Creation Museum's attendance exceeds expectations

[BridgeTheGap]

(Idiocracy - it's more than just a theory! Notice that the CJ put this under the "education" heading. btg)
PETERSBURG, Ky. -- A school bus hissed to a stop near a giant concrete dinosaur perched outside the Creation Museum, a $27 million, 70,000-square-foot natural history museum-meets-Biblical theme park.

Three dozen middle school students tumbled out the doors, stretching after the 113-mile drive from Westside Christian School in Indianapolis for a field trip to augment their science lessons.

Inside, the students learned from displays that, contrary to mainstream textbooks, science supports the Bible's accounts of the Earth's creation in six days; that the Grand Canyon was created suddenly in Noah's flood; that dinosaurs and humans lived together; and that animal poison did not exist before Adam's original sin.

"Creation makes more sense -- what's here just confirms it," said seventh-grader Nick Johnson of Westside Christian.

Two years after its controversial opening, the Creation Museum has drawn 720,000 visitors, far more than the 250,000 annually organizers predicted. It brought in $7 million in receipts last fiscal year, with organizers saying it has had an economic impact of more than $20 million.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090610/NEWS01/906100383&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

[WillParkinson]

1. Makes more sense...

Right. Suuuuure.

[bulloney]

20. What do you expect from a kid who's been indoctrinated at a Christian school?

I wouldn't get too excited about the attendance exceeding expectations. Lots of kids go to Chuck E Cheese, but that doesn't mean it's better than Cedar Point Amusement Park.

[Tesha]

2. I wonder if the kids genuflected at the P.T. Barnum shrine in the lobby? (NT)

[Aristus]

23. Nick Johnson, Future Unemployed Church Volunteer.

:eyes::dunce:

[Richardo]

3. Enjoy your career in unskilled labor, young Nick

:patriot:

[salguine]

11. Are you kidding? Nick's got a good shot at "next rising GOP star". He'll be

the Sarah Palin/Sam Brownback of his generation.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

4. It's sad to see kids brainwashed by religion...

It's child abuse as far as I'm concerned. These kids will grow up never knowing the true beauty of the world around them that they could know if they were taught evolution. It's so sad.

[unpossibles]

5. This is why I've never gone

I refuse to give them one dime. What the article does not mention is that I know more than a few people who have gone to make fun of it, or just to see it but don't believe the BS. But sadly they are still supporting it financially.

And forgive me if I think what makes sense to a seventh grader is not necessarily the correct answer. Know what else makes sense to a seventh grader? All kinds of ignorant shit.

[Salviati]

6. You know what else makes sense?

-That heavier things fall faster than light ones
-That if I present light with two mutually exclusive alternatives, it must take one option or the other, not both.
-That time flows at the same rate for all people
-Everyone agrees on the length of a meter


Alas, science is ultimately answerable to this thing that we call reality, and though all of the above make sense, none of them are true, because none of them are what we see in the real world. "Making sense" _can_ be a good criteria for suggesting the validity of an idea, and is one that I suggest to my students all the time, but it only works in the regime of scale where that sense was developed...

[get the red out]

7. Shame

This disgusting bastion of glorified ignorance is one of the most shameful things in my home state.

Fortunately, we have a Democratic Governor now. I recall when the wife of our former crook Republican Gov, Ernie Fletcher, made a big show of taking their grandchildren to the Creation Museum. And he was a medical doctor and she an RN. They made a big show of being Fundamentalists but I wondered how two people so obviously trained in science believed such junk.

The right-wing religious groups are making themselves laughing stocks of the world. A lot of people really do visit this place to make fun of it. And where else can Fundies take their kids and be sure that no reality will possibly enter their impressionable heads? Some of these people are afraid demons are lurking in every shadow; the fear is amazing. I have seen it in my ex-sister-in-law. The woman is so Fundie that she was appalled that the Orlando basketball team took the evil name "Magic" (the Disney reference being completely over her brain-washed head).

