Last refuge of the scoundrel » « Sanal Edamaruku writes about his friend, Narendra Dabholkar

I’ve never been to San Diego’s Creationist “Museum”

But at least now I have a photo tour. It’s predictable, and says pretty much the same stuff as the one in Kentucky, or the one in Missouri, or the one in Washington state…they really don’t have any evidence or any story that’s worth sharing in a great big building.

Go read the first page of the Bible. You’ll have the total shebang right there, including the totality of what they’re calling evidence.

Although I do think this one photo is a nice summary of the entirety of bogus creationist logic.

thatsit

Last refuge of the scoundrel » « Sanal Edamaruku writes about his friend, Narendra Dabholkar

Comments

  1. Enkidum says

    This is supreme incompetence. I mean, not only is there the whole madness of the hat and TNT and cake mix, but the translation isn’t even correct.

  3. doubter says

    WTF? I assumed the picture you posted was some kind of ironic hipster parody of the museum. But now that I’ve RTFA, I see that it’s an actual exhibit.

    What, if any, is the idea they’re trying to communicate here? I don’t get it.

  4. R Johnston says

    What, if any, is the idea they’re trying to communicate here? I don’t get it.

    That has to be some sort of insider dog-whistle that makes absolutely no sense to anyone who isn’t steeped in creationist culture. The point isn’t communication of an idea at all; it’s to announce to insiders visiting the “museum” that this is a space dedicated to the cause.

  7. carlie says

    “If you put milk and cake mix together, and then give it a ‘big bang’, does it make a cake? NO IT DOESN’T. Therefore, God made the universe.”

  8. says

    And they even get that wrong. The “verse” in “universe” has nothing to do with speech. It comes from the past participle of vertere meaning “to turn” (think “versus”). “Universe” is “the thing that turns as one.”

  9. infraredeyes says

    See, God comes along and lights the TNT and everything blows up and…milk…cake…

    Which kind of suggests that Betty Crocker existed before God. The theological implications are staggering.

  10. Rey Fox says

    If I may put on my creationist translating spectacles for a second (given to me by the angel Carl Sagan)(no, you may NOT see them), I think the idea here is that the cake mix and milk represent the “ingredients” of life, the TNT represents the Big Bang (a common fixture in evilutionist theory), and the hat represents magic. The paper represents the Lord speaking the uni-verse into being, which is clearly more plausible than an explosion creating a cake.

    That will be 10% of your income, please.

  11. Rey Fox says

    I can see carlie is trying to horn in on my racket, so it looks like it’s time for some internecine warfare.

  12. pHred says

    Well, leaving aside the fact that a not safe for work warning would have been nice … that was a really funny read. I feel really sorry for the kids being dragged (literally apparently) though that sorry excuse for a museum.

    The first thing that went through my mind contemplating that display is that it reminded me of what my five year old creates in Minecraft – random TNT and cakes are involved in her decorating and she loves to put up signs that say things but she can’t spell yet so they often say very odd things.

  13. Sastra says

    Yea, I figured out the “Big Bang can’t put a cake together” parody, but at least even their comical misunderstanding contain ingredients and a process. On their side — universe = a single spoken sentence. Spoken how?

    The alternate view which argues against the scientific one — the religious hypothesis — is psychokensis. Psychokenesis is defined as “movement of physical objects by the mind without use of physical means.” So now we have ingredients and a process … sorta.

    God the Pure Mental Agent uses his mental power to create physical existence and objects out of his non-material thoughts (words) and then moves them into their chosen places through the force of His Mind. There you have it, boys and girls. Yes, it’s just that simple. And complicated, too. With testable implications.

    They seldom spell it out that clearly. I’ve had theists deny that this is NOT what they think happened, but if you walk them through the description step-by-step they can’t disagree with any of it.

  15. Reginald Selkirk says

    Meanwhile, in Kentucky: Creation Museum staffer struck by lightning

    The victim was a zip line worker who was standing on the ground and holding a zipline when lightning struck.
    The victim, a male, was taken to Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Florence to be checked. His injuries were not believed to be serious, museum officials said.

  20. Jackie: The COLOSSAL TOWERING VAGINA! says

    Well, that’s….something.

    They at least persuaded me to make brownies.

  22. says

    PZ likes to go to the desert here in California a lot. Maybe he should visit the cheesy giant dinosaur-turned creationist museum in Cabazon..

