Posted on 08/09/2009 4:53:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I first heard of PZ Myers when he became known for being the man who was literally expelled from a screening of the creationist mockumentary Expelled. . .despite not doing anything wrong and actually being one of the stars of the film.
Now he can add being expelled from the Creation “Museum” to his resume. Well, actually he wasn’t expelled; it was some of the atheists he was with that were expelled from the “museum” and another atheist he was with that was harrassed by the “museum’s” security staff.
It all began several weeks ago when PZ Myers along with the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) decided to organize a mass group of atheists, scientists, and other secular thinkers to all visit the Creation “Museum” together to see for themselves what they’ve been criticizing and, I imagine, to draw media attention to the affair. And they certainly got ABC's attention. At last count, I know there were 240 people planning on joining them. And the number had probably grown since then.
Of course the Creation “Museum” officials were getting worried and wrote to Myers and the SSA warning them against misbehaving. . .as if they had any reason to think those attending this event would misbehave. That letter can be read on the link just above. And according to Myers and at least one of my other sources that attended, aside from joking to each other about the ridiculous nonsense in the “museum”, no one misbehaved. But that didn’t seem to stop “museum” officials from harassing individuals and eventually kicking a few people out of the “museum” for imaginary infractions:
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Essentially, it seems the “museum” feels that merely disagreeing with its “science” and mocking it to one’s friends is grounds for having visitors removed from the property. This is absurd. Could you imagine if the American Museum of Natural History ejected visitors for being creationists? Or if the Museum of Modern Art ejected visitors for critiquing the art or mocking Jackson Pollack’s work quietly with their friends? It would never happen. That’s because REAL museums are tools for education and don’t try to control how its visitors think.
You should have complained in writing if you felt threatened.
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That's what it sounds like to me as well. They were also on private property, which means to me that they can be expelled for any reason the property owner deems valid.
I was an art major in college and have worked at both history and art museums. I've seen people asked to leave for talking too loudly, even if they weren't being otherwise disruptive. They usually got one warning. I've seen people thrown out for touching the frame of a painting. I've seen people cautioned for swinging their purses too much when they walked. I've seen people thrown out for being "disruptive" when disruptive meant they moved too quickly from one display to another. I've seen people cautioned for leaning on barriers.
The Creation Museum is privately funded. That means it's like Disneyland. Try arguing with the Mouse when they decide you are a disruptive influence and see how far that gets you. The owners decide what is disruptive behavior. At NASA they have a play display for children. Try going in there and climbing around on the displays and see how long it takes you to be escorted out.
This is not about a Creation/Evolution debate. It's about a college that sent over 200 people to a private business specifically to mock and insult the owners.
I was being a smart ass...not respecting the space of others.
The adult thing to do when you are in a place where you don’t like the show is to leave or, better yet, don’t go in the first place. For instance, it would not seem appropriate to stand up in a movie and start mocking the film others are watching. They did not come to hear me!
I was not an adult. I was a smart ass kid. I knew it and complaining like I was a victim for getting called on it by a guard at the Museum would have been a lie. I was a smart ass but not a liar.
You would have to ask the person that posted it.
The fact remains that neither of us have sufficient details to assess what happened, yet you seem to be adamant that the Museum did something wrong.
I'm simply saying maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But I am not going to condemn them w/o facts.
You seem perfectly willing to do so.
I live about 30 miles from the Creation Museum. The anti-creationists have been trying to disrupt the mission of the Creation Museum since before it was even built. All the while, the CM folks have remained good natured and cooperative in allowing the opponents to have their say. I’d say, on balance, these anti creation folks are a lot like the BO health care crowd. They really want to silence opposition to their view. I don’t know what happened to get them ejected but my guess is that they deeply deserved it.
If they don't believe in Creationism and weren't interested in the topic, WHY were they there in the first place?
Atheist activism is the central reason Libertarianism can not become mainstream. They vote for socialist atheists because they hate Christians having public moral expression more than they love economic and individual freedom. So be it, I guess.
Many of these “activists” are centered in science, like my nephew who is a surgeon and voted for Obama because he hates the Christians in the Republican party. Now their “science” will be taken over by the socialists and they will be the slave servants of government socialists. These smart libertarians really showed them stupid Christians! It's too bad because if they were not suffering from bigotry they would have a huge following.
I wonder if they were able to take their picture next to the Flintstones exhibit before they were kicked out.
Why is the museum silent?
Cause they are free people just like you are and they don’t have to speak if they don’t want to and they don’t have to shut up if they don’t want to. You were on private property acting like bigots.
If the owners of this private Museum were activist atheists, they would not allow atheists to come into the Museum and speak at all. Tolerance is a one way street with atheists.
These were Alinsky tactics. They went in for the purpose of creating a disturbance, and acted like the injured party when they were asked to leave. If they don't believe in Creationism and weren't interested in the topic, WHY were they there in the first place?Exactly. It's like a group of us going to an obomacare rally. Why are we there because; we're obamatrons? No, we're there to try to talk some sense into a bunch of dims.
Obviously this group of atheists have no interest in learning anything or educating themselves. If they did then they probably wouldn't be athiests, and they'd be working for the Creation Museum, not going there to be disruptive.
Plus, "mockumentary" what!? This wasn't one of those Michael Moore movies...
Well, PZ Meyers is the blaspheming idiot who desecrated the eucharist as a public atheist stunt. So maybe he was doing more than just "criticizing".
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