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Comments: 1166 +-   Creationism Museum Opening in Kentucky on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:39PM

Posted by Zonk on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:39PM
from the see-where-you-are-wrong-is-everywhere dept.
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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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  • I mean, the whiskey has to count for SOMETHING, right?
    • by kennygraham (894697) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:19PM (#19285909)
      several groups (both religious and secular) will be protesting [rallyforreason.com]. come join us!
      • Now I'm torn between supporting young-earth creationnists or an organisation with a marquee on its website. Help me Slashdot !
      • by Lord Apathy (584315) on Saturday May 26 2007, @07:30PM (#19287035)

        Why are you protesting? Who gives a shit? As long as they keep their creationist crap out of our schools, that's all I care about.

        • Why are you protesting? Who gives a shit? As long as they keep their creationist crap out of our schools, that's all I care about.

          This museum represents a direct attack on science. I give a shit because I happen to think that science and scientific literacy are important. The stuff presented in this museum is blatantly wrong, and ridiculous, and is a menace to the public understanding and enlightenment even without government support (though, I would not be surprised if the museum has not benefited at least indirectly from the tax breaks our government is too happy to give religious institutions.) The only educational value it has to serve as a case-in-point as to how excessive religious faith can obliterate any trace of rationality in an otherwise intelligent individual.

          Also, some schools (hopefully only private/religious schools) are undoubtedly planning field trips to this museum (an earlier article I read noted the parking lot which was designed to comfortably accommodate school buses). It's bad enough that parents and churches poison impressionable, helpless children's minds with this garbage, but now they'll have a multi-million dollar, Universal Studios caliber set of displays and presentations to even more thoroughly inculcate kids to this backwards, pre-medieval nonsense.
          • No, you have it exactly wrong: belief has nothing to do with it, and that's the point.

            The schools should be teaching what is supported by evidence (e.g., evolution), not what is proposed to prop up a theology (e.g. creationism).
              • by jkabbe (631234) on Saturday May 26 2007, @11:21PM (#19288803)
                Just wanted to say a few things before you get modded down into non-existence.

                Evolution isn't any more "non-science" than astro-physics is non-science. Sure, it's pretty hard to set up an experiment to test evolution. But the same can be said for most of what goes on in space. That hasn't kept science out. Unfortunately, it does mean that the scatter is a little larger and research takes longer. But research still does happen because predictions can be made and then you wait and see if the observations match up.

                Evolution is falsifiable. If we actually wanted to run experiments we could. It might take a few hundred million years, but we could do it. Creation, on the other hand, is not falsifiable. But that won't stop those with blinders on from claiming they are similarly situated.
                • by DShard (159067) on Sunday May 27 2007, @12:04AM (#19289055)

                  Sure, it's pretty hard to set up an experiment to test evolution.
                  No, it is very easy to set up an experiment. I do it all the time when I reuse yeast on many consecutive brewing sessions. Yeast rapidly evolves due to it's simple nature, and six generations is enough to change it's behavior. This results in a very different beer that can change a nice cream ale into a poor chimay. The thing that is hard is understanding what is happening, not finding the examples of it in your daily life.
                • Evolution is a science. Why is it a science? Because it follows the scientific method. There is evidence and rules what can be treated as evidence. When the evidence no longer fits the model the model will be changed to fit the evidence. An this goes on and on until the evidence and the model fit together like a fine wine and cheese.

                  Creationism on the other hand cannot follow the scientific method. For one thing there is only one theory and that theory can never be modified. Where on the other hand the theory of evolution has changed in the last 150 years since is formulation. Creationism is just the opposite of science. Since you can't change the theory you have to change the evidence. You can't do that in science. You have to go by what the evidence says.

                  My friend as Penn & Teller say, "Creationsim is Bullshit!"

      • by flyingsquid (813711) on Saturday May 26 2007, @09:09PM (#19287825)
        several groups (both religious and secular) will be protesting. come join us!