  23. moarscienceplz says

    There’s a classic (i.e. ‘very old’) magic trick where the magician pours milk, eggs, etc. into a hat, sets off some flash paper, and then pulls a cake out of the hat. There are also xtian magicians that try to turn every trick into a visual aid for sermonizing: water that turns red emulates Jeebus turning water into wine, etc.
    So I’m guessing the founder of this “museum” is/was a Christian magician.

    Also, I looked at the website for Mr. Cantor’s Scantibodies Laboratory. Contrary to my expectations, they do not make lingerie. They claim they make various antibodies for medical test kits, but their ‘What we do’ video seems overly interested in showing off their various buildings and animal pens. I think someone who really understands biotech (hi there, PZ!) should review their site.

  24. jagwired says

    To bake a Super Moist cake from scratch, one must first… blow up a hat, I guess.

    At least you won’t have to cut the damn thing 90 times to get down to an individual atom.

  25. doubter says

    @carlie#7:

    “If you put milk and cake mix together, and then give it a ‘big bang’, does it make a cake? NO IT DOESN’T. Therefore, God made the universe.”

    Ah! Thank you. The hatful of stuff makes sense now. The “Universe = Single spoken sentence bit” is still eluding me though.

  26. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    The “Universe = Single spoken sentence bit” is still eluding me though.

    “Let there be light”…

  27. doubter says

    @Nerd of…26:

    “Let there be light”…

    That’s a reasonable interpretation. I’ve never heard the divine fiat that begins Genesis described quite like that. As someone speculated above, perhaps it’s insider Creationist terminology.

  28. anteprepro says

    The “Universe = Single spoken sentence bit” is still eluding me though.

    I’m fairly certain that they are trying to prove that “universe” really super truly categorically transcendentally via the supreme power and authority of the dictionary proves that the Bible is right. That is, since “universe” means “one spoken part of language or something”, which is just like the Bible saying that everything started with The Word, and thus this proves something something something who cares about the logic, just stare with mouth agape and give us money.

  31. doubter says

    I think the sheer tacky weirdness of the exhibit was throwing me off. Taken as a whole, they’re saying “Life and all this cool shit didn’t just explode into existence by accident, God willed it with the power of His Miiiiind!”

    But when I saw it, struck me as the sort of thing Gene Ray (of Nature’s Perfect Timecube) would put together to support – whatever the hell it is he believes. The Universe bit reads like “EARTH HAS 4 CORNER SIMULTANEOUS 4-DAY TIME CUBE WITHIN SINGLE ROTATION.” In other words, I was looking at simple stupidity and interpreting it as schizophrenia.

  34. Trebuchet says

    @pinkboi:

    PZ likes to go to the desert here in California a lot. Maybe he should visit the cheesy giant dinosaur-turned creationist museum in Cabazon..

    I suspect you’re thinking of PZ’s co-blogger Chris Clarke.

  35. robro says

    nkrishna — They’re even more wrong. I’m sure their folk etymology comes from “verse,” as in the numbered divisions of a Biblical chapter. Of course, verse in this sense comes from the same root. I believe it has to do with writing…the turn at the end of a written line…rather than anything to do with speech. In fact, according to Wiktionary the root derives from plowing. A “uni-verse” would then be a single furrow. Makes sense.

    Anyway, they’re right and they know it because they’re idiots and don’t know it. God bless them. They need it.

  36. grumpyoldfart says

    We start with UNIVERSE
    Now we break it down into its parts:
    Uni = single
    Verse = spoken sentence
    —
    The UNIVERSE is therefore the result of a single spoken sentence from god.

  37. anuran says

    grumpyold incorrect fart

    universe (n.) 1580s, “the whole world, cosmos,” from Old French univers (12c.), from Latin universum “the universe,” noun use of neuter of adj. universus “all together,” literally “turned into one,” from unus “one” (see one) + versus, past participle of vertere “to turn” (see versus). Properly a loan-translation of Greek to holon “the universe,” noun use of neuter of adj. holos “whole” (see safe (adj.)).

  41. bgsd4332 says

    Folks,

    This museum is in SANTEE, not San Diego!!!! That city does NOT represent San Diego’s socioeconomic community anymore than LegoLand or Seaworld does.

  42. Pteryxx says

    Also, I looked at the website for Mr. Cantor’s Scantibodies Laboratory. Contrary to my expectations, they do not make lingerie. They claim they make various antibodies for medical test kits, but their ‘What we do’ video seems overly interested in showing off their various buildings and animal pens. I think someone who really understands biotech (hi there, PZ!) should review their site.

