A Visit to the Creationist "Museum"
Offline I'm sure everyone knows Answers in Genesis has built a creationist museum here in Kentucky. Well, it's open now, and I'm ready to go bother them. My main goal is simply to ask a lot of questions. I really want to ask questions they won't have ready-made answers to. I thought I'd come on here and see if anyone has any suggestions for questions they'd like to see asked at the museum.
I'm going to do my best to bring a voice recorder and take lots of pictures, so hopefully I can share my experience with everyone. I'm going June 8th, so I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone has for my trip.
EDIT BY SAPIENT: I wanted this to be prominent, forgive me for invading your starting post, Entropy. Here is a link to a tour of the museum: http://studentweb.eku.edu/zachary_lynn/museum/index.html
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Nice idea! I look forward to hearing about it. Good luck stumping them on anything... they always pull the "God can do anything" trump card out of their sleeve whenever they get a question they cant understand. Or "God's ways are different than mans, so we cant understand everything!"
You could ask about how we're seeing light that has traveled billions of years to get here from stars that were created 6000 years ago, but I think they will say "God put the light particles in motion close to earth when he created everything!"
Good luck!
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I feel like you going there could only help their cause.
Like Andyy (and his scary avatar) said, the answer to almost every question is "because god wanted it that way." After they say this everyone else will just nod their heads saying "Wow! That's totally right!"
Plus you will be giving them admission money which will just help them further their cause.
If you do really want to go, I would wait until you hear them say something which is absolutely false like "there are no transitional fossils" then you can ask a question like, "well what about archaeopteryx or australopithecus?" If they come back saying that they are just a bird, or just an ape, then let them know that the current scientific consesus is that they are transitional fossils.
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
I doubt that there are any questions for which they have not cooked up answers. I've been lurking AiG for years and they work very hard at it: they have an excuse for everything.
For example, the distance light traveled is explained either that the light was created the same time as the stars, or that light has been slowing down exponentially since creation.
Transitional fossils are just arbitrarily labeled as one of the two forms they're transitional between. They have no respect for scientific consensus because they *genuinely believe* that science is a big materialist/atheist conspiracy that actively works to keep their "science" out of the mainstream.
The museum is designed to be confrontational and they're most likely ready for all those questions, so you'd be playing their game. I'm inclined to think that--unless you're doing it for your own amusement--there might be better ways to expend energy.
Btw, I plan to go to the museum maybe this summer just to see it myself.
"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert
Even better, wear an atheist hat and Rational Responders shirt and see how quickly their ideas of a compassionate Jebus fly out the window.
NOT AVOCATING SUICIDE here. If I were to do it, I'd make sure I had a large number of people to insure that even if they were to kick you out, if tottaly privately funded would be within their rights, they would still be held criminally responsible if they used violence to kick you out.
I'd take a large group of atheists wearing jackets and then get in, take the jackets off, then when they ask you to leave, which they will, you expose their hypocracy and bigotry. I'd just leave, maybe even take a hidden camera to film their hate and bigotry.
They would be able to ask you to leave and I would not resist, just leave. I'd wait untill you got deep into the museum to do this.
It would only be tresspassing if you went back after you were told to leave. But if it is open to the public and you were not verbaly told at any time you couldnt, then it is not tresspassing.
It would be funny to see these idiots get so desperate as to put a sign up in the front "No atheists allowed". That would make them look just as pathetic and bigoted as those prior who put up signs,"Whites only".
And who would be next? What if a Jew or Muslim went in and asked skeptical questions, would they put up a sign out front, "Christians only".
What if a Catholic wanted a comunion display there? Yet another sign out front, "Evangelicals only".
This museum is not a museum at all. It is a theme park and cheerleading club.
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Take this picture and tell them you've found a living transitional form:
Picture
(edited to shorten link length)
Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
Going after fundie retards when surrounded by more fundie retards is dangerous and pointless ... unless you are recording it and will show it to moderates. It's the moderates that, if explained properly, will begin to consider rational thought. Who knows, if enough moderates are exposed to rational thought maybe one or two of them will decide they want to give it a try.
That's really all we can hope for. Fundies are fundies. So long as they're all willing to accept the "cuz I said so" of a preacher, there is no reaching them.
But please do be careful, and as someone has already suggested I would not go alone or without a reliable recording device. I don't trust fundies half as far as I can fling them. Given the chance, they will resort to violence.
Ron Perlman rules. He looks like a cave man that could pull someones arms off, but he rules just the same.
Ron Perlman rules.
Yeah, I agree. But I still can't get over how simian he looks.
I agree. I'd tend to think that a soft sell approach targeted on people who are using the thinking parts of their brains would get better results. In that sense the museum can be useful to the rationalist community because it raises the questions. An information booth on public property outside the museum, maybe evolutionist "tours" of the museum to point out the errors--like the ones the creationists give at the Natural History Museum in New York.
There's a rationalist group called "DefCon" that protested the museum opening. Anybody know them?
"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert
Good points everyone. I will say, I am definately not going in there alone. There will be at least 3 other people with me, hopefully more. I agree that I'm not going to convince anyone of anything in there. I would like to be able to get a better record of their exhibits in the "museum" since everything on their websites seems pretty vague. And hopefully I can get the nonsense straight from the horse's mouth this way and get it on tape.
I don't plan on going in there and being confrontational. That won't achieve anything. As far as questions go, I guess I try to concentrate on any that may show just how dishonest they are about science and historical method. I partly want to go for my own amusement and partly to help expose this rediculous place to the public.
I'd appreciate any other tips or suggestions.
I'd like you to come up with a list of questions, and put together a series of expected theist responses. Record the whole thing and we can play "Theist BS Bingo" while listening to the recording.
... actually having a set of cards for Theist BS Bingo actually does sound kinda fun.
I got dibs on "We agree with micro-evolution" and "We've carbon dated a fish that the carbon said was X million years old".
www.andyhanson.net
And always ask your questions with wide-eyed innocence, like you really don't know.
I can hear it now: "You say goddidit ... but according to the peer reviewed article published by XXXXX in XXXX and authored by XXXX XXXX, apparently it's been proven that XXXXX. HHmm. How can your display show XXXX?"
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Here is an RRS flyer for you to download and distribute if you want to (world premiere on the site):
http://www.briansapient.com/enlighten/attackID.pdf
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"Get out" is the free square in the middle for sure!
I call "No one alive today was around 6000 years ago, so no one knows for sure"
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Ooo oo I want "that is only one opinion on what the evidence says"
I guess if no one else takes it, I'll also take "Evolution is just a theory"
I would like "We'll pray for you."
I'll take "Evolution is just a 'Theory'", for a hundred Alex.
Thanks for the link Sapient...this is freakin mental but i'm glad to get to this indepth of a look at the place.
Is it against their rules to bring a video camera? Recording what happens would be a good idea.
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On their website, www.creationmuseum.org, it does not say anything about video cameras in their "what's allowed" section, so I'm assuming its ok. And don't miss the $5 off coupon on their webiste! Best to give them as little money as possible
www.andyhanson.net
OOUuu. I just love the contact address at the bottom of the flyer!
Classic. Simply classic!
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Well, it seems the word about this museum has even reached Europe! I live in Stuttgart in Germany, and today in the newspaper, on the front page there was an article about it. The title was (translated): 'Where only the truth of the Bible counts' (Wo nur die Wahrheit der Bibel zählt). Luckily people here in Europe aren't religious nutjobs and all accept evolution, even the religious people, so the article was somewhat critical of the museum. Just thought that was interesting that it's even making waves over here.
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