…and this is a 
State of shame: Indiana!
Category: Creationism
Posted on: April 17, 2007 11:14 AM, by PZ Myers
Kentucky has Ken Ham's wretched creation "science" "museum", but now Ligonier, Indiana is getting in on the act with their own version of a pseudoscientific parade of lies in the name of Jesus. At this point, they've just begun restoring a decrepit old building to house the monstrosity, but they promise lots of stupidity to come.
The Discovery Express History and Science Museum is about relating biblical truths to current culture through history and science.
Imagine learning how to identify the trees of northern Indiana and learning about the ways they are used...and then thinking, "I wonder how plants show that there is a God?" Maybe you will ask that question skeptically...or maybe because you really want to seek the One who created you. Either way, the answers will intrigue and encourage you.
The first floor of Discovery Express will be the home of "His Kids Preschool" for area preschool children. The first floor is dedicated to depicting local history and culture from the past to the present. There will also be a museum book store filled with great gifts and resources.
The second floor of Discovery Express will house a unique history and science museum. It will feature interactive exhibits designed for all ages. Guests will explore the days of creation, the "Garden of Eden," Noah's Ark, and the Tower of Babel. There will be opportunities to learn how science and history confirm that the Bible is trustworthy and accurate in all that it teaches.
Science and history confirm that the Bible is a collection of self-serving delusions, they mean. That's why they need these fraudulent smoke-screens claiming that they are scientific — they need a big lie to prevent people from scrutinizing their claims carefully.
Comments
PZ, this is making me sick. It gets to the point where I can't come here anymore and NOT feel depressed. I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle. I see all the money put into this trash and our local museum is struggling to get money in to get a new dinosaur for the exhibit.
Getting money for zoo expansions is like pulling teeth, yet people give money hand over fist for this kind of trash. Then kids see the glossy package and think "well, this must be the way it is". My local NHM museum has so many outdated displays... and just down the street is the Biblical History and Archeology Museum.
It's like the stupids are just OUTBREEDING us. Personally, I think that's the ONLY evidence we have that seems contrary to evolutionary theory. I guess I just can't see this kind of behavior as a characteristic of "fitness", though I realize it MUST be. I'm beginning to think we're on our way to stepping down as the dominant species. Are we due for another mass extinction?
Posted by: dorid | April 17, 2007 11:29 AM
"There will be opportunities to learn how science and history confirm that the Bible is trustworthy and accurate in all that it teaches."
These jello brained statement never fail to amaze me!
Posted by: Sheldon | April 17, 2007 11:29 AM
Ah come on, states aren't responsible for being victimized by creationists who exploit their good qualities. Blue state Washington and high tech Seattle are parasitized by the DI.
Yeah I know that Kentucky and Indiana aren't being seriously condemned for the actions of some bad apples, but I do see the old stereotypes mentioned again and again for the "hick states", while somehow blue state ID/creationism is treated differently. I'm just sorry for anybody stuck hosting (in the parasitical sense) creationism, such as my state of Washington.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/35s39o
Posted by: Glen Davidson | April 17, 2007 11:32 AM
This is some more of that "framing", isn't it?
Posted by: Rey Fox | April 17, 2007 11:34 AM
discovery? what is with their using this term in their names (discovery institute!)? their whole point is that you can't discover anything.
may a twister spin the place up leaving a 747 and 137 feet of moon dust.
Posted by: eewolf | April 17, 2007 11:34 AM
I think someone should copyright "Discovery" and "Science" so they never get misused again.
Posted by: Silmarillion | April 17, 2007 11:39 AM
"The second floor of Discovery Express will house a unique history and science museum."
unique in that it contains no history or science!
PS - If you are having posting problems, it's because Kristine put a hex on the server.
BURN HER SHE'S A WITCH.
Posted by: Rich | April 17, 2007 11:46 AM
Lost World Museum
Phoenix, NY (near Syracuse)
Featuring Cy, the one-eyed kitten and a chupacabra
Posted by: ivy privy | April 17, 2007 11:52 AM
You know I can't do that. She might turn me into a newt.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 17, 2007 11:52 AM
I don't see this becoming much of a tourist attraction. Ligonier is off the beaten path, even for rubber-necking Amish watchers and lakers, (i.e. people who frequent the region's many lakes.)
