It can’t, but its owner can be. Ken Ham has been mugging for the media quite a bit lately: he’s got a little coup, in that he’s acquired a fossil allosaur — a real, and valuable, scientific specimen — for his crappy little Creation “Museum”. He claims it’s evidence for a young earth, because it is supposedly only 4500 years old, if you ignore the actual evidence for its age.
But here’s something I didn’t know. Daniel Phelps did a little digging, and excavated the history of the donor. He’s not a nice guy. He’s one of those racist traitors who worships the Confederacy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 22, 2014
CREATION MUSEUM TO UNVEIL DINOSAUR FOSSIL FROM ORGANIZATION WHOSE LEADER IS AFFILIATED WITH HATE GROUP
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky is about to unveil a dinosaur fossil donated by an organization whose leader is affiliated with a hate group.
In October 2013 the Creation Museum, operated by Answers in Genesis, announced the receipt of a partial Allosaurus skeleton and skull from the Elizabeth Streb Peroutka Foundation. The foundation’s leader Michael Peroutka until recently was also a board member of the League of the South, a white supremacist, Neo-Confederate and pro-secessionist organization that has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (See the web links at the end of this press release for documentation.)
The Creation Museum will be unveiling the specimen this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. The Creation Museum expresses thanks to Michael Peroutka and the Peroutka Foundation on their website (http://creationmuseum.org/whats-here/exhibits/allosaur/):
"One blessing in getting the allosaur was that the Creation Museum did not seek it out. Michael Peroutka, one of the board members of the Foundation, says that this fossil is a testimony to the creative power of God and also lends evidence to the truth of a worldwide catastrophic flooding of the earth about 4,500 years ago as described in the Bible. In order to ensure that the display of the fossil represented this teaching, the Peroutka Foundation donated the fossil to the Creation Museum."
Kentucky geologist and President of the Kentucky Paleontological Society Daniel Phelps is calling for Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum to disavow the hate group, and to donate the fossil to a real natural history museum so that scientific research can be performed on the specimen.
Phelps said, "The Creation Museum could use this opportunity to take a stand against a racist, Neo-Confederate, hate group by refusing to take possession of the Allosaurus fossil or by donating it to a real natural history museum so the specimen could be placed in the public trust, especially in the light of AIG’s anti-racist position."
Possible museums that could properly curate and research the specimen, according to Phelps, include the Smithsonian (Washington, DC), the American Museum of Natural History (New York), the Field Museum (Chicago), Cincinnati Museum Center, and the Museum of Western Colorado.
Phelps also points out that the Creation Museum will be incapable of doing scientific research on the specimen. All employees of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum are obligated to sign an oath of Biblical literalism before employment. This oath (found here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith)
includes statements that make scientific research on the specimen impossible since all conclusions are known before any possible research is undertaken. The Creation Museum’s Statement of Faith even includes this dogmatic statement:
"By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the scriptural record."
Answers in Genesis has an in house publication that mimics a scientific journal named Answers Research Journal, but that publication requires author’s conclusions to match AIG’s statement of faith. The following quote from the publication’s instructions to authors illustrates this point:
"The editor-in-chief will not be afraid to reject a paper if it does not properly satisfy the above criteria or it conflicts with the best interests of AiG as judged by its biblical stand and goals outlined in its statement of faith."
(Page 9) http://legacy-cdn-assets.answersingenesis.org/assets/pdf/arj/instructions-to-authors.pdf
Phelps stated, "Oaths based on religious doctrine are not how modern science is accomplished. The Creation Museum has decided, without doing research, that the dinosaur fossil is evidence of Noah’s Flood which they believe occurred in approximately 2350 BC."
Phelps continues, "Since the Creation Museum doesn’t do scientific research, all the Creation Museum really has done is obtain a nice display trophy. Real museums do research. The Creation Museum has asserted the specimen to be evidence of Noah’s Flood without any actual research and will not consider other explanations for theological reasons."
Here is more information on Michael Peroutka and his connections to The League of the South:YouTube video of Peroutka joining League of the South board:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vze4fPPkgxY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Michael Peroutka “proud to be a member” of The League of the South:
The Southern Poverty Law Center names The League of the South a Neo-Confederate hate group here:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/league-of-the-south
The Southern Poverty Law Center writes of connections between Peroutka and The League of the South here:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2013/09/18/american-heritage-group-pushes-radical-theocratic-class-on-constitution/People For the American Way articles on Peroutka’s activities:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/michael-peroutka?page=1
Michael Peroutka decries Union victory in the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg:
http://archive.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=270
Michael Peroutka’s listing in the Encyclopedia of American Loons can be found here:
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2014/05/1022-michael-peroutka.html
I think Dan is a bit optimistic if he thinks Ham will be swayed at all by the association with racist traitors. I suspect he’s sympathetic, actually, since they tend to be fanatical Christians, too.
Who is the organization that wrote this release?
Rachel Maddow is talking about this right now.
AFAICT, that would be a KPS release. Yeah, no one specifically notes the original source of this anywhere.
I can only assume Dan Phelps (e)mailed this to blogs and news orgs.
There is nothing obscure about Peroutka.
He is a well known fundie death cultist, creationist, America hater, and neo confederate. A xian Dominionist theocrat. And one with a lot of money to throw around.
He ran for President in 2012 on the (badly misnamed) Constitution Party ticket.!!! And got .09% of the popular vote.
