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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/27/2010 : 08:42:22
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It was not P.T. Barnham who said: "There's a sucker born every minute." It was David Hannum, and, as it involves the Cardiff Giant, that's an even better story than the Barnham yarn.
Anyhow, PZ is on over the expansion of Ham's latterday freak show up there in Petersburg KY. On this, he is correct.
P.T. Barnum was right
Category: Creationism
Posted on: November 27, 2010 9:19 AM, by PZ Myers
There's a sucker born every minute, and you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
The Creation "Museum" is expanding and building a theme park. It's simply a fact that Ken Ham's Institution of Ignorance is doing business like gangbusters — it is well-attended and successful, has low-brow appeal, has negligible operating expenses (unlike a real museum), and is drawing in crowds of rubes and doing a great job of separating them from their money. I'm not at all surprised that Ham is rubbing his hands together and calculating new ways to fleece the flock; it's what his kind does.
It's a bit embarrassing having this gigantic, growing symbol of the failure of American education metastasizing in our midst, but it's not their fault. The way we'll fix it is not to shut down the stupid place, but to teach people that creationism is foolishness, so that Ham's flock shrinks.
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A Cretin Creation Museum theme park -- I wonder what rides they'll have. Perhaps you'll be able to experience eating a sour apple whilst getting drowned in a flood. That would be exciting. Also fabulous might be the concession stands (no pork in the 'dogs) and the prayer closets, although modern Christians seem to prefer to do it in public.
It's gonna be a freakin' hoot! 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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podcat
Skeptic Friend
435 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2010 : 18:06:14 [Permalink]
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| I think there'll be a playground for the kids. No monkey bars, though. |
“In a modern...society, everybody has the absolute right to believe whatever they damn well please, but they don't have the same right to be taken seriously”.
-Barry Williams, co-founder, Australian Skeptics |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 11/28/2010 : 06:58:19 [Permalink]
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| Perhaps they can buy up some machinery from Kent Hovind? His theme park closed down a while back, when Hovind went to some well deserved prison-time for tax-evasion and shit. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2010 : 11:21:32 [Permalink]
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Editorial | Creationist tourism
An editorial from The Curial-Journal. A paper that serves Louisville Kentucky and Southern Indiana:
Gov. Steve Beshear needs a vacation. Indeed, he should have taken it this week.
Other than extreme fatigue, how else can one explain his embrace of a project to build a creationism theme park in Northern Kentucky (near the Creation Museum) and the apparent willingness of his administration to offer tourism-development tax incentives to developers of the park?
Even if technically legal (in that the law allowing the tax breaks doesn't discriminate against other religious or anti-religious views), a state role in a private facility that would be built by a group called Answers in Genesis and espouses a fundamentalist view resting on biblical inerrancy indirectly promotes a religious dogma. That should never be the role of government.
Moreover, in a state that already suffers from low educational attainment in science, one of the last things Kentucky officials should encourage, even if only implicitly, is for students and young people to regard creationism as scientifically valid. Creationism is a nonsensical notion that the Earth is less than 6,000 years old. No serious scientist upholds that view, and sophisticated analysis of the Earth's minerals and meteorite deposits generally lead to an estimate that the planet is about 4.5 billion years old. Furthermore, creationism teaches that the Earth (including humans) was created in six days, thus rejecting the well-established science of evolution.
But if the Beshear administration is determined that Kentucky should cash in on its stereotypes — and wants to fight Indiana to snare the theme park — why stop with creationism? How about a Flat-Earth Museum? Or one devoted to the notion that the sun revolves around the Earth? Why not a museum to celebrate the history and pageantry of methamphetamines and Oxycontin? Surely a spot can be found for an Obesity Museum (with a snack bar).
And while we're at it, let's redo the state's slogan. Let's try: Kentucky — Unbridled Laughingstock. |
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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PZ gets it wrong!
