The Museum of Atlantis is opening! Take the AI-guided tour of empty rooms and missing evidence and a well-stocked gift shop.

I was a bit disappointed, though. At one point they show a gallery of promoters of the myth, featuring Graham Hancock and Edgar Cayce and Madame Blavatsky, and you’d think they’d have learned. When there’s no evidence, just make it all up! Don’t show empty rooms, fill ’em up with dioramas and animatronics and cheap mannequins and wall signs! Learn from the modern master, Ken Ham.

I’m still reluctantly impressed at the Ark Park’s brilliant strategy of filling empty rooms with empty crates and announcing that the animals were inside.

The Museum of Atlantis could be a fabulous money-maker, all you need is imagination and a gullible public…and the US has the latter in great overwhelming masses.

Guy rides to the top on little more than his charisma and confidence, and what happens? All his unpleasantness bubbles to the top.

The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.

On Friday, Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas’ Gateway Church, asked her to come into his room when he stayed with her family for Christmas in 1982. She was 12 and he was 20 at the time. She said Morris molested her and then ordered her not to say anything about his behavior “because it will ruin everything.” The abuse continued for years before Clemishire confided in a close friend, prompting Morris’ wife to find out and Morris to step down from the ministry, according to the report.

When he made the standard tearful confession of guilt to his congregation, begging for forgiveness for this poor sinner, he admitted that he was guilty of “inappropriate sexual behavior,” he didn’t mention that his victim was 12 years old.

Elders at Gateway Church also told The Christian Post that Morris disclosed a “moral failure” and had since been absolved. He has not been criminally charged, but Texas’ statute of limitations does not cover sexual offenses committed against a child.

“Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church. He has shared publicly from the pulpit the proper biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process,” they said, according to the Post.

“moral failure”. She was 12 years old. Jesus, these people. But he’s been absolved.

Atheists have their own examples of “moral failure” — Dave Silverman comes to mind — but at least we don’t pretend to “absolve” them.

Well, good. Now Orac dismantles the “lab leak” nonsense promoted by Alina Chan and the NY Times.

Even so, before I close, let me just reiterate that it is not impossible that SARS-CoV-2 arose in a lab, either due to scientists carrying out modifications on existing coronaviruses or from a collection of natural coronaviruses, in which the virus escaped. The claim is not impossible, like the claims made for homeopathy. However, as I like to say, just because a hypothesis is possible does not mean that it is equally possible (or even more so) compared to a competing hypothesis. You have to look at the evidence. Lab leak conspiracy theorists love to point out missing evidence that would make a natural zoonotic origin for SARS-CoV-2 an unquestioned slam dunk, even as they gloss over the fact that their evidence base is nothing but holes that they try desperately to fill with appeals to personal incredulity that the virus could have arisen naturally, wild speculation as to how it might have escaped from a lab, conspiracy mongering about “cover-ups” everywhere, and lots and lots drawing links between facts and observations that are probably unrelated. Moreover, if there’s one thing that all versions of lab leak share, it’s suspicion and constant finger pointing at the Chinese for being less than enthusiastic and cooperative about letting investigators into the Wuhan Institute of Virology to try to determine if a lab leak happened. This is, of course, not surprising and not in and of itself evidence for a lab leak. China is an authoritarian regime, and such regimes tend to be secretive.

Note that, since this is Orac, what follows after that “before I close” is 1700 words of even more debunking.

Just as well, there is no last word when trying to deal with the lunacy of committed kooks.

I’m pretty sure the answer is some variant of “yes,” “of course,” and “what a stupid question,” but the Freethoughtblogs gang will be exploring it on Saturday afternoon, and maybe provide some nuance and depth. You can contribute, too!