Creationism Museum Opening in Kentucky

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. '"

Comments

Heading off at the pass

[conigs]

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.)

Re:Heading off at the pass

[Belial6]

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.

Re:Heading off at the pass

[NMerriam]

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.

Re:On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon

[kennygraham]

several groups (both religious and secular) will be protesting. come join us!

An appeal

[Puff of Logic]

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.

Your knowledge of catholicism is clearly deep

[Mateo_LeFou]

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.

Re:On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon

[DShard]

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.

Re:On the other hand, they also make great Bourbon

[Lord Apathy]

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!"