This one is in North Carolina, and I think it deserves some special attention. This ain't just a Creation “Museum” — it's a Christian bookstore, an antique tool collection, and a taxidermy hall of fame!
Ken Ham should be squirming with envy.
Note the fawning tone the television announcer takes — it's clear he thinks this concatenation of kitsch is simply wonderful.
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I just had to share. Look at this sample: at least 5 different fonts, 6 different colors, shadowed text, and all superimposed on an irrelevant and elaborate background.
And then there's the content: It's a creation museum! It's a taxidermy collection! And it's run by some antique tools!
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This week, the creationist Ken Ham and his organization, Answers in Genesis, are practicing the Big Lie. They have spent tens of millions of dollars to create a glossy simulacrum of a museum, a slick imitation of a scientific enterprise veneered over long disproved religious fables, and they are…
Taxidermy hall of fame?!
I think I just came a little bit.
Yeah, gee, how was Solomon's temple made without tools? There were no tools during and after the bronze age, of course, since bronze was just made into billets and left to corrode.
And they have no sense of irony regarding dead animals propped up to give a poor facsimile of life? It doesn't occur to them that ID/creationism is about as likely to do something meaningful as a stuffed cougar is?
If they're supplying the metaphors for creationism's fraud, what role can we play?
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
All it's missing is a tire center and a Burger King.
The announcer uses the same tone of voice as you find on a toothpaste ad
The guy's also an antique barbed wire collector. So he isn't all bad.
I particularly liked the presentation's juxtapositions of :
(showing woodcarving of Bible quote) shortly followed by :
So I guess the armor thing didn't work out?
I guess if by the word "creation" they mean creating nice buildings and temples, etc. it's not so bad. This doesn't seem to have the outright lies of Ham's dinosaur creation museum in KY.
I hope American people will write to that TV and express concern they just report "Creation Museum" like it's perfectly fine and legitimate, atmosphere needs to be created in which reporting something like that elicits only ridicule from TV reporters.
Same way they would respond to Flat Earth Museum.
What a shame, I would be tempted to visit because of the large tool collection. But no it has to be some bs metaphor for "creation"
Oh well I'm sure there's other tool museums that isn't a place of pseudoscience.
"What a shame, I would be tempted to visit because of the large tool collection. "
Any gathering of creationists is pretty much guaranteed to be tool collection. Oh, wait, that's not what you meant.
Yes - without the Christian bookstore part, the place looks awesome. I could spend hours examining those old tools.
Not sure the kangaroo is native to North Carolina, though...
Don't forget the "Creation and Natural History Museum" in Social Circle, GA, which seems to be piggybacking on the relative renown of the Blue Willow Inn (it's located behind the Inn...not sure of the affiliation, but it looks like part of one big development). The Blue Willow is famous for its southern cooking and best-selling cookbooks. I noticed the "museum" when I went to the Inn last year to sample its cuisine. The restaurant is pretty damn awesome...some of the best southern cookin' I've ever had, and I'm from the south. But the creation "museum" gave me pause. Sigh.
Sounds kind of like Terry's taxidermy and mounted animal nature trail.
Ick. I espeially disliked the announcer's incredible smugness at the end.
"It all makes sense."
The whole "news piece" looks much more like creationist propaganda, mostly because the "reporters" seem to be in complete agreement with what this quack is saying.
Hmmm. Looks like a road trip. That's worth a blog entry for certain!
i use to drive through that town all the time. i was stationed at Ft. Bragg and the special forces school does training out there.
Where the dog goes... (pause)
And the bear goes... (pause)
And the cow goes... (pause)
And the pig goes... (pause)
And the crow goes... KWAH!
I guess it was alive.
You can see all this
At the Mounted Animal Nature Trail.
-The Arrogant Worms
PS: Link here about the creation "museum" in GA: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/blog/georgia-creation-museum/
I used to be the Fed Ex delivery guy for those folks. It really is a pretty interesting collection, silly beliefs aside. And their fudge is to die for.
The money shot is at 1:01 when she says 'Jesus'.
Go play that shot a few times. She gets the crazy eyes.
I'm still cracking up.
