I would so love to visit one of these places, but alas I live in the northeast, the bastion of the devil. Maybe it is better I can't. Creationists are fun to argue with up to a point. I am a very patient person, but have eventually gotten frustrated to the enough to losing my temper. It's like trying to hammer nails in with a boneless ham. No matter how hard you hit you can't drive them in. They just stand there with that smug, stupid grin on their faces.

Humean_Nature: What? I was so sure that they had solid scientific grounding for the "when humans domesticated friendly dinosaurs" exhibit.

You mean Dinoriders wasn't a documentary?

Bevets: So to recap: The guy visits a poorly funded museum and discovers that the exhibits fall short of multi million dollar atheists cathedrals. I guess this is easier than engaging people in discussion.

dude, get a freaking decaf, you're trying too hard this mornin

WorldCitizen: There is a certain segment of loons who will never be able to have the critical thinking skills/sanity to understand the basic concepts of science.

leave my mother out of it

I guess the selection of people with enough expertise to organize their collection and who also believe in creationism is pretty slim.

Eddie Adams from Torrance: [i236.photobucket.com image 500x500]

This one's real.

Yes it is.

Via Infinito: WorldCitizen: shivashakti: Y'know, I'm generally fairly critical of fundamentalists, but this just seems dickish. You know this isn't going to be real science because they're basing everything on a literal interpretation of Genesis.

So why go in, mock them on your blog and point out everywhere that they're wrong scientifically?

Because it needs to be done? They can have their opinions. Fine. Freedom of speech. That doesn't means their opinions shouldn't be criticized and flat out mocked when they are so ridiculous. If for no other reason than they hope to use their fantasy land to spread their myths to kids ruining yet another generation of humans from the ability to think critically.

This. Isn't building a misinformation museum way more dickish to begin with?

Aaannnddd both are a couple orders of magnitude less dickish than trying to force their mythological bullshiat into schools. IMO the primary reason for the "museum" is to legitimize creationism in the minds of the public so they have a better shot at getting it into the schools.

shivashakti: Via Infinito: This. Isn't building a misinformation museum way more dickish to begin with?

I don't think it is.
They're doing it as a sincere expression of their faith.

You may be giving them too much credit. I think it's at least as likely that these places are run by people who know better but aren't above bilking one of the more gullible segments of the population. Creationists seem like easy marks.

Unreal that the place is run by the Scantibodies guy.

I'd always heard Scantibodies was a sh*tty place to work, using the employees like galley slaves. Maybe they're trying to recreate bronze-age conditions.

revrendjim: serial_crusher: So the first fossil is a fake... just like all the ones in the evolution museums?

Real museums often display reproductions of important fossils, but they are faithful casts of real fossils, not outright fabrications like the ones in the article.

You do know that the fossil record was planted by Satan to deceive us, right?

/Seems obligatory.

Bevets: I guess this is easier than engaging people in discussion.

...says Bevets...

Not that I don't agree with them, but they keep bringing up wall of boring text in the museum, and yet, they have like 4 or 5 pictures in what could have been an amusing museum to look at.

Bevets: So to recap: The guy visits a poorly funded museum and discovers that the exhibits fall short of multi million dollar atheists cathedrals. I guess this is easier than engaging people in discussion.

To be fair, I am a private citizen and I own real fossils. They're not that hard to get if you have even a miniscule amount of disposable income and a little bit of accurate information on where to purchase them.I don't put fakey fakes on display for when company comes over and tell them that they're real (nor do I charge admission, for that matter) to try and impress them. Even if I owned fake fossils (recasts or whatever) I would at least tell people "Yea, it's a recast of..." So if this place, which is very well funded by the ICR as a point of fact (hint: using google to see if the information you're claiming is in fact true can help prevent you looking like a bigger fool), don't have the knowledge to spot a forgery from a real fossil (it isn't that they couldn't afford these massive slabs of fake fossil recasts) then it really doesn't even matter if they're well funded or not. They are, but it doesn't matter. They're f*cking stupid. I'm not even a paleontologist or an archaeologist - although as a kid I wanted to be one (a paleontologist) so I still keep up with some literature as a hobby these days - and I know some of the easy tell-tale signs of fake fossils.

