In what has got to be one of the saddest days for Science, a ‘Museum’ in Kentucky has opened that shows Adam and Eve living amongst dinosaurs. A 29 million dollar project, the museum literally recreates the Genesis chapter of the Bible, where God creates Man and Animals on the 6th day of Creation.
Now there is nothing wrong with this, except that this ‘6th day’ is supposedly merely 6000 years ago, according to the Museum, implying that the Earth is not billions of years old, but just thousands ! I find this shocking and preposterous … They have not only rubbished Evolutionary Biology, but Ancient History, Geology and so many other sciences along with it… probably centuries worth of discovery and research!
What exactly are children who visit this museum supposed to gain out of these lies ? How can a Museum that claims the Earth is only 6000 years old be allowed to function like this ? So are the ‘Stone Age’, ‘Paleolithic Age’ and so on, which were recorded to be 300,000 years ago mere figments of scientists’ imagination ? And I suppose human beings at the time had pet Brontosauruses in their backyard as well ?
Dinosaurs have always belonged to the ‘Evolutionists’, because the Bible didn’t have a word about these creatures. But now, Creationists have conveniently added Dinosaurs not only to Day 6 of Creation, but to Noah’s Ark as well. Hmmm… of course no one is asking the important question – Why did God create these massive lizard monsters in the first place if he wanted Man to be at the top of the heirarchy ? And an even more obvious question – Why have only the dinosaurs died and left all the other animals safe and sound ?
It’s truly a blessing that I, and perhaps most of the Indian/Non-US readers of this blog were brought up in nations where Science had it’s place as the truth, and where there was no ‘alternate theory’ taught in class to protect religion from Evolution. We were taught Evolution like we were taught Gravity – with not the slightest of doubt in it’s truth and credibility. Read more comments from the shocked here
While the rest of the world has no problems with the truth and history of the world, and carry on with their business of research and discovery, the leading nation in the world is merely going backwards.
Realm Of Randomness 
They definitely have a right putforth their views.
But it looks more like a religious study rather than a scientific evidence of evolution. What the people who believe otherwise can do is setup up another museum with their opinions,, that is if they are really bothered with this stuff, but yeah that would be a costly affair ;).
Since they have given it a religious touch, I think it would be a flop on such a subject.
Comment by salman — May 27, 2007 @ 6:53 pm |
I would have absolutely no problem if they called it a separate ‘bible project’ – but what they are clearly trying to do here is pose as ‘scientific fact’ and not ‘representation of a belief’.
They are trying to show that the Genesis is scientifically true, and that the earth is infact only 6000 years old. Add to the fact that it’s called a ‘Museum’ and not a ‘Bible park’ exposes its intention of trying to pretend to be ‘scientific fact’.
With hi-fi graphics and 3D movies to support the place, I have no doubt what ‘truth’ is going to remain in a child’s mind after a visit.
Like a quote I read recently, ‘Our gods are supposed to be protecting us… instead WE end up protecting our gods all the time’ … spending 29 million US Dollars to protect the fable of Genesis is just one such example
Comment by Randomizer — May 27, 2007 @ 7:07 pm |
And Yeah I think its really stupid to change the curriculum of the school, They students should be taught the present scientific theories and only then they can question and reason.
Comment by salman — May 27, 2007 @ 7:22 pm |
I agree with one of the comments I read at that link… This is just preaching to the choir, so there’s not much to worry about. It’s not more damaging that parents sending their children to sunday school / catechism. The smart kids will previal (eventually), the dumb ones will get worse.<br/><br/>But, seriously, this is so full of holes, it’s much more difficult to believe than the bible itself. It’s like using chemistry to explain how jesus made wine out of water – when you get specific like that, more people will start thinking about it and reject it outright. hopefully.
Comment by eyw — May 27, 2007 @ 8:08 pm |
@eyw<br/><br/>i agree that the Creationists are walking ‘dangerously close’ to making themselves defunct by trying to invoke science.<br/><br/>But there is also another opposing factor. Earlier, someone like you and me could say ‘oh thats just stupid’ and not believe in the Genesis. Now, with all this supposed ‘scientific evidence also supports genesis’ crap , they are pretty successfully becoming an ‘alternate science’. <br/><br/>Now people can go ‘I believe in the Creationist theory rather than Evolutionary theory’ and sound all cool instead of merely being forced to say ‘I believe in the Bible’. Now that this ‘theory’ has a Museum to it’s name, who is to stop more and more people from falling prey ? <br/><br/>Its true that there are holes in the theory – but those holes will be discovered much later in life thanks to Museums like these that label dinosaur fossils ‘6000 years old ‘. <br/><br/>
Comment by Randomizer — May 27, 2007 @ 10:00 pm |
If they say that they believe in Genesis and here is the some form of evidence then I think its fine if that evidence is enough for them. <br/><br/>If people are really looking for proof or some strong evidence then they will definitely analyse as many theories as possible and take a stand. If somebody follows blindly then a little evidence is sufficient for them.<br/><br/>I won’t call that stupid, somebody is staking some form of claim with a little evidence, yes I agree that calling a dino fossil 6000 years old even when its been proved its older than that is wierd. <br/>You cannot say that the theory of evolution is perfectly clear and contains no flaw what so ever, and its a pretty difficult thing to completely understand by a layman.<br/><br/>All these theories however backed by the scientific evidence are still theories and many questions remains unanswered or answered partly and as you said it yourself that the HOLES in the theory of genesis will take some time to be discovered ….. so untill then they have a right to put forward their theories or rather opinions.<br/><br/><br/>Well I only think it was stupid of state of Kansas(if am not wrong) to change the syllabus and put a theory as an alternate to theory of evolution, probably it could be taught along with other theories and also without the religious touch.
