There is lots of video on the web from our visit to Ken Ham’s Palace of Lies, but here’s one of one of the rare incidents to mar the trip. This is the student who was kicked out; I was with him when he was pulled aside, and can verify that he was doing nothing but engaging in quiet conversation with a small group of us godless atheists when Mark Looy arbitrarily singled him out and took him aside to tell him stories about how unruly he had been. It was genuinely bizarre. As you can see in the clip made as we were standing outside, there was no shouting, no disruption, no rudeness at all going on — they simply plucked Derek out of the group and told him he was a bad boy.

Not shown is the other stuff that went on at the same time. While Looy had Derek off to the side, their head of security hovered about and tried to interpose himself between Looy and all the cameras aimed at him…an impossibility, since there was a whole arc of watchful atheists around them. At one point he gestured to one of the uniformed guards and sent him to escort one attendee with a large, high-quality video camera off the premises — this happened to be a fellow who was there making a documentary about atheists, who had been careful to not directly participate and who was certainly not wearing any godless apparel. The creationists are certainly brilliant at PR, aren’t they?

I can say that all of the atheists were well behaved and civil, that the only behavior the museum staff could possibly have complained about is that we engaged in quiet criticism, and that the only bad behavior was by people like Looy and the noticeably edgy security guards, who we could tell were looking for an excuse to throw all the people laughing at their joke of a “museum” out. I think Derek was simply their chosen sacrificial lamb, used as an excuse to vent their failed expectations for a ferocious confrontation.

One last irony: after expelling a few of our people for imaginary infractions, Looy came up to me with their photographer to ask to take my picture, presumably to put on Ken Ham’s blog. I let him, of course, but I expect they’ll also use it to let their security know who I am, in case I should make future invasions. (Which is not likely, by the way. I think I got enough.)

It’s a small thing, but it’s representative of the bizarre pseudoscience in the world of the Creation “Museum”. There was a room with a small collection of dinosaur models and skeleton casts, and they each had little panels describing the specimen…just like a real museum! Then you read them, and the weirdness sinks in.

Notice that “Diet” specifies “after the Fall” — that’s because everything was a vegetarian before Adam and Eve ate the apple, since there was no death anywhere in the universe (which implies, apparently, that in their version of Christian theology, plants are dead). That’s not the weirdest thing, though.

No, the part that I found most amusing is the date. This is a Jurassic ceratosaur, so it says that this is from the Jurassic (~2348 BC). There were other specimens from other geological eras, and they would say “Upper Cretaceous (~2348 BC)” and “Lower Cretaceous (~2348 BC)”. I’m sure that if they had some Cambrian specimens there, they would have also said “(~2348 BC)”.

Why does the geology even matter to them if they’re just going to ignore it all and compress everything into one year, a year given with such remarkable specificity?

Even if you don’t care about the geology, what about the history? All but 7 people are exterminated in 2348 BC, by their accounting, yet we know that in that century, we have the establishment of the Akkadian empire in Mesopotamia, the sixth dynasty in Egypt, the founding of major cities in the Indus valley and Korea…we have archaeological and historical records that show business as usual, with no one noting a massive annihilation of the human race.

The whole “museum” is like that — it’s a succession of assertions that flout the evidence, but does so in a style that is simply parroted from legitimate museums. Substance is completely lacking.

Details to follow later.

I’m currently at Edwin and Helen Kagin’s house, 15 minutes from the Creation “Museum” — we’ll be heading off to the event around 9am, but first we have to be fed, and the Kagins are infamous for stuffing their guests. I may have to waddle through the theme park.

We have 285 people signed up so far. There is some concern that we’ll strain their parking, especially if mobs of creationists try to tie up spots early. If there is a problem, people can legally park along the county road leading to Ham’s Folly, as long as you don’t block access. We also have an agreement with a local farm 2 miles away to let people park there; if worst comes to worst, we’ll let people know where to go and will shuttle them back and forth.