Guys guys....it's ok. God told the museum to do that. He was just testing the faith of the paleontologists.

Bevets thread!!!! fark yeah, I've missed these threads. I even have an actual bag of popcorn at my desk, I'll be back in 2 minutes.

Vodka Zombie: It's a bad day to be Bevets... Then again, every day is a bad day when you pattern your life on fairy tales.

At least he could pattern it on interesting fairy tales. There's all sorts of cool stuff in Hindu or Egyptian mythology, for instance, but the Abrahamic mythos is so damn dull.

Tyrone Slothrop: At least he could pattern it on interesting fairy tales. There's all sorts of cool stuff in Hindu or Egyptian mythology, for instance, but the Abrahamic mythos is so damn dull.

Samson isn't strong enough for you?

Tyrone Slothrop: Vodka Zombie: It's a bad day to be Bevets... Then again, every day is a bad day when you pattern your life on fairy tales.

At least he could pattern it on interesting fairy tales. There's all sorts of cool stuff in Hindu or Egyptian mythology, for instance, but the Abrahamic mythos is so damn dull.

You only say that because we live in a culture that is dominated by that particular mythos, and its constant and never-ending influence in most facets of our daily lives. If you lived in a culture that was dominated by a different religion, you'd find that one dull.

Here is the problem. This is an excerpt from a recent thread :


and just for those keeping score at home, he just equivocated the historical facts of Jesus life, teachings, events, multiple witnessed accounts with corroboration, with some other "religious" view like mormonism, an obviously a fraudulent cult built by a retarded level of proof and reasoning

because for people like him, thinkn' is hard

//but yeah those things are totally alike

To this religious poster, everything written about Jesus is a fact. Walking on water? FACT. Turning water into wine? FACT. Rose from the dead? FACT. And the proof? The Bible. There were multiple eye witnesses, it says so right in the bible. Oh, and they found some splinted wood on a hill near Jerusalem. OBVIOUSLY, that hill was Golgotha, and those splinters are from the One True Cross, which is more proof of the validity of the bible. How can one even doubt?

Then they laugh and belittle at equally silly myths from other sects/religions. And these people are our neighbors, our coworkers, our very friends.

Jesus Wept.

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: atheist trade shows.

I'm going to use that. Often.

Bevets: Bf+:

s3.hubimg.com
/Seems obligatory.

bevets.com

Teach The Controversy


I think you meant to post this:


It's from your science textbook.

Via Infinito: Magorn: Had a very odd moment yesterday: had some time to kill between Job interviews and I was across the street from the Smithsonian Natural History museum so I decided to duck in for a while. Tje new thing since the last time I'd been there was a Human Origins exhibit that was not only De-LUXE but so matter of fact about human evolution that it was nearly in your face.

No hemming and hawing, no "some people believe differently" bullshiat, just THIS is the facts about how we evolved and HERE is the proof

In the center was a movie playing in a loop that emphasized how humans alive today are a single species with 99.9% of their DNA in common (and a not at all subtle message about human brotherhood that this implies). but it was what they said at the very end of that video that really threw me for a loop:

"Welcome to the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins" and yes, i checked, it's THAT David H. Koch

That guy is way cooler than you'd think with him being a Tea Party supporter. Every time I watch NOVA, he's always listed as a donor. He donates frequently to the arts and supports gay marriage. But he thinks the president is a dangerous socialist. The dude's a walking conundrum.

He's libertarian, not so much a Republican. Assume that on major issues, he asks "Does this make me money?"

Gay marriage? Doesn't change his bottom line. Doesn't care.
Evolution? Doesn't change his bottom line. Doesn't care, default position is that science is acceptable.
Climate Change? Changes his bottom line, because he's heavily positioned on fossil fuels. Science is not acceptable.
Taxes? The President's position is that billionaires should be taxed more. Unacceptable.

He does give a lot of money to charity, but not so much that he'd miss it. Charity also has favorable (and legitimate) tax and public relations consequences for him.

Fat boy wins the thread!