Disclaimer: I bought a rowboat from a dealer in Ligonier a few years ago.
Posted by: AncientTechie | April 17, 2007 11:53 AM
She turned me into a newt! (but I got better).
Posted by: Robert | April 17, 2007 12:00 PM
She shimmies too well to be made of wood.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 17, 2007 12:02 PM
I wonder how much money is donated to legitimate science museums per year in the USA and how much money is donated to bogus institutions such as this per year?
Posted by: Mosasaurus rex | April 17, 2007 12:19 PM
Help! They're everywhere!
Creation Evidence Museum, Glen Rose, Texas
http://www.creationevidence.org
The 7 Wonders Creation Museum at Mt. St. Helens
http://7wonders.nwcreation.net/about.html
Museum of Creation and Earth History (Santee, California)
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/CASANcreation.html
Posted by: CalGeorge | April 17, 2007 12:20 PM
LOL, I swear - that "shimmy" quip has got legs!
Posted by: Kseniya | April 17, 2007 12:23 PM
"I wonder how plants show that there is a God?"
You never know when you might find a messiah nailed on to one.
Posted by: Peter McGrath | April 17, 2007 12:28 PM
Actually, I was surprised to see Indiana be rated "excellent" in their standards for teaching evolution, from the map PZ pointed to last week. It really sticks out on the midwest.
That being said, I have "IN GOD WE TRUST" screaming out at me from every other license plate in the state. Our local newspaper has an entire section titled "stories of our faith." *gag*
There's a big initiative in Indiana to retain more of our college graduates in-state, to stem the "brain drain" as they call it. I've been wanting to point out that including homage to a bronze-age deity on our license plates is not helping.
Posted by: efp | April 17, 2007 12:30 PM
I've driven by the Mt St Helens 'museum' (my in-laws live near there), but never gone in. It was a rather shabby looking trailer, but I see they've upgraded it to a chintzy little shack.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 17, 2007 12:31 PM
The building is as decrepit as the ideas that will be housed within.
Posted by: spartanrider | April 17, 2007 12:37 PM
I just found something that makes the whole thing easier to swallow. Dinosaur Kingdom in Virginia. Now this is an attraction worth seeing, featuring man and dinosaur living side by side just the way the creationists claim... only, this is set during the civil war. Why not? The only issue I have is the decidedly anti-northern slant to the scenes of carnage. But then the Christian South WOULD be the ones to have Jesus's dinos on their side, wouldn't they?
Posted by: dorid | April 17, 2007 12:38 PM
Our local newspaper has an entire section titled "stories of our faith." *gag*
Have you swung by the Washington Post website recently?
Posted by: factician | April 17, 2007 12:39 PM
dorid wrote: "I'm beginning to think we're on our way to stepping down as the dominant species. Are we due for another mass extinction?"
Didn't you know? We already are the next mass extinction event.
Posted by: SteveM | April 17, 2007 1:05 PM
And it has already begun.
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | April 17, 2007 1:21 PM
This is nothing new, it's just that these places are becoming more visible outside the Christian subculture.
In fact there's a whole book about these Christian "amusement parks" (how I think of them), called "Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith" by Timothy K. Beal.
Posted by: writerdd | April 17, 2007 1:47 PM
And, when you're finished visiting all the creation museums, you can relax at Bible Theme Park
Posted by: Deepsix | April 17, 2007 2:13 PM
Wow. I used to live in Ligonier... about 4 blocks from that building.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Lignonier is in the middle of nowhere. The surrounding area is primarily farm land, represented by a substantial Amish population. The closest cities of any size are South Bend and Ft. Wayne (roughly 1 hr each).
They may be trying to capitalize on the popularity of nearby Shipshewana, a tourist destination built around the local Amish population and a large flea market. Shipshewana attracts a demographic which skews towards an older crowd who in turn tend to be religious.
Of course, it will be welcomed by many of the locals, who, like most rural, agricultural communities, tend to be religious. The will have a nice preschool to indoctrinate their children at, but they would have done that anyway.
OEJ
Posted by: One Eyed Jack | April 17, 2007 2:21 PM
"So, where's the exhibit showing how Raven stole the sun, moon, and stars from the old man who was keeping all sources of light to himself?"