        Are you kidding? This museum is doing us a tremendous favor. If anything, we should send them money.

        The intelligent design movement managed to make creationism look vaguely scientific. Its proponents had academic degrees and wrote books; Behe is actually a biochemist. They didn't make patently absurd claims about world being 6000 years old, they didn't use the Bible as a primary source, and they didn't directly refer to God and Jesus in every third sentence. They didn't do science, but they did a decent job of pretending to, and made creationism look almost respectable.

        But if you want to see creationism made to look ridiculously unsophisticated and ignorant again, nobody could do a better job than this museum. Apatosaurus living with Adam and Eve? Dinosaurs on Noah's Ark? If you were trying to parody creationism, or create a strawman of all the worst creationist arguments, you couldn't do a better job. And the intelligent design guys- Behe and Dembski- will suddenly find that when they're arguing for creationism, people will be asking them if they believe that Jesus rode a Velociraptor.

        So I say, put the Genesis account on display, in all its glory, and let people see it. I think most people will leave thinking exactly what they thought when they came in: evangelicals will leave still knowing that every word in the Bible is true, people looking for a laugh will emerge thinking that while science doesn't have all the answers, it's a lot better than a bunch of ancient myths, and kids- well, I say, let them see dinosaurs and men living alongside each other. Because while adults like to be told what they already know, kids like to ask questions, and I think those dioramas will get them asking a lot of questions.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:43PM (#19286123)
      The human mind only knows what it experiences (including the experience of receiving communication from others in any form). The accuracy of said experiences, as well as the soundness of the interpretation, is always questionable.

      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.
    • An appeal (Score:5, Informative)

      by Puff of Logic (895805) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:05PM (#19286315)
      I'm attaching this as a reply to the first post in the hopes that it will be seen by people entering the thread and thus head off some inevitable posts. Creationists, this is addressed to you.

      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.
      • Re:An appeal (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jcr (53032) <[jcr] [at] [mac.com]> on Saturday May 26 2007, @07:17PM (#19286935) Journal
        Exactly: evolution is a theory, like gravity.

        -jcr

      • by khayman80 (824400) on Saturday May 26 2007, @09:14PM (#19287865) Homepage
        I've noticed that many slashdot articles about evolution seem to attract a sizeable number of creationists. Because of this, I've decided to address the serious (i.e. non-trolling) creationists that frequent slashdot in the hope that I can prevent you from making the same easily avoided mistakes that make so many of your brethren sound like ignorant cretins. Here are some common arguments that creationists use, and why I think that you shouldn't use them... unless of course you want to be ridiculed. Note: this is by no means a comprehensive list.

        (1) "Evolution is just a THEORY"

        This is the most common (and the most disappointing) creationist argument I hear on a regular basis. While it's true that evolution is a theory, this statement is made in an attempt to cast doubt on evolution by implying that evolution is akin to a wild guess that scientists came up with after a night of heavy drinking. Newsflash: it's not going to work. Most educated people understand that you're confusing the word "theory" (which means an explanation or model that is capable of predicting future events) with the word "hypothesis" (which means an educated guess). Calling evolution a "theory" isn't an insult. For the millionth time, I will repeat this: gravity is also "just" a theory (for example, google the "General Theory of Relativity"). I might even add that most scientists would consider evolution to be a better-supported theory than gravity, because of the fact that gravity cannot (currently) be quantized, despite decades of attempts. If you want to debate evolution, fine- but don't play these childish word games.

        (2) "But evolution has never been observed!"

        Most creationists, faced with the mind-numbingly obvious fact that viruses and other creatures (like those famous moths) evolve right in front of our eyes, make a distinction between micro-evolution and macro-evolution. Micro-evolution is "proven", they say, because it only represents a change in allele frequency within a species. Macro-evolution, defined as change from one species to another (aka "speciation"), is more of a problem for creationists. They often insist that speciation has never been observed outside of laboratory experiments. This is blatantly false. Many examples of speciation have been observed in the wild- for example check out this large list of peer-reviewed journal articles here [talkorigins.org] and also here [talkorigins.org].

