According to this ABC News report, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science allows private tours for children so that the displays can be properly interpreted to keep them from accepting the displayed, scientifically derived explanations as true.
Yes, the actual science displays are being specially interpreted to support Young Earth and Divine Creation theology. It certainly is cheaper than busing all those kids all the way to Kentucky for the Creation Museum tour.
The tour guides
dismiss much of what’s on display in the museum as “pseudo-science” and describe many of the graphic depictions of paleontology and evolution as merely “artwork.”
They get the children to recite that “Evolution is just a religion”.
The creators of this tour
“are now training other people around the country to hold similar tours at their local museums, and they are also putting together tour materials for Christian teachers.
Is it just me, or is something wrong with our education system, in general?
Here's my favorite quote from the article:
"They said the T-Rex was vegetarian because at the time of the Creation, there was no such thing as death, so a T-Rex could not have eaten meat. There was no death until Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, they continued, and God's revenge was to curse the world with death. "
I'm imagining a T-Rex eating strawberries and tofu.
I don't remember whether it was Ray Comfort or Ken Ham who suggested that the T. Rexes ate coconuts. I'm guessing that's why they died out – coconuts roll around, and the T. Rex couldn't hold them in its tiny front feet and get them to his mouth. What a way to go!
There really is something wrong with our education system, seeing as how it can be swayed by diligent stupidity and a lot of money thrown at the wrong subject.
Thank you, religious right, you just tossed us back a few decades in teaching.
Good one, Alison! I can almost imagine those poor, unfortunate T.Rexs all starving to death because their Intelligent Designer gave them arms that were too short.
I keep wondering why 99% of all the species that have ever lived on earth are extinct now, if they were all designed by an Intelligent Designer. Killed in a global flood, I suppose the creationists would say, despite the fact that floods don't stratify corpses the way we find them in the fossil record. Floods stratify based on size, but the fossil record isn't sorted that way anywhere on earth.
grumpypilgrim, since you mentioned the flood, you might get a chuckle from this video by Theologikos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCiStLKzivM
It's tongue in cheek, obviously – this guy has a very dry wit.
Nice link, Alison. In fact, now that you mention it, there seem to be many amusing creationist videos on youtube. They can't get anywhere in science class, so apparently the Web is their choice of platform.
Dry wit…flood geology. I get it 🙂
grumpypilgrim, they now have godtube, don't visit unless your irony meter is in full working condition.
Dan. . .you have no idea how long I wrestled over whether to leave that little pun. In the end, I just couldn't resist. I love hearing a good groan.
Oh, my goodness, *godtube*!? It never ceases to amaze me how many people believe they speak for the god that supposedly created them and who, one would think, wouldn't need their help in getting the message out. Reminds me of an essay I wrote about the god-who-plays-telephone:
http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/07/31/why-i….
GodTube is full of excerpts from Expelled.
It also led me to another counterknowledge website: AllAboutScience.org has a "theological implications" section for every (usually mis-represented) fragment of scientific discovery that it covers. Pun intended.
Here's Erich's post with the ABC video