Author and blogger John Scalzi has posted an amusing report of his visit to the Creation Museum.
Some time ago he said that he’d visit the museum, which was built near his home, on the condition that his readers donated $250, with the added incentive that any extra money would be given to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. His readers came through and donated over $5000.
So he went, took a bunch of pictures, and posted a very thorough report.
An excerpt:
Here’s how to understand the Creation Museum:
Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. And we’re not talking just your average load of horseshit; no, we’re talking colossal load of horsehit. An epic load of horseshit. The kind of load of horseshit that has accreted over decades and has developed its own sort of ecosystem, from the flyblown chunks at the perimeter, down into the heated and decomposing center, generating explosive levels of methane as bacteria feast merrily on vintage, liquified crap. This is a Herculean load of horseshit, friends, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Augeas.
You can read his entire report here.
GOLD!
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Yeahhhh…That place sucks.
Indeed, the excerpt is pure gold. I saw some pictures earlier and I could not stop laughing!
Hahahahah…excellent description John Scalzi. Think I can face checking out your blog on that tone :))
RAmen
Oh I learn something new everyday…
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“Did you know, for example, that Adam is responsible not only for the fall of man, but also for the creation of venom? It didn’t exist in the Garden of Eden, because, well. Why would it? Weeds? Adam’s fault. Carnivorous animals (and, one assumes, the occasional carnivorous plant)? Adam again. Entropy? You guessed it: Adam. Think about that, won’t you; eat one piece of fruit and suddenly you’re responsible for the inevitable heat death of the universe.”
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And here I was always thinking that it was all Eve’s fault! Well I did say I was a heathen :p
Haha, very good!
He Adam just learned real quick how to blame someone else for his actions :))
Nice opening: horseshit, loads of it :))
Great article. And Scalzi’s right–chances are, the museum’s not going to change anybody’s mind, whatever their beliefs. So, let the creationists have their fun and their modern dinosaurs. As long as they keep in the museum and out of schools.
Great article. Would really like to see the museum, such a load of crap, pity, I’m in Europe
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!! Guess which great state the museum is located in? KENTUCKY!!! That’s just awesome. First the rattle-snake handler religion/cult, now this crap-tastic museum of “truth.” Wow, the state sure attracts them doesn’t it? (I’m curious about the museum. Might have to go to Kentucky just to see it. At the very least, I’m sure they have a killer gift shop that sells dinosaurs. I could get one for my nephew.)
rmw: If you want the BEST dino-stuff, go to Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, home of the Royal Tyrell Museum. It doesn’t makes you swallow loads of creationist BS (or would that be HS) to get your toy T-rex. Hey, I just noticed… Drum-HELL-er. Hmmm. Ah, who cares, it has dinosaurs.
@Dungeon Keeper–if I ever find my way back to Canada, I will try to go there. As it stands, I can drive an hour to Denver and see a pretty cool display, without having to deal with creationist crap. I just find it absolutely hilarious that Kentucky seems to be a hot-spot for…um…”different” religious beliefs. I do give the museum credit though–you’re chances of dying there seem to be pretty remote (unless of course, you’re not a creationist and you die of derisive laughter).
I loved the essay. My only complaint was this.
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“It’s a little idiotic to establish as a ‘fact’ that both science and creationism acknowledge, say, that apes exist, but to paper over the difference in the set of ‘facts’ that explain how the apes got here, or to imply that a creationist assertion (apes created on the fifth day) is logically or systematically equivalent to decades of rigorous scientific process in the exploration of evolution.”
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Fifth day? Fifth? Not even the fundies believe that one! To fundies, apes were created on the sixth day, owing to the fact that they are neither birds or fish. (Unless the horsesh*t museum changed that one too! Do fundies think that apes have feathers, scales and/or gills now? Oh no! The poor quality of science education in the United States is worse than I feared!)
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Apes, much like fundies, fall under the “behemoth” category because they dwell on land and aren’t as smart as actual people. (Okay, I kid. The bible never calls fundies subhuman, that’ just me, and I’m joking.) For someone who spent a day in a museum devoted to creationism, I would have expected him to know what day apes were supposedly created on.
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Here’s a guide so that I don’t have to see anyone make that error again:
1.) Light and Darkness
2.) Sea and Sky (Both of them were made of water at this time. It may have been only with the sky 2.0 patch that ozone, nitrogen, and oxygen were released from closed beta.)
3.) Land
4.) The Sun, Moon, and stars.
5.) Fish and Birds. (Plants, conveniently, were not created in any of the seven days of creation. They are only mentioned in Genesis chapter 2 as being entities that god created but without a specific date given. I put it under day 5 because I wanted to put them with other living things, after the formation of the sun and land that they would feed off of.
6.) Behemoths and Humans. (Behemoths usually means large animals or monsters. However, the bible never gives a date for the creation of small animals either. In this case, I guess that large means “at least as big as an atom” and that caterpillars fall under the category of being large monsters… or fish… or birds… or plants.
7.) The Sabbath
-Avatar of Reason
Awesome! I so want to go there now, just to laugh at the stupidity of these people. Sadly I can’t read the article now, since I am trapped in the centre of boredom and torture some call school, but it looks good from this post, so I’ll check it out when I get home.
And NOES!!! I missed out on the medals AGAIN!!!!
And I just tried to look at the other messages and I can’t look at ANY OTHER ARTICLES! Damn filters…
The blogger noted a placard with this inscriptoin:
“Djedkare Isesi, second to last pharaoh of the fifth dynasty, …”
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Clearly, the kid in the photo is a fan of the Bangles’ song, “Ride like an Egyptian”.
@ Avatar
You mean mosquitos and other buzzy things don’t exist?
Very nice, will have to see it one day. You know, in the same way you would poke a dead animal with a stick as a kid? Morbid curiosity.
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So when are we going to counter with FSM world?
None of that “museum” crap! Just a bid fuck of theme park! We can have a giant “octopus” ride in the middle called the Noodalator or something equally OTT.
The “Beer Volcano” log ride? I’m a little stumped for other ideas as I’ve only just come up with the concept. What would you guys like to see in the way of rides?
Oh I got anther one! The Meat Ball! You get those inflatable balls you can roll around inside, then drop it into a tube system with a high air flow! You shoot through the pipe at high speeds bouncing around. Would be a cross between a rollercoaster and free fall.
@Reasonable Avatar
Hi Avatar :)
“Plants, conveniently, were not created in any of the seven days of creation. They are only mentioned in Genesis chapter 2 as being entities that god created but without a specific date given. I put it under day 5 because I wanted to put them with other living things, after the formation of the sun and land that they would feed off of.”
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Well I’m pretty much completely ignorant to the Genesis creation timeline, but I was just reading at the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible yesterday (… or day before :p) a bit about those plants…
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http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/plants.html.
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and…
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http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/science/long.html
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…now I’m even more confused! Think I’ll stick to that evilutionary timeline :p)
There’d obviously have to be a pirate ship ride. And how about a huge swimming pool with lots of noodly water slides?