The science here is obscene
So you read about that new Creation Museum, huh? Yeah, it'll be in the book. All I'll say now is that it's way more fascinating (in that surreal wackiness kind of way) than the Times article conveys. My friend Bruno Maddox captured it better in his Discovery column a few months ago.
I'll also say (since I decided it was too wonky to include in my chapter) that the Times writer glosses a little too quickly over the significance of the opening tableau of kids playing near baby T Rexes: "this pastoral scene is a glimpse of the world just after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in which dinosaurs are still apparently as herbivorous as humans, and all are enjoying a little calm in the days after the fall."
That "apparently" lets Answers in Genesis (the museum's parent company) off the hook just a bit too easily. There is nothing in AiG's loopy but dense and carefully argued theo-science to suggest any post-fall no-death grace period.
A more reasonable conclusion is that AiG went with the kids-and-dinos scene because it looks cool and grabs attention. You heard me right: the creationists actually present bad science for the sake of entertainment. I'm also perplexed by the photo of what appears to be a dino eating an egg in Eden. Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of giant pineapple (things did grow bigger back then because of the biospheric... oh, never mind), but if it is an egg, that would imply that the death of an unborn creature doesn't count! Is AiG secretly pro-abortion?
Yeah, I know you don't care, but in certain circles this is like TPMmuckraker discovering that Alberto Gonzales is projecting a coded message of competence.
Update: Museum boss Ken Ham explains the kids and dinos scene: "There are two animatronic young T. rex dinosaurs and two animatronic children in the waterfall exhibit. The animatronic girl is feeding a squirrel, and the animatronic boy is stirring a stick in a pond. The two animatronic T. rex dinosaurs are near the children but looking in the other direction."
Well, phew!
Comments
That's a golf ball. People lived a lot longer back then and they were much, much better at golf. Forearms like Rosie O'Donnell. Mysterious ways.
Posted by: TG Gibbon | May 24, 2007 4:06 PM
It's a giant Tic Tac. The Dinos freshened their breath so that unsuspecting human children would play nearby them.
Posted by: JohnBoy | May 24, 2007 4:52 PM
Ahh the creation museum. I think my dad tried to get a job there a few years ago.
Posted by: Jessica | May 25, 2007 12:55 AM
No kidding around here: Can it be true that 60% of Americans believe the world was created in 6 days? Can it??
Posted by: abe | May 26, 2007 7:40 PM
According to a 2007 Newsweek poll, 48% of Americans believe in "young earth creationism." An additional 30% believe in evolution directed by God.
Posted by: radosh | May 27, 2007 8:30 AM
I am guessing the figure is lower in, say, China. In Europe, they probably don't ask candidates whether they believe in evolution. It further seems to me that somehow the popularity of creationism in the USA is rising.
Posted by: abe | May 27, 2007 11:05 PM