AiG's Creation Museum on MSNBC
You'll find a review of Answers in Genesis's Creation 'Museum' on msnbc.com. Or rather its travel section =P
The review isn't the standard pandering uncritical slop we've seen from some other media outlets, but neither is it really critical either. The author passes no judgement and quotes AiG's Ken Ham as well as Eugenie Scott from the NCSE. I guess this is one of those "balanced" pieces that equally represents both sides of a story, even though one side is insanely wrong. It's very much an "educators say" vs "AiG says" piece of work.
Some 'highlights' of the article:
-"Ham said critics need to tour the museum before making judgments."
Not really. It's an AiG museum and we've all known for years what AiG's positions on evolution, world history, geology, etc are. Now if there really was something new there, then I'd be really shocked. Oh wait, there is one thing: Adam and Eve are portrayed as brown-haired rather than idealized northern European blonde, so that's a start.
-"Ham maintains the museum exhibits, some of which include fossils, are based on scientific findings. He said the staff is stocked with scientists trained at secular universities"
Really? How many constitutes 'stocked'? Did they get their PhD's at secular universities? Were they already creationists before they got their PhDs and, like Jonathon Wells, just getting PhDs to make themselves sound more legitimate when they attack evolution?
-"Admission for children ages 5 to 12 will be $9.95, and $19.95 for most adults."
Wow, that's pricey. And this is a non-profit organization? The nearby Cincinnati Museum costs only $6 for children and $8 for adults and it's pretty darn good (and not make-believe). What will the money go towards anyway? Paying scientists not to do research? Not tracking down and acquiring important fossils? I know! Paying janitors to clean up the vomit.
Labels: biology, creationism, religion, science
Decreed by King Aardvark @ 4:26 p.m.
8 Comments
8 Comments:
-"Ham said critics need to tour the museum before making judgments."
You can find a troll on my blog, in the comments when I did some of my own research trying to find a mention of dinosaurs. Her/his moniker is newique. She tried putting up the same argument at PZs blog, and got the same response you said.
I also saw that a troll by the name of Forthekids left a comment on newique's blog. Of course, they support each other, because when you don't have anything to support your assertions, you have to support each other.
Forthekids (FTK) is a long-time irritant of various skeptical, scientific, and evolutionary biology blogs (not that blog can't be all three). I'm pretty sure she's banned from Pharyngula, though her sentence might be disemvowelling, instead.
I haven't had any trolls on my blog yet, probably because I don't post much of substance. I don't know how the rest of you can tolerate them.
Adam and Eve are portrayed as brown-haired rather than idealized northern European blonde, so that's a start.
Hm...are Adam and Eve usually portrayed as blond in fundamentalist depictions? In the Mormon church, they're usually portrayed as brown-haired.
(Though also, Adam is usually portrayed as cleanshaven, which I guess is kind of odd when you think about it. Is he actually supposed to have shaved every day? With what? Or did he not start growing facial hair until after the Fall?)
Yup, I'm familiar with FtK. She's just plain nutty most of the time. PZ has her on notice.
I'm not sure if they are definitely portrayed as blond, but I've sure seen typical European looking. The new Adam and Eve are somewhat more ambiguous in their ethnicity, being generally darker without pronounced euro facial features.
Good question about the shaving thing. God is always portrayed with a beard, so I'd assume that Adam would have a big honkin beard that would put Chuck Norris to shame.
While we're on the topic, why is Adam's hair short? Eve's is pretty long, so I figure if you're cavorting out in the paradise shrubbery, before shame and what not, why would you concern yourself with cutting your hair?
Oh wait, maybe long hair would look 'gay' and we can't have Adam having a questionable sexual orientation!
It is interesting to see what people put their faith in. Some put their faith in "Jesus Christ" and call themselves "Christian"; some put their faith in "no God" and call themselves "Atheist". It is called "Faith" for both, not because of lack of evidence, but because it requires a belief in the unseen.
As for "faith" in evolution, there have been so many hoaxes, and even contradictory beliefs within the scientific community as to "scientific facts" - but there can be no dissension from the party line - sounds a lot like dogmatic religion to me.
So if you came upon a cultivated clearing in the middle of a forest, would you look for the farmer or say, "Wow - here is evolution at work." I would look for the farmer. It is interesting how evolution denies other scientific laws - like the laws of thermodynamics. Order evolving from chaos - now that requires faith.
savedbygrace: Thanks for stopping by, however, I hope you would learn a bit about how science works before you dismiss it.
Read the TalkOrigins archive for starters, especially for the thermodynamics thing. Realize that, though there have been hoaxes, it has been other scientists who disprove them. Realize too that contradictory beliefs are part of the process - with better evidence, reality is eventually distilled from the contradictory hypotheses.
King aardvark, I would like to know your definition of how science works, because as far as I know (and I don't have a phd or anything, I'm can't even drive yet) evolution has little to do with how science works. Science has much more subjects than the theory of evolution.
By the way, I'm pretty sure the Aig museum got it right with having a brown-haired Adam and Eve. It seems that according to the bible, all the different races came about after the tower of Babel, and it would make sense that because the Jews were God's chosen people, its probably the first race.
Almost forgot, that beard on many pictures of God is like the Eurapean Adam and Eve, mostly cultural. If Africans had as long a history of being Christians as Eurapeans we probably would have plenty of black Adam and Eves on little kid Bible books.
Hope somone finds this helpful and I really would like to see your definition of how science works King Aardvark
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