        The next step that creationists take in response to this rebuttal is to claim that speciation proves nothing- only a change from one kind of organism to another will prove evolution. What's a "kind", you might ask? No one knows. Creationists will give vague examples, such as saying that a dog is a different kind of animal than a whale, but a rigid definition has never (to my knowledge) been offered or universally accepted by the major creationist organizations. It's just a convenient goal post which keeps getting pushed back every time new evidence is found. The fact is, speciation is rather easy to observe in organisms which breed relatively quickly. Observing the creation of, say, a new phylum or order could take many millennia. Unfortunately, human civilization hasn't been around that long. Plus, standard biological nomenclature isn't based on evolutionary criteria, so it isn't clear to me that equating a "kind" with a phylum or order is meaningful in this context.

        (3) "But Intelligent Design is different than Biblical Creationism! It's a purely scientific alternative theory."

        Don't try to pretend that "Intelligent Design" is somehow different than creationism. Especially don't try to pretend that it's a scientific theory. Seriously. No one's buying it. "Intelligent Design" is a disguise- a secular-sounding term thrown over religious creationism to try to smuggle it into a state-funded science class

          • by khayman80 (824400) on Saturday May 26 2007, @10:15PM (#19288359) Homepage
            I've not really considered that before, but I'm not really sure I'd want to give a lecture like this in public. From what I've seen, public debates on evolution are usually failures for rationalists. There are several reasons:

            (1) Most scientists are accustomed to honest, civilized debate. Scientific conferences are full of disagreements and arguments, make no mistake about that. But (almost) all the participants are aiming to understand the universe better, to examine their assumptions and use experimental evidence and logic to figure out whether or not they need to change their assumptions or ideas. They might attack a speaker's ideas if they believe that a mistake is being made, but there's nothing very personal at stake. So once proven wrong, they admit it (usually politely if you're lucky). Most creationists, on the other hand, are defending the One True Religion. They already know The Truth, and simply pick and choose arguments from creationist websites to attempt to defend that Truth. This kind of backwards reasoning (arrive at conclusion first, find supporting facts later) is so alien to scientists that they simply can't handle it. I'm not sure I could, for that matter.

            (2) Creationists often make statements like "Evolution can't produce new information in a genome" or "We don't know how old the earth is because carbon dating isn't useful on large timescales and we don't know the initial amounts of isotopes and polonium halos disprove old ages anyway". Answering each one of these statements would require hours of boring, dry lecturing- something that simply isn't going to happen. And the problem is that creationists don't just make one of these statements, they make DOZENS of them. Answering this kind of deluge of mis-information in such a way that it can be intelligible to the average person would take an unbelievably long amount of time. As such, even answering questions from the crowd can be a tricky business. How do you explain isochronology and radioactive dating methods in 2 minutes to a young earth creationist? I can barely explain it to a fellow scientist in less than 15 minutes. Now imagine someone standing up and asking two or three of these questions in rapid fire mode, and ridiculing you for not having a snappy answer. This kind of public failure would not look good.

            (3) Creationists are usually much better at the fine art of crowd manipulation, whether they're participating in a debate or simply asking an "impromptu" question from the audience. I'm finishing up my PhD now, and I've taught some pretty big classes, but never had to worry about anything like this. I'd probably be slaughtered if I tried...

            I'm not completely knocking the idea, it's just that I can easily see it becoming ugly.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:41PM (#19285581)
    And they rested on the seventh, but that was due to union regulations.
    • by mclaincausey (777353) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:36PM (#19286059) Homepage
      Bill Hicks:

      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..."
      • by mobby_6kl (668092) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:05PM (#19286321)
        Since you mentioned Bill Hicks, there's another appropriate quote:

        You know the world is 12,000 years old and dinosaurs existed, they existed in that time, you'd think it would have been mentioned in the fucking Bible at some point.

