Letters to the Editor
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Don't confuse them with facts
President Bush must love this place!
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Think of how many people you could help with 27 million dollars...
What a waste that this money was not spent helping the poor. Instead it had to go towards this "museum".
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re: Frank Smith
You have a point. But what do you suggest we do about it?
My in-laws are Fundamentalists. To be more specific, my mother-in-law divorced my husband's father and married a Fundamentalist, in the process taking on the trappings of a Fundie herself. My husband, who knew her before the transformation, remains convinced that in her true heart-of-hearts she knows that Dinosaur bones aren't fakes placed there to test the faith of our era, that gay people aren't damned, and that women should be allowed to handle money. (She's a successful executive herself, yet she belongs to a church which doesn't allow women to attend business meetings.) But try getting her to admit any of those things.
I'm not sure which of them is worse, her or her husband. His beliefs are at least honestly held, and he has some excuse for them - he's stupid, he was raised by stupid people, and all of his friends are stupid. We're talking about a guy who got fired from a factory job for being too dumb to do it. I would guess, without exaggeration, that his I.Q. is somewhere in the neighborhood of 85. It's not possible to hold a conversation with him on any subject other than baseball, and he's not capable of understanding the science behind arguments in favor of evolution. He has a dog-like devotion to the leaders of his church. He's not a bad guy; he's a hard worker and a loyal husband and father. He's just stupid. There are a lot of guys like him in America, apparently. And lots of them vote.
What, exactly, are we supposed to do to reach the minds of people like this? One of them can't be reasoned with because she's deceiving herself, and the other can't be reasoned with because he's too dumb. That means reason isn't the answer. And I'm afraid the inspiring, emotionally moving arguments are mostly on the other side. If anyone here has any suggestions for how to convert Fundamentalists to a belief in truth, reason, and reality, I'd love to hear them.
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Museum? This Ain't No Stinking Museum!
museum n : a depository for collecting and displaying objects having scientific or historical or artistic value. Etymology: Latin Museum place for learned occupation.
Clearly, the inappropriately name "Creation Museum" is none of these things. Rather it is, one might suppose, a theater.
A theater of the absurd.
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40%
I was prepared to say that if you were to take the 40% who say that they believe in the Creationist nonsense to the museum, they may come around. I was thinking that once they see the insanity of the pre-fall menagerie, they may come to their senses. Then I realized that Resident Bush still has about a 30% approval rating.
I guess no matter how you slice it, more than a third of us are immune to reality.
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They Really Are Open On Sundays
If you are going to take things as literally as they do, how are they free to break the commandment about the sabbath? Maybe on Sundays they are staffed by Atheists.
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T-rex tissue
Hey daveit, here's an article on the t-rex tissue:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/03/67014
Alberta has its own new creationism museum as well:
http://www.bvcsm.com/
albeit on a smaller scale. It's just down the road from the Royal Tyrell Museum, which is based on prevailing scientific theory of prehistoric life.
It disappoints me that so many misunderstand Darwin. He wrote his works in easy to understand language for the lay person. The Vatican and Church of England are fine with his theory. So why is it a problem in the US?
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Whatever Happened to Those Nice Dinosaurs?
I have a question about the dinosaurs. If dinosaurs were around with people (absurd, I know, but so is this entire discussion) then why did they disappear and how (and when)?
It couldn't have been due to an asteroid striking Earth, as scientists would have you believe, because that would have wiped out the people, too, and according to the "Creation Museum" people cohabitated with dinosaurs. So what was it anyway?
It couldn't have been 65 million years ago because the universe (not just the Earth, mind you, but the whole universe!) sprang into being in its present form from nothing a mere 6,000 years ago. So when did the dinosaurs die?
Perhaps the dinosaurs were outraged to death by the idiotic behavior of humans. When the humans got tossed from the garden, the dinosaurs couldn't take it anymore. Some of them turned into vicious predators and ran amok before they all just keeled over and died from outrage and exasperation.
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Frank Smith...
...doesn't actually have much of a point, beyond the typical pseudo-liberal "both sides are too extreme, can't we find a middle ground?" plea that usually shows up like clockwork from somebody or other after a hundred posts on a subject.
But I guess we had to get it over with.
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God's Will?
If this malarky is really God's will, then why do they need armed guards and attack dogs surrounding the perimeter of the place? Why do they not welcome the debate? Is this not America, land of the free and home of the First Amendment? Apparently not in Petersburg, KY.
I completely agree with the university professor who said that we are doing a great disservice to our children by ignoring the sceince of evolution. Does one really have to be an atheist to believe in Darwinism? Is there not room in a single brain to embrace the idea of God AND the FACTS of evolution? Again, apparently not in America. Too bad.
Children, go forth and be idiots.
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Allie Has it Right
Allie posted a letter that appears on page 1 of this stream. Her point is well taken - how does one reason with people who lack intelligence? The sad reality is that people who believe the creationist nonsence, those who adhere to a literal intepretation of the bible, who are ignorant of the history of the world, are not likely to ever see the fallacy of their views. They simply cannot. I do not care whether they can be saved. What is worrisome is when their views become the basis for public policy. Where do those who understand the truth draw the line? How committed are we to protecting our shared social institutions from those who believe essentially in magic? Perhaps the wizard behind the curtain has the answer.