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!
Savor the Creation Museum and Taxidermy Hall of Fame of North Carolina; I don’t think it will change any time in the near future, so there’s no hurry. It’s so nice of creationists to erect these monuments to stupidity and tastelessness on the web.
(Also on Sb)
Audley Z. Darkheart OM, purveyor of candy and lies says
My eyes! My brain!
Yo, Creation Museum and Taxidermy Hall of Fame– the mid-90s called. They want their web design back.
David Marjanović, OM says
“AGAINST EVOLOUTION”
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
pitbone62 says
In the questions an evolutionist can’t answer:
You can’t do that; it’s against the laws of science!
ashakspeare says
They can perform one miracle, when viewed on an iPod screen those awful red letters somehow appear 3D!
unbound says
PZ forgot to mention that there are a whopping 3 links in the site.
From the slide show, it looks like a pretty small affair. And the taxidermist side of the place looks as poorly done as the creationist side. My father has more mounted trophies in his house. NC hunters are probably embarrassed by this place…
Cuttlefish says
I wanna see the award-winning stuffed dinosaurs, realistically posed with Noah’s family!
Moggie says
What is it with kooks and centre-justified text?
Ashley Davis says
PZ, seeing as you have just made this web site famous, I would love to hear hear your answers to their so called “5 Questions An Evolutionist Can Not Answer”
(I am aware that most of the questions are just plain stupid, that’s why it would be funny to hear what you have to say).
Ash
Kieran says
I remember in school getting a thwack for leaving the wood plane flat on the surface of a table. All those planes seem to be left flat on the surface of the shelf. You can tell alot about someone and how they treat a tool!
mythusmage says
What is it with loons and 90s web design?
bbgunn says
The plywood walls are a nice touch.
ohnhai says
What is the first rule of science anyway?
and as to how can thought come from on thought, the correct response is “You will know that on the day you become an atheist…”
ohnhai says
and BTW. what’s with the “Date Christian Girls” advert???
Sajanas says
I actually used to go to this story occasionally growing up, because I had a coin collection, and they had a variety of old coins for sale (in addition to books, old tools, and fudge). What doesn’t come across from the webpage is that the Creation Museum is in a scary looking basement. I never actually went down in there to see it… as a kid, I didn’t understand why my Mom wouldn’t let me go see the Museum, and going by later I realized that even my very religious mother thought creationists were full of shit. The couple that owns it was pretty old even back then… I can’t imagine it will survive them, since most of the people that go there are more interested in the fudge.
Moggie says
“Taxidermy Hall of Fame of North Carolina”?
The only famous North Carolinians I know are John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. If they’ve got those stuffed, it might be worth a visit.
Chris Hughes says
Perhaps the most miraculous thing about this train-wreck of a site is that it wasn’t “created” using FrontPage, or indeed any other code generator — they usually are!
Jackob van Beverningk says
Have you read their hypothesis?
I particularly liked this phrase:
“The only requirement for testing this hypothesis is simply accepting the assumption.”
(It’s in the paragraph that starts with ‘Simple minded persons’!)
marko says
Nobody has mentioned the horrible little pop up on the home page that appears if you hover over the start of the address.
Corey Schlueter says
Rules of creating a web site:
*Write your pages clearly and concisely – fail
*Do not overuse emphasis – fail
*Organized text so readers can scan for important information – fail
*Do spell check and proofread pages – fail
*Be careful with background colors and colored text so it is not unreadable – fail
marko says
One question an evolutionist cannot answer:
What is the first law of science?
mrfright says
Needs more animated GIFs.
mikeg says
I would love to show this to my resident creationist- who I have doing some math back on mah blog. I think it would entertain him.
funfly says
what is the 1’st law of science ?
Jacob van Beverningk says
#8:
What’s so funny about PZ debating a 4 your old with his fingers in his ears?
Nightjar says
Huh. I have no idea what they mean here. My first guess was the First Law of Thermodynamics, but I fail to see what that has got to do with abiogenesis even in the muddled mind of a creationist. My second guess was one of the statements of the Cell Theory (“all cells arise from pre-existing cells”), which would be a little more relevant in this case and which I’ve seen creationists using in this context before, but I fail to see why they’d call it a first law of anything in the first place.
I’m clueless.