        "And lo Jesus and the disciples walked to Nazareth. But the trail was blocked by a giant brontosaurus... with a splinter in his paw. And O the disciples did run a shriekin': 'What a big fucking lizard, Lord!' But Jesus was unafraid and he took the splinter from the brontosaurus's paw and the big lizard became his friend.

        "And Jesus sent him to Scotland where he lived in a loch for O so many years inviting thousands of American tourists to bring their fat fucking families and their fat dollar bills.

        "And oh Scotland did praise the Lord. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord."

        Here's a video [youtube.com]
            • by maspatra (1031940) on Saturday May 26 2007, @07:58PM (#19287273)
              It's pretty well established that the large flying dinosaurs were long extinct before the dawn of human beings; remember it took a long time since the extinction of dinosaurs before anything even remotely resembling homonids started appearing.

              What's more likely is that tales of dragons grew out of another animal--namely pre-existing reptiles, snakes and crocodilians. All primates have an innate, instinctual fear of snakes--in fact it's been argued that primate eyes evolved the way they did because of snakes. (Do a google search on "primate evolution snakes"--there's some interesting stuff to be read) As for fear of the crocodilians, that's a no-brainer--they're big, hungry, and can tear off your leg. While I don't know about western dragons, I read an article several years ago that argued quite well that stories of Chinese dragons grew out of crocodiles.

              But it makes sense--you want to think up a scary animal, make a big honking version of an animal that people are already instinctually afraid of--snakes. And make 'em fly too for good measure.
  • by conigs (866121) on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:42PM (#19285585) Homepage
    Just remember: not everyone who partakes in Christianity (big C or little c) believes the world was created 4,000 years ago. Some of us actually believe in evolution. (Well, us non-fundies anyway.)
    • by Ice Wewe (936718) on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:50PM (#19285637)
      Wait... wait... wait. You're telling me that some Christians believe in evolution? Hmm, so if you're willing to compromise on evolution, why not gay marriage?
      That's it, I'm starting the Homosexual Creationism Museum which honors homosexual Neanderthals and dinosaurs.
      I think that's a fair compromise.
        • Some christians believe that the bible contains the truths necessary for salvation

          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.

          • by dn15 (735502) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:13PM (#19286399)

            Any God that cares if you worshipped him doesn't deserve the position.
            Bravo! I find it inconceivable that a being as omniscient and all-knowing as a "god" would be so petty as to consider one set of dogmatic beliefs to be right or wrong. It would judge people (if it chooses to judge them at all) by their actions and the intentions behind them, not details of which creation story they chose to believe in. In fact, I say such a god would see right through the people who treated others like crap but went to church every sunday because they thought that's what is necessary for salvation. And this is one of the reasons I myself am not religious. I see no reason to seek validation by any being who would actually care whether I attend church or not.
            • by DarkSarin (651985) on Saturday May 26 2007, @07:50PM (#19287223) Homepage Journal
              Unless, of course, said deity saw that, if done correctly, attending regular worship services could help people to be nicer to each other--and said deity also knew that it would only do that if those worship services were teaching certain specific bits of information. Furthermore, if the deity was really smart, said deity might also want people to know about its true nature before it revealed itself to them. So, there just might be a reason to be religious after all.

              Oh, and perhaps there are some other reasons for going to church that you just haven't thought of. One of the neat things about postulating an omniscient being is that it is smarter than you are.
    • by catbutt (469582) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:05PM (#19285785)
      Well the whole thing about God being perfect, but making humans flawed, blaming humans for being flawed, and then punishing someone else to make up for those flaws .....that seems a tad silly as well.

      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.
      • by Opportunist (166417) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:12PM (#19286387)
        I already have troubles with another part of the Genesis. Since God is omniscient and transcends space and time, he must have known that Adam and Eve will eat from the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Why did he punish them for something he must have known all along? Why did he let it happen first of all? Why did he put the trees into the garden of Eden, it would have been in his power (remember, omnipotent) to put them somewhere else so they could not reach it.