I hope the Democrats will follow through on more campaign promises and stay in power in this country long enough for this kind of thinking to become even more marginalized. The more these people are publicly laughed at the more chance their children have of wanting to live in the real world someday.

[pipi_k]

10. Got some friends like that

Some of these people are afraid demons are lurking in every shadow; the fear is amazing. I have seen it in my ex-sister-in-law. The woman is so Fundie that she was appalled that the Orlando basketball team took the evil name "Magic" (the Disney reference being completely over her brain-washed head).


Mr Pip and I have some long-time friends who are like that. They were pretty bad before, but they're getting worse with age.

The wife told us a story about one of her sons who was having a really bad year one time. She told him (because it was her husband who told her) that his troubles were caused by a particular record album cover...the one by the Eagles with the cow skull on it...and that he needed to get rid of it and things would improve. Bad juju, apparently :eyes: She said he did and things did get better, but I suspect her son only TOLD her he got rid of it and was humoring her.

And Kokopelli....EVIL!!!! Some years back my oldest stepdaughter and her fiance sent out wedding invitations that were sort of funky/earthy and they had little images of Kokopelli on them. I thought they were interesting and cute...showed it to the wife of this couple and she looked like she wanted to rip it out of my hand and stomp on it. The husband is part First Nation, and familiar with parts of the culture of his tribe and isn't above wearing turquoise and/or beads, but that's about as far as the tolerance goes.

Anything that doesn't match what they've decided is OK as Christians is EVIL. I feel sorry for their closed minded attitude.

[pipi_k]

12. PS...

and they don't believe man and dinosaurs lived together...

nooooo

they believe that any bones or fossils that have been found are not in great enough quantities to PROVE that dinosaurs existed, and that it's all a big hoax perpetrated by Archaeologists, who have (they are convinced) taken parts and pieces of regular animal bones and fitted them together to "make" dinosaurs.

Oh, and I have a Fundy sister who believes that dinosaur bones were placed here on purpose by God to "test our faith".


Whenever I think I'm crazy, I only have to look at people like this and I feel sane again.

[HillWilliam]

13. I always have to ask them what sort of a devil-trickster

god it is they worship who likes to torment and play tricks like that on his followers. Not the sort of god I'd want to have anything to do with. Then again, they enjoy torment, pain, anxiety, uncertainty, and all the "wonderful" things their "faith" seems to lay on them. The wackogelicals are a supremely miserable people and more's the pity that they aren't satisfied until everyone around them is as miserable and misbegotten as they are.

As you say, whenever I think I'm crazy, I only have to take a quick glance at any wackogelical. I feel better immediately.

[awoke_in_2003]

40. From "Red, White and Screwed"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0gAcbAGPH4

[groovedaddy]

15. Yep, it's exactly this sort of fear that leads to inquisitions and pogroms. n.t

[The Wizard]

14. I guess your ex sister-in-law

isn't a big fan of the New Jersey Devils.

[verges]

35. To someone living in NE Ohio

(Cavs country) the Orlando Magics are evil.

[Still Sensible]

8. Why any school would allow/promote field trips

to this place is incomprehensible to me.

[get the red out]

9. "Westside Christian School in Indianapolis"

This is exactly what I have come to expect from "Christian" schools. Brain-washing not education. They seek to separate the children from the influences of the real world, which they will need to function in as adults, as much as possible.

I think Catholic schools are quite different, at least in my area their main concern is sports, LOL! I am sure they teach science because if the students blow their SATs completely how are they going get through the NCAA clearing house to play college ball??? :evilgrin: (Just bein snarky, Catholics appear to accept evolution, so they are on the good side in this fight).

[Rebubula]

16. If there is a god...

...he is laughing his ass off at these morons.

Boring sex, boring lives, no relaxing Sunday Mornings, constant fear of teh ghey and self loathing for every minor infraction - what a shitty way to live.