Bruce Heerssen says
Chris,
If I were to guess, that train wreck was created using Macromedia Dreamweaver. (Macromedia was bought by Adobe a few years ago. This site appears to predate that.) The clue is in the javascript source, which uses an “MM_” or “mm_” naming convention.
dean the bean says
I saw two bumper stickers on two different cars within 3 minutes this morning:
“The big bang theory: God spoke and bang it happened.”
“Let go and let God.”
Both appeared to have originated from the same school of design thought as that mess of a website.
JJ says
Wow, I thought Geocities closed down years ago…
crazyharry says
First law of science!
… we dont talk about science?
Seems apt for creationists.
cervantes says
I actually think antique tools are cool, but I’m not that into taxidermy. I also happen to think that antique tools were intelligently designed. So that’s something.
myeck waters says
Does Macromedia Dreamweaver count as an antique tool? Does the founder of the museum qualify?
Just askin’.
LightningRose says
The first law of science? That’s an easy one:
“The stoopid will be with us always.”
Glen Davidson says
Be sure to tell us if any of you creationists begins to think.
Glen Davidson
Leona Gray says
This place is on the main (and touristy) street in Southern Pines, NC. Bicycling friends and I go to Southern Pines every March to get a head start on the Ottawa cycling season. From my experience over the last 10 years or so, the place has always been a Christian bookstore. It looked enough like a regular bookstore for me to go in…once.
This coming March, I’ll have to check out their museum. It might be worth a laugh.
fullyladenswallow says
Not sure, but they don’t seem to have anything on this guy- Although my tackiness meter shows them as neck-and-neck.
http://www.jordanmaxwell.com/index.html
Steve says
The best part about the 5 questions an evolutionist can’t answer is that they are all the same question: “How did something come from nothing?” reworded five times. Brilliant!!!
Anubis Bloodsin III says
It is to be considered that font text and color catastrophes are a unfortunate side affect of intense ignorance and extremely poor analytical capability and a general cognitive paucity, possibly the very reason why they go all gah gah at such a dufus story like Creationism in the first place!
They all do it, never come across a creationist leaky khazi of ideas that did not display such an absence of taste….it is what they do!
It is in fact a dead giveaway when confronted by such impeccably bad taste that you are confronted with religio woo woo idiocy supreme.
Some might consider it a Poe, but even a Poe is not that downright unstable and demented.
Whatever they certainly surpass themselves with trying to insult the readership and not so much trying, more like being past masters at that game and if not in vision then certainly in content.
Damned anti-social methinks!
‘Answers in Nonsense’ might be an aberration, but the text does make up for this visual shortfall in all the other departments, and then some.
I blame lack of imagination in worldly matters, cos they need all they got to drool after jeebus, and make ridiculous apologetic excuses up for their utter banality..
It would be funny…if it were not for the fact that they are deadly serious…that is not just scary but well nigh certifiable!
marko says
I agree. I also enjoy the way he fumbles around trying to explain why they are in his creation museum. He clearly loves his very tangible antique tools, and wonders where that all fits with his love of god.
StarScream says
—And Antique Tool Museum—
Pat Robertson is one of the exhibits?!?!
carolw says
The captions on the slideshow are priceless.
Markita Lynda, admirer of roadkill says
Don’t disparage taxidermy: I ♥ rogue taxidermy!
Nic George says
I work right near this museum and for years I’ve wondered if my profound annoyance with creation museums could be suppressed long enough to go look at the tools.
Markita Lynda, admirer of roadkill says
I stand in awe of the mind that can say, “Let’s just assume our conclusion and we win the argument!”
Aspect Sign says
Well they do advertise an old tool collection!
Margaret says
At least from the picture they’re probably not flat-earthers. Or am I being overly optimistic and that’s a circular flat earth?
DLC says
And Solomon said unto the faithful: “know ye then, that a sign of a true believer in the Word shall be his hideous web design. “
The Sailor says
These people are the reason the blink tag was retired.
Nemo says
Five Questions an Evolutionist Can’t Answer (because he’s standing their slack-jawed at your stupidity):
1. How Did Nothing Turn Into Something?
Quantum physics suggests that “nothing” turns into “something” on a regular basis. But I won’t pretend we have a definitive answer to this yet.
2. How Did Life Come From Non-Life?
Life isn’t magic. It’s just chemistry. Really complex chemistry, but there’s no point at which it stops being chemistry and starts being something else. It’s hard if not impossible to even draw a sensible line between life and non-life — consider a virus.
3. How Did Millions of Life Forms Evolve With Absolutely No Evidence of Major Change?
This of course is nonsense; there are mountains of such evidence. I can only assume the person posing this question is looking for a crocoduck.