        Personally, I think God framed the humans. And such a God I should worship? I'd rather say, he wanted to kick the nudists out and needed some reason. But then I wonder, what reason would God need to do what he pleases? Who does he have to report to?

        Somehow, it doesn't add up.
        • by dantheman82 (765429) on Saturday May 26 2007, @10:43PM (#19288545) Homepage
          It is an interesting question, and one that has been asked before...I refer to things that could be based upon the Bible (I could quote references if desired). Of course if you throw out bits and pieces, it will become a tad difficult to argue.

          Men (and women) were made in God's image. Mankind was created with knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And a free will, even as God Himself. All creation was good, as God had said. Mankind was also perfectly good. So, God presented the choice, which was not a malicious one. One tree, the "Knowledge of Good and Evil", was where Adam and Eve could (as the tree is self-described) know about evil as well as good. They had perfectly good trees throughout that garden to eat from, and thus the choice was not difficult really. Should they listen to the God they walked with every day? Or trust someone or something else...

          So, why would God, who knows all, allow this possibility? Because He wanted mankind to freely serve Him. Robots can be trained, people or animals can be "beaten into submission", but that is not the willing and free service of the Creator by the creature. And Luke's geneology refers to Adam as God's son, as he was created in God's image. So, as a parent, would you force your kid to always listen and totally protect them from every having any possibility of disobedience? Wouldn't that make you a tyrant?

          But why would God allow this, especially as a Father who knew His children would rebel in such a way? Because He had a plan for this that would bring even more glory to Himself (no matter if His children remained in their sin or returned to His loving arms), as well as bringing greater glory to the creatures who repent and return to Him than even if they never fell.

          God has chosen to have creatures made in His image (mankind) serve Him freely and willingly and perfectly. It was done before the fall, and can be done only in heaven for those who return to His loving arms and embrace His son Jesus Christ.

          I can't say that people naturally will like this concept of God much, who designs mankind in His image in order to serve Him freely and joyfully. People also hate the concept that those who do not do so but rebel against His fatherly care realize the miserable consequences here (to some degree) and in the afterlife.

          I guess if you've ever been a parent, and believe you should have some authority in molding your child in a moral and right way, you will understand a little what God the Father is like. If you have been a parent, and see the seeds of rebellion being sown and your good counsel being openly flaunted, you will realize in a very small way what it felt like to God. Some may wish their children to turn into little robots who always say "Yes sir" and "No sir" to their demands, and are never given the freedom to choose any wrong thing, and never are harmed or experience any negative consequences for anything. But then, to expect a spontaneous and free declaration of love from those children is impossible...
          • by Opportunist (166417) on Saturday May 26 2007, @10:52PM (#19288605)
            This was probably the best answer for the problem to date. Thank you.

            So God wants us to choose. Him or not him. Freely. There is no force involved, he wants us to choose his path, of course, but he would rather see us choose the wrong path than force us on the right one.

