Editing Cryptozoology (section)

===Young Earth creationism===
A subset of cryptozoology promotes the pseudoscience of [[Young Earth creationism]], rejecting conventional science in favor of a literal [[Biblical hermeneutics|Biblical interpretation]] and promoting concepts such as "[[Young Earth creationism#Flood geology, the fossil record, and dinosaurs|living dinosaur]]s". [[Science journalism|Science writer]] [[Sharon A. Hill|Sharon Hill]] observes that the Young Earth creationist segment of cryptozoology is "well-funded and able to conduct expeditions with a goal of finding a living dinosaur that they think would invalidate evolution".<ref name="SCIENTIFICAL-AMERICANS-66">Hill (2017: 66).</ref>

[[Anthropology|Anthropologist]] Jeb J. Card says that "[[Creationism|[c]reationists]] have embraced cryptozoology and some cryptozoological expeditions are funded by and conducted by creationists hoping to disprove evolution."<ref name="CARD-32">Card (2016: 32).</ref> In a 2013 interview, [[paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Donald Prothero]] notes an uptick in creationist cryptozoologists. He observes that "[p]eople who actively search for [[Loch Ness Monster|Loch Ness monsters]] or [[Mokele-mbembe|Mokele Mbembe]] do it entirely as creationist ministers. They think that if they found a [[dinosaur]] in the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]] it would overturn all of evolution. It wouldn't. It would just be a late-occurring dinosaur, but that's their mistaken notion of evolution."<ref name="NAT-GEO-2013-PROTHERO-INTERVIEW">Shea (2013).</ref>

Citing a 2013 exhibit at the [[Petersburg, Boone County, Kentucky|Petersburg, Kentucky]]-based [[Creation Museum]], which claimed that [[dragon]]s were once biological creatures who walked the earth alongside humanity and is broadly dedicated to Young Earth creationism, religious studies academic Justin Mullis notes that "[c]ryptozoology has a long and curious history with Young Earth Creationism, with this new exhibit being just one of the most recent examples".<ref name="MULLIS-2019-249">Mullis (2019: 249).</ref>

Academic Paul Thomas analyzes the influence and connections between cryptozoology in his 2020 study of the Creation Museum and the creationist theme park [[Ark Encounter]]. Thomas comments that, "while the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter are flirting with [[pseudoarchaeology]], coquettishly whispering pseudoarchaeological rhetoric, they are each fully in bed with cryptozoology" and observes that "[y]oung-earth creationists and cryptozoologists make natural bed fellows. As with pseudoarchaeology, both young-earth creationists and cryptozoologists bristle at the rejection of mainstream secular science and lament a seeming conspiracy to prevent serious consideration of their claims."<ref name="THOMAS-80-81">Thomas (2020: 80–81).</ref>