For a little crowd control, the Creation Theme Park has also told us they are setting up a table and tent — it’s nice of them, but I suspect they are more concerned about making sure chaotic milling crowds of atheists don’t choke up parking or the entrance. Congregate there, please. If Kool-Aid is served, however, I recommend that you don’t drink it.

I have heard from a lot of people that they want to get a photo of the dinosaur with a saddle. I should mention that last I heard, it was no longer there — it was out for maintenance. However, in an amusing coincidence, a van full of godless atheists on its way to Kentucky last night passed a trailer carrying…you guessed it.

It’s an omen. My correspondent tells me the entire van erupted in laughter, which is precisely the response we’re looking for. If you’re coming, remember: don’t get angry, laugh instead. We are going to be a merry, cheerful band of atheists.

I won’t be hauling my laptop through the museum, so I won’t be live-blogging it, unfortunately. I will be using my iPhone to twitter now and then, so feel free to follow along on my account, or better yet, I’ve suggested that everyone twittering this should use the hashtag #CreoZerg. That link should give you a growing kaleidoscope of short reactions to our visit.

I will be posting photos on Twitter. They won’t be the greatest — just stuff shot with my iPhone camera — but it’ll give you all a taste.

I’ll also be putting together a summary post this wekend.

The big field trip to Ken Ham’s amusement park is on Friday morning — we’ll be meeting at 10am at the parking lot, just look for the mob.

Be ready. This is exactly what you can expect if any of the creationists engage with you.

Expect them to be smug in their ignorance, and recite the same old tripe they always do. But remember: don’t get angry, just be amused. We are not going there for a rumble, this is a reconnaissance mission, in which we will harvest many stories.

I have another request: anyone who is joining us for this event who is also a biologist, please email me. I’d like to coordinate a little bit and make sure we’re well distributed in the group — there are a lot of people going, and we won’t be able to troop through in one big mass.

If you aren’t going, I will be twittering away on my iPhone as we go through, so you can follow along vicariously. I’ll use the hashtag #CreoZerg, and welcome any other twittering attendees to use it, too.

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People are worried that there won’t be pictures. I just charged up FOUR batteries for my Nikon D50; I’m bringing my iPhone with its camera; I will have my Flip camera; and I’m thinking about bringing my digital video camera (although I may not, since it’s feeling like overkill so far). I’m sure others will be doing likewise. The press will be there. There will be photos, do not fear.

If you’ve been following the comment threads lately, you already know that we’ve had a new arrival who has been inspiring much hilarity, Pastor Tom Estes. He seems to be much dismayed at us atheists, and is promising to meet us at the Creation “Museum” on Friday, to discuss matters. He also has a blog where he has been fulminating about the event and wallowing in his own incomprehension. It’s funny stuff — he doesn’t understand why we would care about the Creation “Museum”, and at the same time claims that the myth of Genesis is supported by science. Now if only he would realize that those two claims answer each other: we care because people like Pastor Tom and Ken Ham are misrepresenting the science.

Getting back to the hatred of Ham and the Creation Museum, why? Why do you all care? Especially when you consider that you have the truth? Why not leave us goofy Christians alone on this one? I cannot help but believe that atheists are threatened by Ken Ham because he doesn’t need the Bible to disprove evolution, he uses science.

That’s right, sacred science.

And not only that, he doesn’t care what the scientic community’s lemmings think of him. And then, on top of that, he has the nerve to educate as many as possible about the truths of science, which is what the Creation Museum is all about. Thus, he needs to be brought down.

But how? What is Myers going to do? I ask because I’ve been to the Creation Museum, and it’s all science. There’s not going to be any Bible-thumping going on. Ken Ham shows how science proves the Bible, and not the other way around, so Myers will have his hands full. (I know atheists are chuckling, but I assure you, it’s true.)

Something stands out in that little wail: Ken Ham “doesn’t need the Bible to disprove evolution”? “There’s not going to be any Bible-thumping going on”?

