – 1468) was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe. His invention of mechanical movable type printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses. Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type printing, around 1439. Among his many contributions to printing are: the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the use of oil-based ink; and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system which allowed the mass production of printed books. In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society.[10]

[1] Sherwin B. Nuland, op cit, p. 328

[2] Paul A. Bartz, Letting God Create Your Day (Minneapolis: Bible Science Association, 1993) Vol.4, p. 197

[3] E.A. Moore, Human Brain has more switches than all computers on Earth, CNET News, news.cnet.com November 17, 2010

[4] Joseph Weiss, “Unconscious Mental Functioning,” Scientific American, March 1990, p. 103

[5] Marc Hauser, “The Mind,” Scientific American, September 2009, p. 44

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid., p. 46

[8] Ibid.

[9] Genesis 6:15, The Holy Bible

[10] Google Information