            Could someone please tell the fundamentalists?
          • by Belial6 (794905) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:51PM (#19286209) Homepage
            Hey now, you neglect the possibility that disobeying was the perfect thing to do, and hence god is punishing humans for behaving perfectly. Which leads to the simple logical conclusion that God is evil.
                • There are numerous problems. Would you like them listed?
                  • If God created Adam and Eve in His own image, and God is perfect or infallible, so too would Adam and Eve have been. Direct contradiction if you accept that interpretation.
                  • If "free will" is what God has, and it is what He gave Adam and Eve, then that is certainly in His own image. However, humans have curiosity and must experiment to satisfy it, and God does not (based on the assumption that He already knows anything that He might possibly be curious about), so God clearly denied us a tool we needed to be safe (it was supposedly safe in the garden, right?) Put differently, exactly why were Knowledge and Life suppsed to be mutually exclusive?
                  • For that matter, why would would God create such a temptation in the first place? What purpose does it serve? How was its creation essential to the creation of everything else? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any trees of knowledge (or life) lately, so they can't be terribly important elements of the world. If nothing else, it clearly falls under the category of an attractive nuisance.
                  • Let us not forget the God also supposedly created the snake (and apparently made it either evil or possessed of free will and a twisted sense of humor... not to mention speech) let it loose in his childrens' paradise! Nowhere does it state that the snake should have been created good (although one might infer that from the fact that its creator was supposedly the essence of goodliness) but what an utter lack of morality would be required to put such a thing in the garden where your children play! Thus God is either evil or both irresponsible and uncaring.
                  • Almost at the end, the explanation most directly relevent:
                    If God created Adam and Eve, then they were His children and His responsibility. It was His duty to teach them, to guide them, to nurture them, to comfort them, to correct them when they made mistakes, and to keep them safe from their own ignorance. Creating beings with free will, whether by divine powers or natural conception, makes you responsible for those who are created. If they screw up their lives because you left them in an environment with dangerous elements that your children have no experience in dealing with, then it is your fault. Heck, from the perspective of Adam and Eve, the snake was probably a perfectly legitimate source of guidance; nobody had told them it wasn't!
                  • Finally, if God didn't want humans to be little automata, but denied us education, didn't He pretty much just make a pair of amusing little pets? At best, Adam and Eve were sentient monkeys in a zoo, placed there without having ever known their parents and watched by an uncaring master through semi-silvered glass. At worst, they essentially WERE automata, except they lacked a pre-defined sequence of instructions. Robots without any programming except curiosity, that had once been given a command but that had been designed to act with a certain degree of randomness. If that's your idea of creating beings with free will, I sure as hell hope you aren't involved in any major AI projects.

                  In any case, if Adam and Eve existed, then they had pretty much the worst growing up experience possible. They were given curiosity but were kept ignorant, provided with dangerous temptations, and given no guides save for malicious entities that they had never even been warned against. When the urge to satisfy that curiosity (at the urging of a creature made by their same creator and dwelling in their own safe garden) became too great, they were irrevocably changed, cast out from paradise, and defamed as the originators of sin for the rest of eternity. At THIS point, their all-powerful 'parent' offers no comfort or assistance, but decides that NOW He would put protection on the one thing that might, possibly, have reversed the change done to them.

                  You are arguing that this deity loves us, and that we should worship Him? The average everyday, non-omniceint, flawed-in-various-ways father and mother that most of us had growing up is far more worthy, in my opinion (not that I worship anybody, but maybe I'm just a bit too cynical).
        • by NMerriam (15122) <NMerriam@artboy.org> on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:13PM (#19286395) Homepage

          He made us capable of making moral choices, but we're not punished for being able to sin--we're punished for sin.


          What sin? She ate a fruit when it was offered to her, by a being that God _allowed_ into the Garden. Yes, she was told not to eat the fruit, but was never told why or what the consequences were, despite God being omniscient enough to know he had created man with curiosity.

          Leaving completely ignorant and unsophisticated children alone with the greatest predator in the universe does not seem like a wise parenting decision.
      • by conigs (866121) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:13PM (#19285859) Homepage
        I normally don't respond to ACs, but here goes:
        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:
        1. 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.
        2. 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.
        • by Belacgod (1103921) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:33PM (#19286033)
          Very well said. Furthermore, the arguments presented in the Bible are not logical arguments, which would lose their force if combined with shoddy reasoning. The Bible is a series of stories that advocate particular moral choices, and seek to make those moral choices attractive. If you find those moral choices attractive, it doesn't matter that the imperative to do them doesn't come coherently from the text, because the imperative to do them comes from yourself, and the Bible is only a way to encourage yourself to follow them, inspiration rather than command. Some may find the Bible inspiring enough to change their actions and principles to coincide with it, but they're not being convinced by any sort of logic--they're being convinced by the emotional attractiveness of the Bible's principles. That's what religion is--a set of explanations of the world and moral principles that derive their force by making us feel good when we follow them. It's not necessary to accept every part of your chosen religion to get the benefit of it--you just have to like it enough to be inspired to act accordingly. Clearly the Creationist Museum operators have taken a very different part of Christianity to heart than Conigs has.
        • by Frostalicious (657235) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:34PM (#19286575) Journal
          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.

