Consider these two exhibitions. The Creation Museum, built by a Christian ministry called Answers in Genesis, displays models of dinosaurs, fossils and a few live animals, all put in service to the idea that Genesis is literally true, that the Earth was created in six days, and even the most "ancient" fossil would date from the time of Noah's flood, not even 6,000 years ago. Natural objects are used to argue for the truth of what is, for nonbelievers, a mythological vision.
Meanwhile, at the Museum of Natural History's new exhibition of "Mythic Creatures," the reverse is true: Mythological beings are used to demonstrate truths about the natural world. The exhibition suggests that many fantastical creatures were imaginative attempts to make sense of the enormous mastodon and mammoth fossils found by ancient cultures. The giant, the cyclops, the griffin: all were the results of efforts to flesh out the bones and relics of extinct species.
More...