Comment by salman — May 27, 2007 @ 11:44 pm |
@Salman –
” you said yourself that the HOLES in the theory of genesis will take some time to be discovered “
Actually I think you misunderstood my statement, or maybe I wasn’t too clear , sorry about that … what I meant was that the holes in the theory of genesis will take time FOR A KID to discover.
A kid (say 5 years old) is ready to believe in the Genesis directly, no need of any proof … by the time he’s 12-13 years old, he’ll start questioning it, and will need answers. If all that was provided by the Creationists were words from the Bible, then at this point the child could have said ‘Ah, I think it’s nonsense.. Adam and Eve sounds far-fetched… so does Noah’s Ark’.
But now, with this ‘Museum’ that has ‘proof’ of 6000 year old fossils, the kid will be led the wrong way for many more years. He might have to wait till he’s 15-16 years old and has learnt enough about prehistoric facts, radio-carbon dating, evolutionary biology, maybe even geology before he can confidently say – The Creationists were lying! The earth is billions of years old !
I find the inclusion of Creationism into school syllabus completely absurd and anti-secular as well.
Comment by Randomizer — May 28, 2007 @ 12:10 am |
@Salman –
“I won’t call that stupid, somebody is staking some form of claim with a little evidence”
Definitely, *some* evidence is better than *no* evidence. I would have wholeheartedly agreed with your statement, if they had indeed proved the fossils were 6000 years old.
But if you watch the video, the reporter asks the museum curator ‘Others say the fossils are millions of years old’ … and the curator says, ‘These fossils are about 6000 years old because Animals were created on the 6th Day and the earth was created 6000 years ago’.
That’s like saying
a) Bible is true because we found fossils that are 6000 years old
b) Fossil is 6000 years old because Bible says so
:-D If that is evidence enough for people, then so be it !
Comment by Randomizer — May 28, 2007 @ 12:28 am |
@ ::” But if you watch the video, the reporter asks the museum curator ‘Others say the fossils are millions of years old’ … and the curator says, ‘These fossils are about 6000 years old because Animals were created on the 6th Day and the earth was created 6000 years ago’. “<br/><br/>Yup thats exactly what I meant, it was really stupid to call that fossil 6000 years old just because its written in the bible, this statement is more than enough to turn the people away from the “so called museum”.<br/><br/>@::<br/>” Definitely, *some* evidence is better than *no* evidence. I would have wholeheartedly agreed with your statement, if they had indeed proved the fossils were 6000 years old. “<br/><br/>No I wans’t referring to the Fossil being 6000 years old, I think they have(else they would make a fool out of themselves) some little or maybe some absurd things here and there just to support their claims, I doubt somebody would spend 29 million dollars to visualise bible. But I think they already killed their idea by claiming that fossil is 6000 years old and that too on a video :)).<br/><br/>@::<br/>” Actually I think you misunderstood my statement, or maybe I wasn’t too clear , sorry about that … what I meant was that the holes in the theory of genesis will take time FOR A KID to discover. “<br/><br/>Got it !!, but I don’t think every kid would grow up and question the theory of genesis. Most would say “Who Cares !!” ;) <br/><br/>What I think over all is its a complete waste 29 million dollars though agreed americans got loads of money but it could have been used in a more constructive way.<br/> <br/>It next to impossible to support the Adam and Eve theory with scientific facts/evidence. People just believe in it. And in a secular country its better to keep it away from schools.
Comment by salman — May 28, 2007 @ 7:36 am |
just because we have figures available for US and none really for India is no reason to believe that we in India somehow have scientific temper that people here lack. <br/><br/>Infact, I recommend you conduct an informal poll among ur friends about their idea of evolution by natural selection clearly explaining how it all rules out the possibility of an intelligent designer. I will be surprised to see if the percentage of ppl would be more than things here. <br/><br/>infact a poll among math/science teachers at our schools itself mite give you rather disappointing results….<br/><br/>My suspicion is that most people back home dont understand what theory of evolution means to their religious beliefs ……for it was so, there would be no reason for hindus to consider the cow sacred.
Comment by Rao — May 29, 2007 @ 2:24 am |
@Sharath –
My contention by this post wasn’t that ‘60% of Americans believe in Creationism whereas only x% (x<<60) of Non-Americans do' ... I was trying to show how strong/powerful the Evangelist lobby is here – They have had successes in including Creationism in the syllabus, they almost blocked stem cell research, abortion is illegal in many states – and there is a 29 mill $ Museum to its name. In India, this movement is NOT strong at all. For instance, if Hindu hard-liners had a ‘Cowanism’ theory that puts the Cow sacred, would they have *ever* been able to get it anywhere near the Biology text books when studying cows – as an alternate theory ? There seems to be a pretty clear separation between education and religion, and that is something we should be proud of. Other nations like us are growing up in technology without many hassles – eg cloning/stem cell research in East Asian countries, etc – America is one of the very few modern nations that gives Technology as hard a time with it’s religious beliefs.
Comment by Randomizer — May 29, 2007 @ 3:21 pm |
The saddest day for science is suddenly a lot less sadder ;) . http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2007/06/sex_scandal_hits_creationist_m.php
Comment by sbkt — June 9, 2007 @ 2:02 am |
@sbkt – :D Thanks for the link ! Was a hilarious read !
Comment by Randomizer — June 9, 2007 @ 3:55 pm |