Pastor Tom doesn’t know his hero very well. All you have to do is look at the Answers in Genesis mission statement:

Goal: To support the church in fulfilling its commission

Vision: Answers in Genesis is a catalyst to bring reformation by reclaiming the foundations of our faith which are found in the Bible, from the very first verse.

Mission:

• We proclaim the absolute truth and authority of the Bible with boldness.
• We relate the relevance of a literal Genesis to the church and the world today with creativity.
• We obey God’s call to deliver the message of the gospel, individually and collectively.

Bible-thumping is right there at the heart of the organization. That’s their whole premise, that the Bible is literally true and all science must conform to it. The Creation “Museum” isn’t about science at all, but is entirely about a peculiar, quirky, very specific interpretation of the Bible.

I’ve also read Jason Lisle’s book, The Ultimate Proof of Creation, which isn’t the ultimate anything, contains no proofs, but does boldly proclaim the absolute truth and authority of the Bible. Right at the beginning, it asserts that the Bible is a central tool in their proselytizing, and that the good creationist should reject the blandishments of secular tempters who demand evidence other than the Bible. (It really is an awful book, too — long, preachy, and whining non-stop about logical fallacies — with the author commits freely — and nowhere does it provide a scrap of reason why we should accept the literal account of the Bible).

But don’t just take my word for it. I recently and fortuitously received a copy in the mail of the closest thing to a scientific publication ever authored by Ken Ham, thanks to a generous reader. Even better, it’s a double-whammy: it’s authored by two of the biggest names in creationism, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and John Morris of the Institute for Creation research. These are authorities in their little wacky subdomain of pseudoscience.

Here is that science text:

[Read more…]

It’s a very charitable review of a creationist movie, the latest bit of dishonest propaganda since Expelled. It is apparently very professionally made, which means less and less nowadays as digital video gear gets cheaper and easier to get, but I was surprised at one thing: it’s not really a movie. It’s only 52 minutes long! This looks like something they’re aiming at the television market, so look for it sometime soon on TBN or maybe even the History Channel.

Among the usual mangled creationist nonsense, it seems to be arguing for some revisionist history, claiming that science only advocates gradual change, but the evidence supports catastrophism, which is a biblical view. This is ridiculous, of course; the Bible is not a science textbook and provides no supporting body of evidence for anything, while science strives for an accurate model of the history of the earth that includes both gradual events and sporadic major changes.

No surprises. Bad science and bad history, but polished to a nice shiny gloss. If it comes on TV, I’ll probably watch it and take notes, but I’m not going to go out of my way looking for it.

Various bits of red tape have been cleared, and the feds are about to seize the bulk of Dino Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida, so that it can be sold off to cover the Hovind’s pending debts and penalties. You might just be able to pick up some plywood dinosaurs for cheap!

Here is a piece of text from a textbook used by fundamentalist Christians in a biology class.

Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie,’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.

Could a fish have developed into a dinosaur? As astonishing as it may seem, many evolutionists theorize that fish evolved into amphibians and amphibians into reptiles. This gradual change from fish to reptiles has no scientific basis. No transitional fossils have been or ever will be discovered because God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals. Any similarities that exist among them are due to the fact that one Master Craftsmen fashioned them all.

Oy, that’s familiar tripe — creationists repeat this kind of nonsense over and over again. The cryptozoology angle is also drearily common: many creationists think dinosaurs and humans coexisted recently, and that dinosaurs even still exist in exotic locations like the Congo and Canada. The existence of modern dinosaurs is considered evidence against evolution.

So that book is unsurprisingly stupid. There is something surprising about it, though: a UK government agency has just decided that such garbage is legitimate education, and has declared the fundamentalist young-earth creationist curriculum to be equivalent to their international A-levels. This agency, the National Recognition Information Centre (Naric), is blithely advising employers and universities that students who have gone through the creationist indoctrination and propaganda program have received a respectable education in science.

Well, you now know how much to trust a Naric recommendation. Not at all.