--- title: "God’s Fingerprints of Design: The Wonders Center & Science Museum" date: 2026-07-28 author: "Laurie Stroud" featured_image: "https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wonders-Center.jpg" categories: - name: "Travel" url: "/category/news/entertainment/travel.md" tags: - name: "Featured" url: "/tag/featured.md" --- # God’s Fingerprints of Design: The Wonders Center & Science Museum **Are We There Yet? Just three hours north of Birmingham sits the Wonders Center & Science Museum. Located in Dickson, Tenn., this 100,000-square-foot museum features exhibits, displays, interactive learning zones, and planetarium shows that all point to the Creator. David Rives, founder and director of the Wonders Center & Science Museum, explains, “We’re the largest science museum in the world that upholds Biblical values.” [![Wonders Center](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wonders-Center-300x200.jpg "Wonders Center")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wonders-Center.jpg)The magnificence of God’s creation comes alive at the Wonders Center & Science Museum and offers families, schools, homeschool groups, and churches an inspiring destination for learning and discovery. Group discounts are available.**Step Inside**. “When you walk through the museum, you will see kids’ hands-on activities. There are kids digging in sand pits, uncovering dinosaurs. They’re putting their hands on real meteorites and actual dinosaur bones,” Rives shares, adding, “Animatronics visit people for photo opportunities throughout their tours and we have halls of memorabilia and entire exhibit halls of geology and blowing rocks.” Visitors can be transported to Africa in one exhibit and then enjoy a movie in one of the Top 10 planetariums in the world “full dome planetarium style, floating through space where it looks like you’re flying past galaxies and stars.” What makes the Wonders Center & Science Museum unique? When someone is inspecting a meteorite or browsing an exhibit, everything in the museum points to the glory of God. “It’s all pointing us back to the idea that we are not an accident and that we are actually wonderfully made by God,” Rives says. [![Wonders Center outdoor](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wonders-Center-outdoor-300x153.jpg "Wonders Center outdoor")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wonders-Center-outdoor.jpg)The Wonders Center & Science Museum is located at 855 TN-46, Dickson, TN, 37055.**The Inspiration.** As a young child, Rives had an interest in creation. As an eight year old exploring and digging in his backyard around 30 miles north of the Ala. and Tenn. border, he discovered a fossil. “I kept finding things like fossil bivalves and seashell imprints and corals in my backyard,” Rives remembers, sharing that he put all of his treasures in a fishing tackle box “not understanding that it would turn into the largest science museum in Tenn. It started with just searching my backyard, being curious, picking up rocks and realizing that science in and of itself is telling us stories.” When he was 16 years old, Rives connected a camera to the back of a telescope and took a photo of *The Great Orion Nebula*. He was shocked at the vividness of the photo and decided he wanted to share his passion for science as more than a hobby “but actually as a ministry outreach tool to reach the world with the idea that not only is science cool and creation is amazing, but God’s world is absolutely designed and it’s pointing us right back to the Designer, the God of the Bible,” says Rives. [![David Rives](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/David-Rives-260x300.jpg "David Rives")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/David-Rives.jpg)[Click here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x4EtZLwcUw) to learn more about the Wonders Center & Science Museum in a video interview featuring founder David Rives.In addition to the Wonders Center & Science Museum, Rives is the founder of David Rives Ministries and the author of several books including *21 Verses Backed by Science*. “The book is a way for people to deepen their faith,” Rives explains, adding, “I realized that if the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then there should be nuggets of truth scattered throughout that are scientifically accurate because God created it. So, in the book, I tell stories. I look at a verse and ask a question: Is this a scientifically accurate verse? I then show how thousands of years of Earth’s history were necessary before we were even able to grasp the concepts found in that verse, which means that your average person didn’t write it down.” **Learn More.** Each week, David Rives Ministries sends out an email update called Creation Weekly. It is free to receive and covers topics on science and the Christian faith for children and adults. You can sign up for this email update at [davidrives.com](http://www.davidrives.com). To find more information about the Wonders Center & Science Museum, including upcoming events, or to plan your visit, go to [wonderscenter.org](http://www.wonderscenter.org). † In the video below, The Wonders Center & Science Museum founder David Rives shares more on the inspiration behind the museum, what families can expect when they visit, and more.