[abq e streeter]

22. Agree with everything but the boring sex

it keeps turning out that these people are among the kinkiest on the planet...

[Soylent Brice]

17. weeeee!!!!

[groovedaddy]

18. Ha ha! thanks for sharing...n.t

[Soylent Brice]

21. creationists = infinite source of amusement

it's like the gift that keeps on giving.

[tom_paine]

19. A creepy whiff of medieval mentality that is apparently a fast growing phenomena.

History tells us where such movements ultimately lead...

[onager]

27. Yep, right here...

The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion - except for the sect that can win political power.--Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, dissenting opinion in Zorach v. Clauson, 1952

And though they were before his time, Justice Jackson had some good ideas about a bad idea--faith-based initiatives, in which omnipotent, omniscient deities apparently need help from American taxpayers:

The effect of the religious freedom Amendment to our Constitution was to take every form of propagation of religion out of the realm of things which could directly or indirectly be made public business, and thereby be supported in whole or in part at taxpayers' expense.

That is a difference which the Constitution sets up between religion and almost every other subject matter of legislation, a difference which goes to the very root of religious freedom...

This freedom was first in the Bill of Rights because it was first in the forefathers' minds; it was set forth in absolute terms, and its strength is its rigidity.

It was intended not only to keep the states' hands out of religion, but to keep religion's hands off the state, and, above all, to keep bitter religious controversy out of public life by denying to every denomination any advantage from getting control of public policy or the public purse.--dissenting opinion in Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, 1947

[Strong Atheist]

24. What a load of

:hurts:

[Proud Liberal Dem]

25. Checking in from Indianapolis here

:banghead:

[IndianaGreen]

26. It's the water in Cincinnati that's causing this insanity!

Eve had her pet raptor while Adam had his T-Rex.

Have you seen the picture of Jesus holding a baby dinosaur?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

31. Whatever is in the water there is obviously in the water here in Indiana too.

I'm just glad I haven't been exposed to it.
:eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

33. I never drink the water

Stick to beer!

:toast: :beer:

[burning rain]

28. Exceeded expectations?

Sounds like someone underestimated how overrun this great country is with religious primitivists. Good thing we have the Supreme Court to protect us from a few of the worst excesses. If most Americans had their druthers, I'm sure creationism would be taught in public schools.

[groovedaddy]

29. Unfortunately, I think you're right. n.t

[benld74]

30. "Creation makes more sense"? Less amount to study thats for sure kid!

[Moostache]

32. Just more dirt on the grave of the United States as a world power...

The mere EXISTENCE of this place is deeply offensive to me. I mean offensive and offended in the Muslim "I'm-gonna-fire-bomb-the-city" way; or the Jewish "I'm-gonna-rip-my-clothing" way; or the X-tian "I'm-gonna-pout-and-cry-in-the-media-that-I'm-being-repressed" way.

Apparently, "our side" in this needs to take some lessons from the fundies....you want action? You gotta be ready to burn everything around you like a temperamental 4 year old! I am ready....give me the metaphorical torches!

[TrogL]

34. You can't rip your clothing around here - violation of office dress code

[pink-o]

36. We don't rip clothing anymore...R U kidding? We'd have to buy more that way!

You see Jews at Shiva services wearing pieces of fabric pinned to lapels, symbolic renting of clothes during grief.

Lest wasteful and expensive that way!

[HillWilliam]

37. What, no retail therapy?

:rofl:

[pink-o]

38. In our case it would be wholesale or discount therapy, right?? n/t

[HillWilliam]

39. Nu, who pays full price?

The bigger the schmertz, the better the bargain should be.

At least that's how I think it works :rofl:

[Hugin]

41. Freak shows have historically been very popular.

Even, P. T. Barnum knew that. :shrug:

If you'll pardon me... I'm off to see the Egress! :bounce:

:yoiks: