Science Museums Adapt in Struggle against Creationist Revisionism

Scientific American ^ | July 12, 2007 | Elizabeth Landau

[GodGunsGuts]

Madonna and Bon Jovi are no match for Hawaiian flies when it comes to karaoke hits at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln. In a popular exhibit activity, visitors attempt to mimic the unique courtship calls of different species of Hawaiian Drosophila, a group of 800 different flies that may have evolved from a single species.

Fly karaoke is part of "Explore Evolution," a permanent exhibit currently at Nebraska and five other museums in the Midwest and Southwest...that explores evolutionary concepts in new ways. Such an activity is a far cry from the traditional way science museums have presented evolution, which usually included charts called phylogenies depicting ancestral relationships or a static set of fossils arranged chronologically. "Explore Evolution'' has those, too—and then some, because museum curators came to realize that they needed better ways to counter growing attacks on their integrity.

...

Under pressure from these kinds of groups, the Kansas State Board of Education in 2005 approved a curriculum that allowed the public schools to include completely unfounded challenges to the theory of evolution.

In an effort to make their case to the public, creationists raised $26 million in private donations to build the 50,000-square-foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., which opened in late May. The institution presents the biblical history of the universe. Visitors learn that biblically, dinosaurs are best explained as creatures that roamed Earth with humans. In its first month of existence, the museum drew over 49,000 visitors, according to its Web site.

"Explore Evolution," funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation, is one of many recent efforts by science museums to counter such resistance to evolution...

[GodGunsGuts]

"Ye shall know them by their fruit flies"

[GodGunsGuts]

[Coyoteman]

In an effort to make their case to the public, creationists raised $26 million in private donations to build the 50,000-square-foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., which opened in late May. The institution presents the biblical history of the universe. Visitors learn that biblically, dinosaurs are best explained as creatures that roamed Earth with humans. In its first month of existence, the museum drew over 49,000 visitors, according to its Web site.

And those visitors left the museum more ignorant of science than when they entered.

Yeah, that'll help this country compete worldwide. What a joke!

[GodGunsGuts]

==Yeah, that’ll help this country compete worldwide. What a joke!

I agree, not only is the Church of Darwin grasping as straws, it’s just plain bad science.

[Coyoteman]

More from the article:

[Tattersall] denounced the Creation Museum as "a waste of human talent" and energy to promote a bogus idea. "I do not see that anybody's religious beliefs are threatened by evolution, which is simply the only plausible thesis we have for explaining what we see in nature today," he says.

Waste of money too.

[ndt]

"In an effort to make their case to the public, creationists raised $26 million in private donations to build the 50,000-square-foot Creation Museum in Petersburg,"

Think of all the actual research that they could have conducted with that. Instead, true to form, they start with the conclusion.

[GodGunsGuts]

==Waste of money too.

49,000 visitors since June at $20 a pop is hardly a waste of money. Talk about return on investment! LOL

[DocCincy]

The THEORY of evolution is the biggest non-scientific debacle next to global warming. Nothing in the natural world tends to order, to more complexity. Second law of thermodynamics says that all tends toward disorder—that entropy is constantly increasing. Evolution flat-out contradicts science!

[GodGunsGuts]

==Instead, true to form, they start with the conclusion.

That’s about the only thing Creationists and the Church of Darwin have in common.

[ndt]

"That’s about the only thing Creationists and the Church of Darwin have in common."

That's your second "I know you are but what am I" response in less than 9 posts. Have you given up an actually trying to make a point?

[GodGunsGuts]

==Have you given up an actually trying to make a point?

I made a valid point, but it was lost on you. Here’s a quote to help you put flesh on those bones:

“The theory of evolution (is) a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.” (D.M.S. Watson, “Adaptation,” Nature, Vol. 123 [sic Vol. 124] (1929), p. 233).

[Coyoteman]

Second law of thermodynamics says that all tends toward disorder—that entropy is constantly increasing. Evolution flat-out contradicts science!

If you don't know enough science to realize that the second law of thermodynamics does not prohibit evolution, you really should remove "Doc" from your screen name.

Here is some good information from: Index to Creationist Claims:

• CF000: Second Law of Thermodynamics and Information Theory
  • (see also CB102: Mutations don't add information.)
  • (see also CE441: Big Bang doesn't produce information.)
  • CF001. The second law of thermodynamics prohibits evolution.
    • CF001.1. Systems left to themselves invariably tend toward disorder.
    • CF001.2. The second law of thermodynamics, and the trend to disorder, is universal.
    • CF001.3. Instructions are necessary to produce order.
    • CF001.4. The second law is about organized complexity, not entropy.
    • CF001.5. Evolution needs an energy conversion mechanism to utilize energy.

[GodGunsGuts]

The following are responses from creationists re: the Talk.Origins’ index on the Second Law of Thermodynamics:

http://www.creationwiki.net/index.php?title=Index_to_Creationist_Claims#CF:_Physics_and_Mathematics

[pacelvi]

“Yeah, that’ll help this country compete worldwide. What a joke!”