Aggggghhhhhh! I'm watching WRAL news right now.
This is too close to home.
They do seem to have some cool stuff, too bad it is tied to the "truth" about the creator.
Southern Pines is about 1 hour from here. It's right next to Pinehurst. Southern Pines = horses, Pinehurst = golf. I used to go riding (horses) down there a lot. Never saw the shop though, but as we were usually down there on Sunday--probably wouldn't have been open anyway. Thank goodness I used to ride instead of going to church.
In my past (religious) life, I used to say "God has no heart but the human heart and no hands, but the human hands." Sort of what she said......
Rachel Bronwyn, if the taxidermy Hall of Fame turns you on, you should visit the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame & Museum in Chattanooga, TN; just down the street from the aquarium.
This is so embarrassing - that's my local news station. The level of journalism around here is awful in general, they've butchered reporting about the school board trying to build "community-based" schools, which is code for "I don't want my fine white child going to that darkie school in the city."
Not as offensive as Ham's museum, I guess. It's a sliding scale.
Even lower on the scale, I think, is the "Drama of Creation" nightly light show at Natural Bridge near Lexington, Virginia. http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/drama_of_creation.htm
I was only there during the day. Didn't see the nightly creation thing. But I saw signs and asked a tour guide about it. He was very upfront that he thought it was embarrasing. Called it superstition, etc. Actually got worked up about it. Poor guy.
Well, the lady says the guy was passionate about "the truth and the Bible".
At least he correctly separated the two.
http://www.creation-museum.org.nz/ for the new zealand creation museum, housed in a former mental hospital.
nice! thanks for the link, arch.
looks like a trip to Otago is in order!
So it's not going to be the Triffids, walking tripods from Mars, <snark>AGW</snark>, or even Big Pharma and Teh Lizard People who get us in the end, it's going to be Cretinism “Museums”. They're breeding, they're breeding… Run away, run away!!!1!
#26
What's up with that site?
I click the link and I get planets with a big planet earth to click on.
When I click it I am asked if I am ready to consider the evidence. I steel myself to think "Yes" because there is nowhere to go.
Even playing around a bit with the url I can't move on.
[Ed. It's your computer saying you have more important things to do?]
#28 blf
For one of the best lines ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyRpvgm03g
"RUN. Don't walk."
1min 10sec "There has to be a designer, a creator. There is no way all this could come together and... Bam! This is it". Strange comment really, isn't that exactly what they propose?
A former mental hospital: how appropriate. Except the establishment now makes its inmates' delusions worse, instead of better.
I am embarrassed to say that I live near there. I may have to take a trip and get some photos and do a pictorial for you guys.
*sigh* I've seen other episodes of that segment, and it feels like it's made for kids, with all it's horrible puns and tone of "wow! this is amazing, look at all the pretty things!"
I emailed Scott Mason (the reporter) and told him his "report" made the Pharyngula website...
His reply: merry christmas.
Guess he wasn't pleased...
I should be surprised at that weird combination of functions, but having been to the Starlight drive-in movie theater and ammo shop in Durham, I am no longer surprised by anything.
I'm about 10 minutes away... this should be a fun visit. I'll try to get some good photos.
Man.... WRAL allows comments on written stories, but not video. This one might have been fun. OTOH, it would have reminded me just how benighted many of my neighbours are.
@solumpki> I thought it was code for "I don't want no darkies coming to my child's white suburban school"? Amounts to the same thing, but parents in areas like Leesville and Wakefield are the ones throwing the fits.
@Acheron> ah, the irony.
Its been there for at least 20 years. I actually shopped there a lot as a child, because I collected coins and they were one of the few places that sold older/circulated ones. I noticed all the taxidermy animals through the stairs leading down into the basement, but my mother refused to let me go. In spite of being a very devote Christian she still thought it was utter money wasting nonsense, though I didn't understand what it really was until much, much later (and their book selection was terrible). I never saw anyone go into the museum, since it seemed pretty sketchy.
They also sell fudge too! I suspect that probably makes up most of their business.
That is the way that reporter talks about everything. Just hearing that bit of intro music made me recoil in disgust. Something about the way he talks drives me nuts.