          I think the main problem is that if you are a fundamentalist, then that neccesitates that you either try to force those beliefs onto others, or kill all nonbelievers. If you are absolutely certain that your belief system is correct, and inherent in your belief system is that all other belief systems are evil, then it follows that you want everyone to have your belief system. At that point things like secular government and religious tolerance just dissapear. How can you state that the Bible is the direct infallible word of God, and in the same breath say that we aren't going to use this in government, and we are OK with the fact others don't believe what God is saying?
                • by Mateo_LeFou (859634) on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:27PM (#19286519) Homepage
                  If I weren't already catholic I'd probably steer clear, based on those things you said. Most of them were false, but I imagine you know that.

                  The only one I'll address is "their teachings are not Christian and aren't considered so by anyone other than themselves".

                  Everyone in the world, except for a few Protestant sects, considers the Roman Catholic Church to be Christian. By that I mean literally about 97% of the world.
  • by arthurpaliden (939626) on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:46PM (#19285609)
    We have lots of cave drawings of man with impressive animals like wooly mamoths and the like. So why are there not cave drawings of man with really impressive animals like the dinasaurs. I mean I I was impressed enought to paint the large elephant like creature you would think that a 20' high meat eating moster would at least reate a few pictures.
  • My favourite quote (Score:5, Interesting)

    by toby (759) * on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:49PM (#19285633) Homepage Journal

    "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)

    by John3 (85454) <.john3. .at. .cornells.com.> on Saturday May 26 2007, @04:54PM (#19285699) Homepage Journal
    Ken Ham (President of Answers in Genesis, sponsor of the museum) would be amusing to watch if he wasn't so scary. There was a segment in the documentary "Friends of God" which showed Ken speaking to a group of children [youtube.com] about dinosaurs and evolution. His logical argument to the children was that since scientists weren't around 4,000 years ago but god was then we have to believe god and not the scientists.

    "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.
  • Best Protest (Score:5, Interesting)

    by moehoward (668736) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:12PM (#19285857)

    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)

    by JustShootMe (122551) <rmiller@duskglow.com> on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:18PM (#19285905) Homepage Journal
    I'd defend the right of the people who started this to continue on as long as they can support it, but I'm not sure it should be called a "museum". A museum implies some hind of historical accuracy.

    Perhaps "theme park", or "house of ill repute" instead?
  • natural selection (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mistersooreams (811324) on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:43PM (#19286131) Homepage
    Urm, even if you reject the scientific theory of evolution, it's just ridiculous to reject natural selection. You can easily observe it in your own lifetime, as Darwin did.
  • OK, so man and dinosaurs lived together. That must mean then, that all the Biblical hero's were pansies. I mean all they did was kill few wolves (David) and enter a Lions den (Daniel) . If they were real hero's why did they not slay one of the T-Rexes that were wondering around eating everything in sight or enter a den of hungry Velosoraptors. Then they would have been real hero's.
  • The God Delusion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BillGatesLoveChild (1046184) on Saturday May 26 2007, @09:29PM (#19287969) Journal
    A good book by Richard Dawkins who wrote 'The Selfish Gene'. Here's a summary:

    Richard Dawkins on why religion sticks: "There is no such thing as a Muslim Child. There is a child of Muslim Parents. There is no such thing as a Christian Child. There is a child of Christian Parents.