Posted by: Monado | April 17, 2007 2:52 PM
"It's like the stupids are just OUTBREEDING us. Personally, I think that's the ONLY evidence we have that seems contrary to evolutionary theory. I guess I just can't see this kind of behavior as a characteristic of "fitness", though I realize it MUST be."
Yep, that's evolution for you.. doesn't care where you go, but the masses get there and the minorities fall away. Rational thought and scepticism are not useful in an evolutionary sense - we can look after the few children we have, but those that breed like flies are evolutionarily (?) more successful - especially as we pay our taxes to support them as well as us with welfare dollars.
Posted by: Steve Cuthbertson | April 17, 2007 4:09 PM
One sentence popped into my head: "Wow, this 'museum' is so disrespectful!"
And so it goes.
Posted by: MikeM | April 17, 2007 4:30 PM
I only go to school here! It's not my fault! Plus, I'm leaving the state soon. Though, I'll be heading back to my homestate of Illinois, and I don't know how much better they are...
Posted by: Eric Davison | April 17, 2007 5:03 PM
There's another one here.
Madness as a constitutional right? Hmmm...
Posted by: Krystalline Apostate | April 17, 2007 5:09 PM
Posted by: quork | April 17, 2007 5:21 PM
I've driven by the Mt St Helens 'museum'
surely you don't mean Johnston Ridge Observatory?
(my in-laws live near there)
Hey, mine too, neat.
oh... Mt. St. Helens and museum, google, first hit, how sad.
Posted by: Drekab | April 17, 2007 5:21 PM
Ligonier is a bit over a dozen miles from Grace College and Seminary, where the co-founder - with Henry Morris - of modern younger earth creationism, John Whitcomb was based for 40 years.
http://www.whitcombministries.org/Gods_Gracious_Workings/Dr_John_Whitcomb_Bio.php?PHPSESSID=7d88402a515621ddbf1fc06d7b7f86a8
Posted by: Foggg | April 17, 2007 5:43 PM
I would be amused, but instead am saddened, at the level of self-deception going on here by the organizers of these things. Any museum that pretends to present the story of Noah's Ark or the Garden of Eden is making stuff up whole cloth. Any serious reader of scripture knows there just ain't no details there.
It's not just that these guys are ignoring science -- they're making up the religious stuff whole cloth.
Maybe we need to start writing local churches and asking them why they tolerate such stuff.
Posted by: Ed Darrell | April 17, 2007 6:03 PM
Unless it's within a day's drive of 2/3 of the US population, I'm not interested.
Posted by: Ian Menzies | April 17, 2007 6:11 PM
I wouldn't get too concerned about nonsense like this new adventure in Ligonier. Since the advent of the car and the tradition of driving vacations, rural areas in the US have often hosted similar wonders of enlightenment, usually designed to fleece the passers-by on the highway. Ken Ham has taken the whole concept a bit further, but even his will eventually bite the dust much like Dinoland (or whatever the name was) in Pensacola. Taxes, Uncle Sam, or indifference usually does them in.
Posted by: Keanus | April 17, 2007 8:07 PM
Fortunately, I'm living in southern Indiana, so at least my nearest carnival of creation lies is out-of-state.
Still, it might be time to start thinking about putting together an Indiana Citizens for Science group.
Posted by: Michael LoPrete | April 18, 2007 10:55 AM
Count me in, Mr. LoPrete
Posted by: Chuck | April 18, 2007 5:22 PM
One-Eyed Jack,
I am from Ligonier (I now live in Albuquerque) and put PZ and Red State Rabble onto this story. Small world.
Post a comment on my blog if you wish to chat offline.
BTW, according to the editor of the local paper, the people behind this "project" have failed, so far, to raise any money.
Posted by: Quantum11 | April 18, 2007 5:39 PM
Come to France. Rampant socialism has resulted in a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman.
Posted by: David Marjanović | April 18, 2007 8:20 PM
I ran across your site by accident. Wow! I was impressed by the level of hatred that is exhibited through most of the comments. Hatred of people you don't know, and hatred of people you certainly don't understand. Why is that something to be glorified? I pity people who don't know how to handle their emotions - especially those who only feel good about themselves after trashing someone else. Maybe there is a scientific explanation for that kind of outburst.
Posted by: John Coleman | October 16, 2007 7:16 AM
Is that the Global-Warming-denier John Coleman?
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/19842304.html
Posted by: Scotty B | June 16, 2008 10:09 AM