Answers in Genesis

Answers in Genesis, or AiG, is by far the most influential and well funded of the American ministries devoted to Young Earth Creationism. Founded and led by popular author and speaker Ken Ham, it is located in Boone County, Ky., where its signature program is the $27 million Creation Museum that opened in 2007 and has seen more than 700,000 visitors in two years.

AiG has an annual budget of nearly $20 million, which funds the production of a various promotional materials including DVDs, music, publications including peer-reviewed research journals and children’s magazines and books, radio shows and public appearances of its key staff.

AIG formed in 1993 thanks to the efforts of Ham and Mark Looy and Mike Zovath, two of Ham's colleagues from his time at the Henry Morris-founded Institute for Creation Research (ICR). Previously, Ham had been “on loan” to ICR as a lecturer for its teaching conferences. Dr. Morris, who also wrote a gracious letter of introduction for the new ministry, was one of AiG’s first donors.

AiG is an apologetics ministry that defends the Bible as the verbally inspired written word of God, completely reliable in all matters including history and science. AiG also teaches that evolution is responsible for most of the moral, social and even economic problems facing the world, including drug abuse, divorce, youth violence, abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia.

AiG’s biblical literalism and hostility toward evolution lead them to promote both “special creation”, or a literal six day creation of the world, and a young earth that is thousands, rather than billions, of years old. AiG also promotes a reading Scripture that favors simple, straightforward interpretation of the English text, unencumbered by extrabiblical concerns like ancient cultures, linguistics, or literary nuance. According to their statement of faith, belief in the literal interpretation of the Genesis creation accounts is foundational to all of Christianity and cannot be divorced from the Gospel.

AiG presents a design perspective for the existence of the creator and completely rejects evolution — particularly natural selection and mutation — to bring about the diversity of species we see today. Neither natural selection nor mutations, AiG argues, can produce new information, something required for the emergence of more complex organisms. Furthermore, they contend evolution contradicts the second law of thermodynamics and the Big Bang theory makes no sense.

Acceptance of macroevolution, according to to AiG's Web site, compromises the authority of Scripture and of Christian truths, and it is a capitulation to human rather than divine wisdom. Ultimately, the debate between creationism and evolution comes down to presuppositions rather than facts. Both creationists and evolutionists can have the same data but interpret it using different frameworks based on their presuppositions.