A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 12 Apr, 2021 08:59 AM
If you recall NCSE is the Secular Humanist site used by Flat Earth Teddy to prove some of his silly beliefs. Strange how a flat earther would appeal to a secular humanist site as validation of certain philosophical aspects embraced by flat earth idiocy. Unfortunately the site doesn’t support everything Flat Teddy believes.
Enjoy this article by Mark Looy on July 30, 2007
AiG’s response to Daniel Phelps’ (president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society) review of his museum experience for the NCSE website.
Dr. Eugenie Scott, an atheist and recipient of the Isaac Asimov “Humanist of the Year” award, directs an organization called the National Center for Science Education. The NCSE, despite its noble-sounding title, is really an organization that was established to oppose the creation movement in America.
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Dr. Scott visited AiG a few months ago to interview AiG-US President Ken Ham, with a British Broadcasting Corp. radio correspondent on hand to record the dialogue. After her visit, Dr. Scott was quoted as saying that AiG’s Creation Museum was “worrisome.”1
A few weeks ago, another NCSE-affiliated visitor dropped by AiG and the museum. Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, toured the Creation Museum and wrote a review of his museum experience for Dr. Scott’s NCSE website. The inaccuracies and lack of careful research (his obvious anti-creationist agenda aside) betray Dr. Scott’s claim that she insists on maintaining high academic standards at the NCSE.2 We were also surprised that some profanity was permitted to remain in the anti-museum article, and we note, too, that the column is peppered with nonacademic language (e.g., the museum’s content is described with words like “insane,” “quack,” and “bunk”).
We have decided to comment on the NCSE article in order to demonstrate that what appears on the NCSE site must be viewed with a high degree of suspicion, given a track record of hyperbole and, at the worst, inaccurate comments. It makes us wonder: if such a poor standard of research exists when commenting on AiG and the museum, then what does it say about NCSE’s research in geology, paleontology, biology, etc.?
Rather than offering a point-by-point rebuttal of NCSE’s lengthy piece (if you were to read the original column and a detailed rebuttal, it might take hours to read), we will instead note the following egregious problems with the critique of the museum.
There are some nit-picking things we could elaborate upon (one example would be the upcoming Bill Maher film which mentions the museum is not for HBO but for theatrical release), but we will stick to examining the more substantive problems with the review of AiG’s Creation Museum.
First, Ken Ham is not “Rev.” Ham. He is not a pastor, does not lead a church, and has never been ordained. We suppose this is an effort by the critic to show that the visionary behind the Creation Museum is not well versed in science but is really a preacher. Ken, in fact, holds a science degree and a science education qualification, and has been seen to hold his own when debating Ph.D. evolutionists (e.g., on the campus of Harvard a few years ago) on the scientific merits of molecules-to-man evolution.
AiG does not say that all modern social ills can be traced to evolution. As we have written before concerning this bogus claim that has also been made by the NCSE director, we actually say that evolution is not the cause of social ills (e.g., racism, abortion, random violence, etc.). Instead, AiG declares that as a culture rejects God’s Word as the absolute authority and accepts evolutionary ideas, then this will affect the way people think and act—and thus fuel (but not cause) social ills. (See The evolution connection.)
Also, the author has a few things wrong about the history of the Creation Museum project. For example, the first piece of property AiG was considering for the Creation Museum was not “next to” Big Bone Lick State Park here in northern Kentucky. The author is attempting to make the case that AiG wanted to be “in the face" of this park and its small museum that contains some evolutionary teaching. Actually, our intended museum would have been four miles away, not “next door.”
In addition, it is a complete misrepresentation to declare that the granting of re-zoning for a piece of property to build a Creation Museum was a church-state controversy. By that faulty reasoning, any time a church wishes to build on a private piece of property and needs rezoning permission from the local government, then the local authorities can’t get involved because of the so-called “separation of church and state.”
More preposterous, though, is the author’s liking of our K-9 (i.e., dog) unit at the museum to the images of police dogs attacking civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, decades ago (how ironic, since AiG has a strong anti-racism exhibit in the museum, and our security protocols exist to provide a safe environment for our guests). Did the author really have some apprehension about visiting the museum because he knows that security dogs are here? The NCSE might want to consider checking with other museums before visiting, for dogs are often used at these public places; further, some museums even have SWAT units on-site.