Why are you trusting the judgment of the Southern Poverty Law Center when it comes to Michael Peroutka. As Vacuous and other friends of the pit can tell you, SPLC is run by hacks and you cannot trust their judgment.
Whew, after printing that hot retort, you need a cool drink. Your favorite swill is on the way.
Wikipedia has a bit to say about Peroutka. Google has a lot more.
The Encyclopedia of American Loons has a good summary. Peroutka is a scary guy and would be even more scary if too many people took him seriously. He is still blind mad that the South lost the Civil war.
Re: the title question – Perhaps humans of different subtypes taste differently.
Tip your waitosaurus – I’ll be here all week!
This sordid episode is a total embarrassment for Allosaurs all over the world.
Raven. Please make a note, I was being extremely sarcastic.
Goodbye Enemy Janine. Please make a note, if you have numerous people not realize that you were being sarcastic, you’re doing it badly.
Please make a note, the above post was sarcasm.
Microraptor, we are both long time regulars here. And just about all of the regulars know exactly what my point was.
The Creation Museum has an actual fossil Allosaurus?? I am making this face right now:
D-:
They don’t even do research! Are they just trying to keep it away from people who would have an actual use for it??
Octopod…
to piglet fucker Ham… it’s nothing but yet another Cardiff Giant (look it up) to fleece the rubes with.
I’m sure he thinks it will increase draw to his “museum” (is there something stronger than scare quotes to emphasize the derision one feels?).
How can you ask Ham to give up this fossil now? He’s probably already got a historically accurate saddle picked out for it!
Can we stop calling this atrocity a museum?
“Ken Ham’s Creation Atrocity”…
I like that much better
Why are these people even allowed to own this?
And to think that those clowns claim that it’s the “evolutionists” who are dogmatic?
https://answersingenesis.org/media/cartoons/after-eden/evolution-free-allosaur/
I’m not at all surprised by Ham’s association with Peroutka. Given how non-whites (especially African-Americans) have been long-caricatured as “monkeys,” I would venture to guess that the no. 3 explanation for our nation’s support for Creationism (no. 1 is religion, no. 2 egotism) is good old American racism. The least thing these supposed paragons of Caucasian-hood want to believe that they are really no different than the human beings they revial.
When they say “I didn’t come up from a MONKEY” what they really mean is “I am not related to a NIGGER!”*
*Racial epithet used for rhetorical purposes only.
Because, in the USA, fossils are legally mineral resources. In many other countries, they’re legally antiquities.
No, Allosaurus aren’t racist. Rather: racists are dinosaurs.
pooduck13 @ 18 I like it! We should have a contest.
I submit: “King Ham’s Creation Abomination”. (It rhymes!:)
If the allosaurus is tainted by its racist former owner, how does donating it to ” a real natural history museum ” clean that taint?
I agree that Ham is wasting a valuable artifact that would be of greater benefit in other people’s hands. But I don’t understand the argument that he should give it up because of its former owner.
I really doubt this is intended to actually change Ham’s mind, especially seeing that Real museums barb near the end, even though it is true.
No one is saying that.
Peroutka doesn’t quite have the nerve to openly say that black people aren’t entitled to full citizenship, but the subtext is there.
Peroutka has some unorthodox views about plate tectonics as well.
This may explain the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
@#2 SC
Rachel Maddow’s segment on this places it in the context of the creation museum, its dodgy tax incentive deal and a nice sampling of incredible claims. Here’s the link:
http://on.msnbc.com/1tMFfFQ
No relation, I assume?
[Bolding mine]
That word… it does not mean what AiG apprently think it means…
Thumper, that is an interesting bit. And the “scriptural record” doesn’t say what they think it says, either.
My google-fu is failing me. Last night Rachel Maddow said that they claimed the allosaur was found “on a bed of leaves and sticks” some of which were only partially petrified. Anyone have any links to more information on these ‘leaves and sticks’ or the general way this find was excavated? I know it was done by homeschool groups but surely they had professional supervision, didn’t they? It sounds very dodgy to me but I can try to keep an open mind until I see the data.
I’m seconding comment #28, Rachel Maddow’s presentation is excellent:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/dinosaur-find-cited-as-proof-of-bible-story-268002371823
Rachel Maddow reports on the addition of an Allosaurus skeleton to the Creation Museum’s collection they claim proves that dinosaurs died in Noah’s flood, and the assorted money-making interests behind Creationist paleontology programs.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. We’re all familiar with the Creationists cant of “I ain’t come up from no monkey!” Given how non-white (especially African Americans) have been long- caricatured as “monkeys” by racists, the last thing these supposed paragons of the Caucasian-hood want to hear is that they are in anyway related to the people they have been denigrating.
It’s high time that classify American Creationism as not just a religious delusion, but a stealthy form of racism.
“white supremacist, Neo-Confederate and pro-secessionist organization”
So basically ‘true’ Christains from the core of the Religious Reich. Thank you Pat Buchannan for coming up with the ‘Southern Strategy’.
But…but …they’re not going to teach the controversy? I’m shocked, I tell you.
Quoth marcus:
It scans, too.
So the flood occurred c. 2350 B.C.E. – Really!? The Pyramids would have been built c. 100-200 years earlier just before the flood and about the same time has the flood happening would have been Sargon of Akkad and his empire. Isn`t is just amazing how those two early states don`t record any world wide human eradicating flood at this time.