4. How Can A Watch Come Into Existence Without A Watchmaker?
It can’t. But a lifeform is not a watch, nor reasonably analogous to a watch.
5. How Did Thought Come From Non-Thought?
I’m not even certain what this question means, but again, thought is not magic. It’s a physical process arising from the brain. We don’t fully understand it yet, but the fact that thought is physical is easily and routinely demonstrated by changes in thought accompanying physical changes in the brain. If you doubt it… go have a few drinks.
Nemo says
standing THERE
Dan says
I think this wins the garish religious website award:
http://dokimos.org/ajff/
Once the initial shock wears off, be sure to notice all the fun details like the IE-style security banner and “down with the Web 2.0 police” slogan.
Jeff A says
Goddamnit, North Carolina is working HARD this week to make me ashamed to come from there.
grumps says
@ Dan #50
That is damaging. I’ll go back and hope that the shock subsides enough for me to take in some details, but… Goddamn!!
Seriously though anyone prone to photosensitive seizures don’t go there… no, seriously, don’t.
marko says
Questions an evolutionist can’t answer, but isn’t afraid to say so, roll up his sleeves and try to figure it out instead of sticking his fingers in his ears and proclaiming that some big magic guy done it and is now hiding in space. Is “I don’t know” not one of the profound and important answers you can give, and the starting point of ever knowing anything?
'Tis Himself, OM says
Leona Gray #34
You bicycle all the way from North Carolina to Ontario? I’m impressed.
Nick says
onhai @ 13
‘and BTW. what’s with the “Date Christian Girls” advert???’
And why do they look like drag queens?
Albatross says
Holy crap, my sister’s been there. She says that there are “thou shall not kill” anti-abortion bumper stickers all around the dead animals…
GravityIsJustATheory says
Pft. That was a bad website, but is it as bad as this one?
http://www.hydrolance.net/
(Although the one linked at #50 wins for eye-destroying horror. “Accept Jesus – or we’ll force you to watch this webpage FOREVER!!!”. I’ve alos just noticed the panther running backwards across the bottom-left corner of the screen WTF?)
Charlie Foxtrot says
Speaking of creationists, imagine my surprise earlier this week at finding myself sitting in an office right next to the offices of “Creation Ministries” in Brisbane!?
Discussing this situation via sms with my sister, I liked best her suggestion that I should duck out, buy some toy dinosaur skeletons, then sneak in and bury them in their pot plants :)
Next business trip, it may be awkward explaining the toys and small gardening trowel in my laptop case to the airport security… but totally worth it.
marella says
It’s because they have an overwhelming need for order and symmetry, so they like centre-justified text.
@Dan
That web-site was too appalling to hang around noticing interesting details, sorry. I just gasped in pain and got the hell out!
tushcloots says
@Dan:
I love that fake security warning! For even more laughs, WOT warned me not to go to the site, declaring it could be dangerous. I like the WOT rating page:
“Other than the terrible design of this website, it is trying to brainwash people into Christianity. ”
“I’m not one to pass judgement on whether we agree with the website itself or not, but some of the graphics on this website may pose a serious health risk to those at risk of epilepsy and similar disorders. It burns my eyes. ”
“oh god this is just disgusting ”
“AW MY EYES! “
Dan says
To everybody that is perplexed about some of the elements of that Accept Jesus Forever Forgiven site… try visiting in Internet Explorer. If nothing else, it’ll be a good lesson in why web designers hate Internet Explorer.
petzl20 says
This kind of batshit only happens in the Red States (OK, or in the hinterland of the Blue States).
Swann says
I’d love to say: only in America, but as I’m not an American, I feel it would cause too much collateral damage.
Xios the Fifth says
I looked at Dan’s site and clicked a random link to get AWAY from the rainbow seizure-inducing background and hit ‘View Guestbook’.
This may explain the rainbows.
WTF?
I really, REALLY want to believe this is sarcasm.
Comments? Not yet.
This one’s just scary:
And my personal favorite:
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Excuse me, I’m going to go cry now.
reisender says
Aren’t there more than 5 or 6 fonts used on this site’s main page?
Don’t kill me, just sayin.
John Morales says
reisender:
I dunno; are there? :)
gibson ron says
after study a few of the blog post on your website now, and I trully like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark sites and will checking back it soon. please check out my web as well and lem me know what do you think.