We also note the author’s fears about having possible “problems” while visiting the museum. (That’s partly because Ken Ham’s writings are supposedly “rabid,” the writer says.) This concern prompted him to bring along a colleague for support. At least we’re happy to read that when he visited, he apparently was pleasantly surprised by friendly staff and volunteers.
In another praise, he also called the museum building “beautiful.” And we are happy to see that many of the museum’s teaching points were brought out in the museum critique, including parts of the gospel message itself (e.g., the writer quotes a museum display that says, for example, that the “Bible teaches that suffering and death came as a result of Adam’s sin”).
The columnist discusses the museum’s “unverified claims” of having 250,000 guests during its first year. A curious way to put it, since we can only make a reasoned projection which can’t be “verified,” of course. We note that the museum has been open since the end of May, and over 120,000 guests have come through. We’re already well past 1/3 of the projected total for our first year!
In an apparent attempt to downplay the museum’s impact, the author guessed that only 500 guests were at the museum the day (May 31) he visited. It was actually 841 (we keep careful attendance figures), which was one of the lowest-attended days. Average attendance at the museum has been 1,860, and has been growing, which probably gives the author some consternation (especially since it is contrary to his contention that the museum “crowds have diminished”).
In fact, crowds have not been diminishing even after the initial excitement, as might have been expected based on what has been seen at other newly opened museums. The fact that a relatively low number of 840 people toured on the one day this critic visited does not a trend make. For one, schools were ending at that time of year, and it was the week of Memorial Day, and so there were distractions for many people. In contrast, both Friday and Saturday we saw around 4000 guests each. The crowds are just getting bigger (although once the summer vacation months are over, we may see a slight attendance drop, but are hopeful that tour groups this fall will help make up much of the difference).
We must make at least a passing comment about our poignant film The Last Adam, calling it some kind of “infomercial” that is akin to hawking diet pills (because we are supposedly “selling” religion). If proclaiming the gospel message through a well-done (yet non-sensationalistic) film is a sell-job—and there is nothing to purchase—what is so crass about the film?
The columnist makes the curious comment that the museum admission price must have been a hardship to the Mennonites (described by the author as mostly “hard-working farmers”) he saw at the museum. (By the way, with discount coupons, group rates, children’s discounts, etc., the average per head is just over $12.) That was perhaps a patronizing comment about this religious group, for I know that many Mennonites (and Amish) who do farm are quite prosperous. Farming does not equate to low income.
The author’s comment about our fundraising effectiveness in collecting $27 million to construct the museum building and its exhibits was not offered as a compliment but as a comment about our supposed slickness. But we will give all glory to our Creator for His blessings in this regard, for during the years of museum fundraising, we never had a full-time development (i.e., fundraising) officer on staff.
Which also brings us to a related and final observation about the NCSE column: as soon as the funds are in, there will be a children’s play area (we were criticized in the article for the absence of such a room and thus an “incomplete” museum). We have a large room already set aside for this children’s area (with private nursing rooms), but to make it first-rate, it requires an outlay of additional funds.
Because it would take pages and pages to comment fully on the author’s attempted rebuttal to what he saw at the museum, we leave it up to our web readers to utilize the search feature of this site—by typing in some of the key words found in the NCSE article—and read our in-depth articles that will counter his pro-evolution arguments.
As an example, when the author wonders about the “time dilation of light” idea presented in the museum’s planetarium (it is one model that attempts to explain how a star could be millions of light years away in a young universe), type in words like "starlight” and “time” in the search box and see what pops up (see also Get Answers: Astronomy).
Also, when the writer bizarrely claims that AiG “accepts a great deal of evolution before and immediately after the Flood,” please check out our web articles that show the difference between horizontal and vertical change in living things, and how evolutionists can be very sloppy in their definition of evolution (see our Get Answers sections on Natural Selection to get started).
Note that that some of the wording in the NCSE article is profane and/or crude if you decide to read the piece for yourself.
