PZ Myers has a writeup about his visit to the creation “museum” and he makes a great point about a major difference between a real science museum and the creation wanna-be:
Real museums have guards, of course: they’re there to protect valuable exhibits from theft and vandalism. But real museums want their guards to be discreet and not interfere with the attendees appreciation of the exhibits. At the Creation “Museum”, one of the jobs of the guards is to suppress criticism. They hover about in rather conspicuous uniforms, armed with tasers, and some use police dogs to check out the visitors. They don’t want dissent expressed in their building, and they admit it themselves….
Think about the genuine museums you might have visited. Can you imagine the curators at the American Museum of Natural History being concerned that someone might openly disagree with an exhibit? Do you think Niles Eldredge bustles about the museum, shushing anyone who questions the displays? Would they turn away a visitor wearing a Jesus shirt, or one that baldly declared evolution is false? At real museums, the attitude would range from indifference to active encouragement of discussion. The Creation “Museum” cannot tolerate that.
That really sums up the difference between a scientific freethinking approach and a dogmatic, cultic approach. Science encourages questioning and testing of theories. It encourages reading and thinking freely.
Dogma, on the other hand, wants to silence criticism. It wants its members to only hear the party line. They don’t want people to think for themselves.
I think I know which one the creation “museum” is more like.
This is just begging for some creative push-back.
Idk, the thought of Jesus riding a big-ass dinosaur in a bad-ass way makes me want to believe in him, in the same way I wish Ash from Army of Darkness was real.
maybe i missed it but I went to the creation museum and i did not see any dogs or anyone with tasers. did anyone see this stuff that this guy is talking about?
May have been special security for that day, as it seems from Myers’ post that the “museum” folks had advance notice of the atheists’ visit and were expecting very aggressive behavior.
Yeah, because everyone knows atheists are very aggressive.
Don’t you remember the Atheist Crusades? The McCarthy Atheist Witch Hunt of the 1950s? And racism, segregation and terrorizing African Americans was totally aided and abetted by an atheist agenda. More people have killed in the name of no god than you realize! j/k
The dogs can smell higher amounts of CO2 coming out of the mouths of those who are skeptics.
They got dogs trained to sniff out dissent?
Yep. They train them to detect active brain matter.
The dogs can smell higher amounts of CO2 coming out of the mouths of those who are skeptics.
** Sorry for the double post, meant to respond to this thread… clicked the wrong reply link! **
Do they have special magic bibles by the door that glow in the presence of atheists (like the swords in lord of the rings or sneakoscopes in the harry potter books)?
Sorry, but of all the legitimate reasons to criticize this stupid museum, having security guards on the lookout for atheist rabble-rousers is not one of them. If I ran a natural history museum, and Ray Comfort walked in with a big group of Christian activists, you bet your ass I would have the guards on high alert.
Science encourages questions, but only to a point. Go past that point, and Buzz Aldrin will punch you in the face.
If Ray Comfort had a history of destruction of property then you would be justified in posting guards on high alert. If not, as was the case here, you would just look paranoid and foolish.
And why is “museum” in scare quotes? That seems petty. Creation “Science” Museum, I could understand, but they are every bit as much a museum as the hollywood wax museum.
Wrong.
The Creation Science “Museum” doesn’t even rise to the level of a Wax Museum.
A Wax Museum oftentimes portrays representations of real people and events. The Creation Science “Museum” is entirely fictional and worse yet attempts to pass Lies as Truth.
Just another way to show they’re not legitimate. Though science would be better in quotes, I agree.
“Science encourages questions, but only to a point. Go past that point, and Buzz Aldrin will punch you in the face.”
That point is usually reached when you’re being deliberately stupid and wasting everyone’s time. In Buzz’s case it took the above and being stalked, having his integrity incessantly questioned, and then grabbing at him to get punched.
Pain and Shame are good educators.
Buzz can do that because he was there — it wasn’t the science so much as that the man was calling Buzz a liar and a collaborator in a huge government cover-up. That must really be frustrating.
However, I doubt Buzz punching him did any good — in fact, I think it did more harm (literally and figuratively) than if he would have calmly explained his views.
There is no point in science at which if someone questions you can beat them into believing you.
“That point is usually reached when you’re being deliberately stupid and wasting everyone’s time”
Like spending weeks discussing how best to desecrate a communion wafer?
PZ Myers may be a genius, but he is also somewhat of a professional provocateur, known for intentionally irritating religious institutions, and then milking the resulting publicity.
I wouldn’t have pissed on a Koran when I was a Christian, and I won’t do so now that I am an atheist, for the same reason. It’s rude.
I will defend your right to burn a flag, wipe your ass with a “holy” book, or desecrate communion wafers however you want to, but that doesn’t mean I am going to invite you over to my house if you actually do it.
I might piss on a Koran…but i’d do it in private with my friends and laugh about it as we do when I roll a fatty with a carefully selected page from the bible.
” it wasn’t the science so much as that the man was calling Buzz a liar and a collaborator in a huge government cover-up. That must really be frustrating”
You think any self respecting atheist could be in that place for ten minutes without calling someone a liar?
Nobody likes being called a liar. Not even liars. Maybe especially not liars.
Apparently, they managed it. Guess none of them had enough self-respect, huh?
Well, I guess the guards did their jobs adequately then, didn’t they? They kept the atheist rabble out of trouble, and maintained the peace.
Again, I say: there are TONS of perfectly good criticisms of the Creation Museum. The fact that they have tight security is just not one of them.
Whaling ships guard against Greenpeace Activists, Furriers and slaughterhouses guard against PETA Activists, Abortion clinics guard against Christian Activists, and Fundie museums guard against Atheist Activists. It has nothing to do with whether you are right or wrong, but everything to do with how passionately OTHER people think you are wrong.
You’re assuming the guards are the ones who kept the peace. Maybe the atheists just didn’t misbehave too much because, they didn’t want to make asses of themselves. And comparing these atheists to Greenpeace activists, PETA activists and christian fundamentalists is wrong. The latter groups have a long history of making trouble. If they didn’t, nobody would bother hiring guards when they showed up.
Yah, the last time I ran a kool-aid stand I was glad I had all those guards around. All those guards kept my customers in line and nobody raised a ruckus at all.
It made me feel all nice and safey. Those despicable children ages 4 – 8 would have caused so much trouble otherwise.
One thing jumps out at me from the post:
Having worked in the museum field for a while now – in fact, I started as a security guard – I am baffled by this. I can just see whipping up an agreement for respectful behavior when you know that a large group of hostile people are coming in. I can see the Museum of the Earth doing something like that, since they deal with squads of creationists. I don’t think they have any such contract, but I could understand creating one.
But demanding that someone stop a private conversation? Unless the conversation got too loud, I don’t understand this. MOTE actually has volunteers roving around to answer questions and engage in such discussions.
Ah. Well, that I can definitely agree crosses the line.
Good thing I won’t ever be setting foot in that museum. Heavily armed Fundies would scare the bejeebers out of me.
Thanks vorjack.