    …I looked. Why do I always look…

    First off, antibody production involves a lot of ranching, so it’s not all that strange that they’d announce on their history page that they’re homeschoolers… okay. The company specializes in, among other things, pregnancy and ovulation tests… okay, perfectly straightforward products for an antibody production company to make.

    Tecate Operations
    Around 2003, Scantibodies Laboratory
    gained a new understanding of how
    to achieve its goal of producing better
    medical products. Just across the bor-
    der, in Tecate, Mexico, we made a
    great discovery of our neighbors who
    share the same tradition of hard work
    and dedication that have been the
    driving forces within the Scantibodies
    family for several decades. It was
    decided a couple years later, that
    Scantibodies needed to build its own
    facility in Mexico to enable the PTK
    production to expand and continue.

    …the hard work and tradition of our neighbors across the border? Oooookaaaaaaay.

    Phrases like “Scantibodies has been blessed” and “skills and knowledge as a divine trust”?

    In the words of Scantibodies’ founder and owner, Tom Cantor:
    We acknowledge three keys to the success of Scantibodies’ past and current operations and
    our vision for the future:
    1. Humility of spirit that drives us to always see what more we can do rather than
    what we have already done.
    2. A desire to bring help to our fellow man—the patient—with compassion and empathy
    to feel his pain, frustration and discouragement.
    3. The knowledge that the living and caring God will help us because we are research-
    ing His creation while seeking His direction for how to apply discoveries to help vul-
    nerable patients

    Source PDF

    This 2010 blog post recounts a personal tour of the Mexico facility:

    http://alrodbell.blogspot.com/2010/10/report-from-tecate-scantibodies.html

    We walked through the private elementary school for the children of employees as well as the public, and Tom described the bible centered approach that is used, with techniques to involve the children on multiple levels. Then we went through a door that figuratively separated church and state, creationism from established science and we were upon a space being prepared for a 2000 seat church. He then walked me through the backstage facilities for those who were taking the step to proclaim their acceptance of Christ in the form of baptism, complete with private conference rooms, changing areas and processional walkway to the public immersion in the sanctified water of redemption.

    […]

    But the transformation he offered me was not to take hold. I was not to be born again, any more than my brain was to be transported into one of those mice. For me, both were equally illusory. But I have a new found respect for illusion, for belief. It sure had one hell of an effect in motivating Tom Cantor to create something that should never have been possible. Someone with a BA in chemistry doesn’t build an international biotechnology enterprise, or take on the largest diagnostic testing company in the country, and win to the tune of their forking over a third of a billion dollars to the feds.

    So yeah. I have no reason to doubt their laboratory work, but I get the feeling their oddly casual tone and de-emphasis of the scientific aspects of the company has to do with their intended audience.

    For more history of this museum, see also last year’s Museum Day, featuring Ray Comfort, Chick-fil-A and Smithsonian magazine sponsorship. The anatomy section was a separate expansion in 2011.

    http://creationandearthhistorymuseum.wordpress.com/2012/09/

    and for more about Tom Cantor, check out his friendshipwithgod page and all the missions he operates in Ethiopia, the Phillippines, and Israel.

  43. Akira MacKenzie says

    Where’s the box of instant pudding? We always follow the bunt cake recipe which calls for a box of appropriately-flavored pudding. Vanilla for yellow, chocolate for…well, you get the idea.

    It’s no wonder it’s such a inaccurate model of the unverse!

  44. says

    I’d switch the contents in the hat for a magic wand, a handful of dirt and a bbq rib, it’s far more accurate of creationism than their little display is of the big bang.

  45. David Marjanović says

    “Today is a gift from God. That’s why we call it the present.”

    *shoots straight up from chair*
    *makes hairpin curve about 2 m above floor*
    *headfloor*

  46. Owlmirror says

    Heh.

    I’ve heard the platitude as:

    Yesterday is history . . .
    Tomorrow’s a mystery . . .
    Today is a gift — and that’s why we call it the present.

  47. hawkerhurricane says

    Living in San Diego, I have gone out to Klantee* and toured the ‘museum’. It’s a converted warehouse, in a neighborhood of warehouses. From the photo tour, I see it hasn’t improved in the decade since I last visited.

    *Santee has a nasty reputation, hence the nickname. They’ve improved over the decades, as the community filled with sailors and marines looking for cheap housing within driving distance of thier respective bases.

  48. tbtabby says

    I’ve heard the “single spoken sentence” nonsense before. It was dreamed up by none other than Our Favorite Inmate, Kent Hovind, at one of his “lectures.” He got a round of applause for it, as I recall.