When 300+ scientists, secularists and atheists converged on the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky this Friday, some expected to see the sparks fly. After all, secular groups and Young Earth Creationists mix about as well as oil and water. Yet the event went off almost without a hitch. The secularists, atheists, etc., were in town to attend a conference of the Secular Student Alliance, a group that serves the needs of freethinkers in high school and college. According to its mission statement, it exists "to educate high school and college students around the country about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations." Started in 2000, SSA currently has about 150 affiliates in North America and abroad. The visit to the Creation Museum was conceived of as something partly for amusement and partly as a scientific scouting expedition of what, for critical thinkers, must appear like an alien planet.The Creation Museum is the $27 million brain-child of Ken Ham, president of Answers In Genesis, a bible-literalist corporation that promotes the idea that the Earth is no more than 6,000 years old and that all creatures, including man and the dinosaurs, were simultaneously created by God and co-existed together until around 4400 years ago when most, if not all, dinosaurs failed to board Noah's Ark and perished in the Great Flood (or, as one student put it to me, "There was a misprint on their boarding passes and they got there a little late"). The Creation Museum is a showcase for the bible-literalist position.
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When the museum's sponsors got wind that such a large group of skeptics was coming for a visit, they got a bit alarmed and sent a letter outlining some rules of conduct to P Z Myers, a biologist and one of the sponsors of the SSA outing. "The Creation Museum welcomes anyone to tour our family attraction," it said, but went on to warn that, "loud, disrespectful, destructive, obscene, or abusive behavior will not be tolerated, and may result in your removal from the premises." P Z Myers and the other sponsors also issued some guidelines with the intent of keeping things peaceful during the tour. Discussions of the experience were scheduled for after-wards only.For those expecting confrontations, the actual visit was anti-climactic. The SSA people and their friends toured the museum in small groups and mostly kept their conversations (and criticisms) low-voiced and among themselves. There were a number of guards present to see that they kept it that way. One student, Derek Rogers, who was wearing a shirt that bore the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," was escorted by guards to a nearby restroom and made to wear the shirt inside-out so the slogan wouldn't show. The same student was later evicted from the museum for allegedly "unruly behavior".
P Z Myers, who, in addition to being a scientist, is also the founder of the Pharyngula science blog, gives his description of the visit and assessment of the museum here.
Ken Ham gives the creationist's view of the visit here.
Photo credits:
1) P Z Myers riding a saddled dinosaur at the Creation Museum (provided by Pharyngula)
2) Believers and non-believers talking at the museum (provided by Devin Powell, Inside Science News Service)
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Comments
The correct wording on Derek Rogers' shirt was "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy yourself." ABC News fixedd it in their story and I recommend the Examiner do the same.
(sorry if this is redundant with other posts)
Corrected. Thanks for the heads-up, Brock.
The shirt actually reads, "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," not "yourself". ABC News only half fixed it. (The shirt is produced by the UK Atheist Bus Campaign: www.atheistbus.org.uk/store/. There's a picture of Derek wearing the shirt at www.youngausskeptics.com/2009/08/derek-rodgers-expelled-from-ken-hams-theme-park-of-ignorance/)
Corrected again. Thanks, skepsci. This shirt is beginning to cause more controversy than the museum itself!
;)
I saw a set of photos from the visit which showed a number of the displays and descriptions. It's painful to read, it's so full of fabrication.
I once had a Christian friend who knew I had a background in Archaeology and Anthropology as me if it wasn't true that dinosaurs and man lived at the same time. I had to disagree with the premis <G>. You do realize of course that these people vote. maybe that will explain 8 years of George Bush.
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