I bet the Darwinian-urge to non-sequtier is more damaging to the economy than believing in the bible.

I’m a computer programmer... can you please tell me how my view of life’s origins contributes to my computing skills?

In fact , because I’m a programmer and I know if i type one single character wrong, my software won’t function... yet i’m expected to believe that something as complicated as the biochemical software that is DNA sprang up spontaneously from nowhere.. that is like asking for something like Windows Vista to have naturally evolved.

What’s more complicated.. DNA or Microsoft code?

[ndt]

"I made a valid point, but it was lost on you."

Generally a valid point would have some grounding in reality. In your case you chose to ignore the billions of dollars that have been spent in research in numerous fields that substantiate the ToE.

Now compare that to the research produced and published by YECists OECists and IDiots combined for a grand total of...?

"The theory of evolution (is) a theory universally..."

A seventy year old quote? A quote from before 95% of the evidence available today event existed? That is your argument?

Also true to form your quote is out of context. Lets look at another snippet of that article.

"The only great generalization which has so far come from zoological studies is that of evolution….

Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or is supported by logically coherent arguments, but because it does fit all the facts of taxonomy, of palæontology, and geographical distribution, and because no alternative explanation is credible.

Whilst the fact of evolution is accepted by every biologist, the mode in which it has occurred and the mechanism by which it has been brought about are still disputable…."

[ndt]

"What’s more complicated.. DNA or Microsoft code?"

I think the more important question is which contains more junk left over from previous versions, and that is a close call.

[pacelvi]

Well I dont see any fish fins on me or wings.. so what are you talking about?

[ROTB]

Coyoteman!

I’ll finish our other thread, promise!

Here’s a list of how evolution and the Bible are in contradiction:

Bible: God is the creator of all things. (Genesis 1)

Evolution: Natural chance processes can account for the existence of all things.

Bible: World created as is in six literal days. (Genesis 1)

Evolution: World evolved over billions of years.

Bible: Creation is completed. (Genesis 2:3)

Evolution: Creative processes continuing.

Bible: Oceans before land. (Genesis 1:2)

Evolution: Land before oceans.

Bible: First life on land. (Genesis 1:11)

Evolution: Life began in the oceans.

Bible: First life was land plants. (Genesis 1:11)

Evolution: Marine organisms evolved first.

Bible: Earth before sun and stars. (Genesis 1:14-19)

Evolution: Sun and stars before earth.

Bible: Fruit trees before fish. (Genesis 1:11,20,21)

Evolution: Fish before fruit trees.

Bible: All stars made on fourth day. (Genesis 1:16)

Evolution: Stars evolved at various times.

Bible: Birds and fish created on the fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-21)

Evolution: Fish evolved hundreds of millions of years before birds.

Bible: Birds before insects. (Genesis 1:20-31, Leviticus 11)

Evolution: Insects before birds.

Bible: Whales before reptiles. (Genesis 1:20-31)

Evolution: Reptiles before whales.

Bible: Birds before reptiles. (Genesis 1:20-31)

Evolution: Reptiles before birds.

Bible: Light before the sun. (Genesis 1:3-9)

Evolution: Sun before any light.

Bible: Plants before the sun. (Genesis 1:11-19)

Evolution: Sun before any plants.

Bible: Abundance and variety of marine life all at once. (Genesis 1:20)

Evolution: Marine life gradually developed from a primitive organic soup.

Bible: Man’s body from the dust of the earth. (Genesis 2:7)

Evolution: Man and monkey have a common ancestor.

Bible: Man exercised dominion over all organisms. (Genesis 1:28)

Evolution: Many organisms extinct before man evolved.

Bible: Man originally a vegetarian. (Genesis 1:29)

Evolution: Man originally a meat-eater.

Bible: Fixed and distinct kinds of life (Genesis 1:11,12,21,24,25)

Evolution: All life is in a continual state of change.

Bible: Death caused by Eve and Adam eating the forbidden fruit. (Genesis 2:17)

Evolution: Death existed long before the evolution of man.

[Coyoteman]

I’m a computer programmer... can you please tell me how my view of life’s origins contributes to my computing skills?

You better stick with computer programming.

The theory of evolution has nothing to do with life's origins, only how genomes have changed since life began.

[Red_Devil 232]

(Oop-oop, oop, oop-oop)
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There's a man in the funny papers we all know
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He lived 'way back a long time ago
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Well, this cat's name is-a Alley Oop
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(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
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Like great big lions and grizzly bearuhs
(Alley Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)

(Alley Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM) (Alley Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
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Knockin' great big monstahs dead on their knees
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The cats don't bug him cuz they know bettah
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Cuz he's a mean motah scootah and a bad go-gettah
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(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
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(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)

Thair he goes
(Alley Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Look at that cave man go
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Ride, Daddy, ride
(Alley Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Hi-yo dinosawruh