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Creationism Museum Opening in Kentucky
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat May 26, 2007 05:39 PM
from the see-where-you-are-wrong-is-everywhere dept.
from the see-where-you-are-wrong-is-everywhere dept.
Noel Linback writes "A new creationism-espousing museum is opening in the state of Kentucky. According to a New York Times article the museum depicts humans and dinosaurs living together in traditional 'diorama' style exhibit. 'Whether you are willing to grant the premises of this museum almost becomes irrelevant as you are drawn into its mixture of spectacle and narrative. Its 60,000 square feet of exhibits are often stunningly designed by Patrick Marsh, who, like the entire museum staff, declares adherence to the ministry's views; he evidently also knows the lure of secular sensations, since he designed the Jaws and King Kong attractions at Universal Studios in Florida. For the skeptic the wonder is at a strange universe shaped by elaborate arguments, strong convictions and intermittent invocations of scientific principle. For the believer, it seems, this museum provides a kind of relief: Finally the world is being shown as it really is, without the distortions of secularism and natural selection. '"
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A Field Trip To the Creation Museum 1854 comments
Lillith writes "The anti-evolution Creation Museum opened last weekend and Ars took a field trip there and took lots of pictures. 'There were posters explaining just how coal could be formed in a few weeks as opposed to over millions of years, and how rapidly the biblical flood would cover the earth, drowning all but a handful of living creatures. The flood plays a big part in the museum's attempt to explain away what we see as millions of years of natural processes. There was also an explanation as to why, with only one progenitor family, it wasn't considered incest for Adam and Eve's children to marry each other.' (Myself, I liked the picture of the velociraptor grazing peacefully next to Eve, who is wearing some kind of dirndl, in the Garden of Eden.)" The reporter posted more photos from the museum on Flickr.
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Entertainment: Texas Creationist Museum Facing Extinction 824 comments
gattaca writes "A small Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-sized skull finds a generous bidder. 'If it sells, well, then we can come another day,' Joe Taylor said. 'This is very important to our continuing.'" Meanwhile, the much larger Creation Museum in Kentucky that we discussed and toured when it opened last year seems to be thriving.
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On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon (Score:5, Funny)
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All knowledge is uncertain (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people are very uncomfortable with uncertainty. They desperately crave a solid and unquestionable source for correct knowledge. So, in the absence of such a source, the mind will play games with itself to create one. Hence the popular religious trend of interpreting mythology as if it were history.
It is true that scientific knowledge is not rock-solid. It is vulnerable to inaccuracy and just as questionable as any other kind of knowledge. So, the religious believers are correct in pointing this out. However, there is a very important difference of methodology at work. The scientific process is one of perpetual questioning and re-examination of fact, and hence of perpetual refinement of accuracy. The religious process utterly lacks this element, and as such it has no demonstrable means of approaching any kind of practical validity. That, however, does not prevent people from convincing themselves that their religion of choice is correct and unquestionable, and that any and all evidence to the contrary must be in error.
So long as this thought process is confined to the realm of private institutions (museums, churches, clubs, and what have you), I am fine with it. Just don't go infecting public education with your myths.
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An appeal (Score:5, Informative)
Here goes:
The word "theory" is not synonymous with the word "hypothesis" in science.
Please, please try to remember this when you instinctively want to cry "but it's only a theory!" when talking about evolutionary theory. As has doubtless been explained to you ad nauseum by the scientifically-inclined, Theory is a designator that must be earned and requires a reasonable body of supporting evidence. So while indeed the colloquial allows the use of "I have a theory" to mean a hypothesis, this is not correct in science.
Make whatever other arguments you will, but please stop making this elementary mistake. cheers.
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The museum was built in 6 days (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The museum was built in 6 days (Score:5, Funny)
You ever noticed how people who believe in evolution look a little bit less evolved?
"I b'lieve Gawd created me in 6 days!"
"Yeah, it looks like he might've rushed it..."
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Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Funny)
That's it, I'm starting the Homosexual Creationism Museum which honors homosexual Neanderthals and dinosaurs.
I think that's a fair compromise.
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Re:It's not a compromise (Score:5, Insightful)
If there is a salvation to be had, here is the secret: Be kind to each other.
What else could possibly matter?
Any God that cares if you worshipped him doesn't deserve the position.
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Re:Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Insightful)
Or do you just consider Christianity the idea that we should be nice to each other? Because I don't think Jesus invented that concept.
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Re:Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Insightful)
In its broadest sense, a fundamentalist is someone who believes that unvarying principles must apply to all people or every situation, in this case, the Bible as absolute truth. So, if someone believes every word of the Bible is absolute truth and nothing is metaphorical, simplified in terms that the people of the time would understand, and was completely accurate in its translation from language to language, then that would qualify them as a fundamentalist in my mind. In general, there is nothing wrong with that. I see no problem with believing what you believe. It's when you force that belief on other people that causes problems. Open discussion of beliefs on the other hand, is good for everyone involved.
Now, what do I believe? I am a Christian, but I believe there is one problem with the Bible: it was physically written be humans. This means two primary things to me:
- It could only be written in terms that the person writing it could understand. This could lead to simplification of concepts. For example, in the story of creation, seven days may not necessarily equate to seven 24-hour periods. It could just mean seven stages, where each stage could take years, centuries, millenniums, etc.
- Because humans are flawed, some of those who physically wrote the Bible may have injected their views of the world into it. It then becomes a problem to decipher what may have been written by a human voice and not God's. This can only be done through self reflection which will be different for each person.
This is just what I believe and I have no expectations of other people to accept or adhere to this belief. This is where I depart from fundamentalists.Parent
Re:Heading off at the pass (Score:5, Interesting)
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So where are the cave drawings? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So where are the cave drawings? (Score:5, Funny)
Satan.
See, isn't this easier than thinking?
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Re:So where are the cave drawings? (Score:5, Funny)
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My favourite quote (Score:5, Interesting)
"It's a great place for children who are in public school and haven't really decided what to believe yet."
Who ya gonna believe! GOD or some hairy liberal professor! [scienceblogs.com]
Welcome to the 21st Century, America!
Almost funny... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Intelligent Design" groups have been running tours through legitimate museums, providing their own narrative in order to dispute the information provided by the museum displays. Maybe after this museum opens some atheist tour group so do the same thing...take tours through Ken's "museum" and provide scientific narrative to dispute his biblical nonsense.
Creationism Explained, by Gary Larson (Score:5, Funny)
That just about covers it, I think.
Best Protest (Score:5, Interesting)
The best way to protest this is to get a couple thousand people to show up there and laugh for 5 minutes on queue. I recall a similar protest was done in India some years ago and it is brilliant.
Just laugh as hard as you can at them for 5 minutes. Rinse. Repeat.
not a museum (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps "theme park", or "house of ill repute" instead?
natural selection (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One question about this story: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Not going there (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the great thing about science: neither do scientists! They don't know what they have right, either. Isn't that a fucking hoot?
What they know is what *makes sense* based on observed facts. The epistemology of science is simple: if your explanation is contradicted by observation, it is not true. Otherwise, it *might* be true.
That's it. Nothing is ever "proven." It's just that some things only have one current explanation, and so we use those as our working assumptions. If another explanation comes around that isn't contradicted by the *observable facts*, that explanation is also considered.
Human nature makes us sure of ourselves-- sometimes *too* sure. But, for the most part, the scientific method, and the knowledge gained from that method, are self-correcting.
And that is why this museum can never win any converts from those who understand science. Their explanations do not cover the observable facts.
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