Bevets: Last Feb. 11, the day before Darwin's 203rd Birthday, I was invited by Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy of the "Oh, no, it's Ross and Carrie" podcast to accompany them, along with Emery Emery and Heather Henderson of the Ardent Atheist podcast, to visit the Creation Museum in Santee, east of San Diego, California (videoblog available here). This museum was originally built by the Institute of Creation "Research" (ICR), once led by the late Henry Morris and Duane Gish, which has since relocated to Texas. At one time ICR was the leading creationist organization in the U.S., but lately they seem to have lost their influence (they couldn't even get their school accredited in conservative Texas!). Now they are overshadowed by Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and his multi-million-dollar creation museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (which I saw back in 2009).

So to recap: The guy visits a poorly funded museum and discovers that the exhibits fall short of multi million dollar atheists cathedrals. I guess this is easier than engaging people in discussion.

Hey now, Clan-tee's my town. And I've been meaning to go to that museum on a lark but it only seems to be open during business hours.

Also, on one end of town we have a methodist church. It's a little hard to explain the burning cross icon to minorities. On account of hour misnomer.

As a proud Kentuckian, I'm just glad its not the one in KY.

But, I feel bad that are two.


/I am conflict

Felgraf: /Or maybe because I'm a hypocrite, since I freely admit if it were scientifically determined there was no such thing as free-will, that we were all just pre-determined meat-machines, I... admit I'd probably refuse to acknowledge it. The belief that I have some control over my own thoughts and actions, some ability to alter at least who *I* am, is, I guess, kind of important to me... I wonder if that makes me very different than the young earth creationists.

And right there is your saving grace. The ability to admit it.

Yup. But one complaint about the author's writing style: too!Many!Exclamation!Points!.

If you read bevets stuff you will eventually understand that he ie the best troll ever.

nocturn: Bevets: Last Feb. 11, the day before Darwin's 203rd Birthday, I was invited by Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy of the "Oh, no, it's Ross and Carrie" podcast to accompany them, along with Emery Emery and Heather Henderson of the Ardent Atheist podcast, to visit the Creation Museum in Santee, east of San Diego, California (videoblog available here). This museum was originally built by the Institute of Creation "Research" (ICR), once led by the late Henry Morris and Duane Gish, which has since relocated to Texas. At one time ICR was the leading creationist organization in the U.S., but lately they seem to have lost their influence (they couldn't even get their school accredited in conservative Texas!). Now they are overshadowed by Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and his multi-million-dollar creation museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (which I saw back in 2009).

So to recap: The guy visits a poorly funded museum and discovers that the exhibits fall short of multi million dollar atheists cathedrals. I guess this is easier than engaging people in discussion.

Hey now, Clan-tee's my town. And I've been meaning to go to that museum on a lark but it only seems to be open during business hours.

Also, on one end of town we have a methodist church. It's a little hard to explain the burning cross icon to minorities. On account of hour misnomer.

"our"

Dammit.

We have a shiatload of churches in this town. And after looking at the link and finding the head of one of our few scientific businesses is the owner... Well, goddammit that's just sad. : /

loonatic112358

Samson isn't strong enough for you?


Not since he got that haircut, I guess.

Creationist logic never gets old to me. I've explained it like this to creationists in the past.

We're all familiar with the "404 file not found" error when trying to access a resource on the internet that does not exist. Imagine typing a URL into the web browser address bar and clicking "Go." The computer displays "404 File not Found." After seeing this, imagine the user somehow sending a command to the computer saying, "You have the believe the file is there." Then then computer renders what it believes should be there and it will most likely NOT be what the user was expecting. This is creationist logic.

Relatively Obscure: It's like Bevets isn't really even trying anymore. :(

It isn't that he isn't trying, it's that he's been trying the exact same shtick for over 10 years now. It's stale. He has no new material. Nothing new has happened in his brain in 10 years. He is the Carlos Mencia of creationism.

My wife wants to go this this place because it's apparently a beautiful museum that's extraordinarily well planned and laid out. Too bad it's a monument to willful ignorance.

Kome: He is the Carlos Mencia of creationism.

*golf clap*