    My specific hypothesis is about children. More than any other species, we survive by the accumulated experience of previous
    generations, and that experience needs to be passed on to children for their protection and well-being. Theoretically, children might learn from personal experience not to go too near a cliff edge, not to eat untried red berries, not to swim in crocodile-infested waters. But, to say the least, there will be a selective advantage to child brains that possess the rule of thumb: believe, without question, whatever your grown-ups tell you. Obey your parents; obey the tribal elders, especially when they adopt a solemn, minatory tone. Trust your elders without question. This is a generally valuable rule for a child. But, as with the moths, it can go wrong.

    Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them.
    Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-product is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses.

    Sociologists studying British children have found that only about one in twelve break away from their parents' religious beliefs."

    Remember the old consistency thing. People are loathe to change their mind:

    "It would be a severe disadvantage, for example, when hunting or making tools, to keep changing one's mind, so under some circumstances, it is better to persist in an irrational belief than to vacillate, even if new evidence or ratiocination favors a change."

    Douglas Adams: "Religion . . . has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? - because you're not!' If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it. But on the other hand if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday', you say, 'I respect that'.

    Why should it be that it's perfectly legitimate to support the Labour party or the Conservative party, Republicans or Democrats, this model of economics versus that, Macintosh instead of Windows - but to have an opinion about how the Universe began, about who created the Universe . .. no, that's holy? . .. We are used to not challenging religious ideas but it's very interesting how
    much of a furore Richard creates when he does it!

    Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you're not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn't be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed somehow between us that they shouldn't be."

    Andrew Mueller: "Pledging yourself to any particular religion 'is no more or less weird than choosing to believe that the world is rhombus-shaped, and borne through the cosmos in the pincers of two enormous green lobsters called Esmerelda and Keith'."

    Sam Harris: "We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional' . . . Clearly there is sanity in numbers."

    Richard Dawkins: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodth
    • Re:Not going there (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tony (765) * on Saturday May 26 2007, @05:14PM (#19285863) Homepage Journal
      I'm not positive that science has everything right. . .

      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.
            • by khasim (1285) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Saturday May 26 2007, @06:27PM (#19286513)
              Yes, every time evolution comes up, the same arguments against it are presented. Despite the fact that those same arguments have been discredited time and time again (if one would but do some basic research).

              #1.

              The only thing that has ever been observed is minor changes within a kind of animal over time: adaptation.


              No, DNA mutations have been observed. Most of these mutations have NO adaptation value AT THE POINT IN TIME THAT THEY OCCURRED. Changes to the environment AFTER those mutations caused them to become advantageous.

              #2.

              No real evidence has ever been discovered (or much less reproduced) that one kind of animal can bring forth an animal of a different kind: i.e. a fish giving birth to a frog.


              Yes, it has. The easiest example is a colony of fruit flies. Split them into two sub-colonies and within a dozen generations they will no longer be able to inter-breed between the colonies. They have become two different species.

              Your fish/frog example is flawed because there is no reason to believe that one those different animals could achieve gestation within each other. Modern fish came from animals that were ALMOST identical to modern fish. Modern frogs came from animals that were ALMOST identical to modern frogs.

              #3.

              The idea that a complicated organism can "evolve" one part at a time is just idiotic, no matter how many people believe it.

              And yet the evidence seems to support that theory.

              And not only that, but the theory of evolution is the basis of our entire medical science now. And that seems to work, also.
    • Evolution has nothing to do with religion. I don't care if you're Hindu, Voodoo, Greek (pagan), Seikh, Muslim, Wiccan, or Catholic--evolution has nothing to do with religion.

      If you decide to ignore all the evidence out there that supports evolution (including its laboratory use, and as a basis for creating new technology [technologyreview.com]), that's your choice, but realize you lose credibility with everyone else that decides not to ignore the evidence.

      Also, Catholicism supports theistic evolution [catholic.net]. Even Pope Benedict's more recent comments on the situation [msn.com] weren't actually against evolution in spite of what many have said, but rather the use of evolution to push atheism.

      Peacefully co-exist? Sure, but you and everyone else that says evolution isn't science should just be honest and say that you don't really believe in science, instead of hiding behind some pseudo-science like ID.
A clever prophet makes sure of the event first.