Conclusion
It can sometimes be frustrating to see our views continually misrepresented by the NCSE. (We also note that the museum critic spent just more than 3 hours here, when the average museum guest is taking about 4 ½ hours—and many visitors stay much longer—and thus we can see why there are some inaccuracies in his review.) Yet we understand that the very existence of AiG and the Creation Museum threatens the entire worldview advocated by secular humanists such as those at the NCSE, including an atheist like its director, Dr. Eugenie Scott. The creation/evolution controversy is so much more than a debate about science, but rather one over two worldviews that are in conflict: evolutionary humanism vs. biblical Christianity.
We find it ironic that the New York Times (not a friend of biblical Christianity) offered a lengthy opinion (written by its art/museum critic) that the Creation Museum was not boring, contrary to the NCSE author who wrote that “a good portion of the museum was boring.” We would submit that the average visitor—not having an agenda when visiting—would be swept along by the museum’s effective and gripping presentation. Furthermore, the NCSE-contributing columnist misses the point that the Times reporter understood: that the museum goes deeper than arm-wrestling about the “evidences” for evolution or creation; instead, it forces guests to consider the foundations of how science is done, including the biases and presuppositions all of us hold when we look at such a controversial topic in today’s culture wars.
AiG staff member Mike Matthews, who wrote much of the text for the museum (including the scripts for its 50-plus videos, remarked): “I think the real issue with critics of the museum is that the museum holds the mirror of God’s Word to people’s faces and they don’t like what they see.”
Footnotes
1. Page 1, March 26, 2007, Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader (http://www.heraldleader.com/454/story/26286.html).
2. Although read about her error-riddled speech about the Creation Museum that we critiqued at The Genesis Nemesis.
A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 12 Apr, 2021 09:32 AM
Hilarious!!!
David posts a lengthy post to try to prove a point of what???
Quote - 'If you recall NCSE is the Secular Humanist site used by Flat Earth Teddy to prove some of his silly beliefs. Strange how a flat earther would appeal to a as validation of certain philosophical aspects embraced by flat earth idiocy. secular humanist siteUnfortunately the site doesn’t support everything Flat Teddy believes.'
That old Ted was playing the FACTS on David that there are TONS of others that KNOW grabbity (gravity) is NOTHING but a theory! REGARDLESS of what else the 'secular humanist site' has to say that MAY of not be truth! David cannot even agree with everybody in his CULT 'church' and yet he still considers their thoughts he MIGHT learn by???
Then again maybe not, the BULL HEADED swollen GLOBE head David???
David thinks I'm stuuuuupid like him and thinks I have to agree on everything they teach! David MISSES the WHOLE THRUST of my MISSION for the the KILL SHOT that athere are MANY that know that grabbity (gravity) is a hoax and nothing more than an unproven theory!
You just cannot make this stuff up folks how David STILL has his 'head in the sand' of unfounded 'science' of dreams and hallucinations!
A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 12 Apr, 2021 09:54 AM
Note David is very much like a "Secular Humanist" in regards to their beliefs in galaxies, solar system, stars being 'light years' (LOL!) away from us, when the Bible is CLEAR the earth is enclosed! David even believes these 'stars' are many times the size of the earth and therefore nulls and voids prophecy of like John saying they will FALL TO THE stationary level earth! GEESH, David's CULT beliefs make the WORD OF YHWH a disgrace to REAL Creation science, for David is an imposter 'christian' clothed in 'secular globalist teaching' for real!
David hints at 'Creation Science' so lets give him some that disagrees with him! Itrs all tooooooo FUNNNNNNNY!
Keep in mind that TEDDY DOES NOT agree with everything below but to show that MANY disagree with CULTISED David on his SECULAR unproven beliefs of grabbity!
QUOTE -
The Universal Theory of Gravity is often taught in schools as a fact, when in fact it is not even a good theory.
First of all, no one has measured gravity for every atom and every star. It is simply a religious belief that it is "universal".
Secondly, school textbooks routinely make false statements. For example, "the moon goes around the earth." If the theory of gravity were true, it would show that the sun's gravitational force on the moon is much stronger than the earth's gravitational force on the moon, so the moon would go around the sun. Anybody can look up at night and see the obvious gaps in the gravity theory.
The existence of tides is often taken as a proof of gravity, but this is logically flawed. Because if the moon's "gravity" were responsible for a bulge underneath it, then how can anyone explain a high tide on the supposed opposite side of the earth at the same time? Anyone can observe that there are two — not one — high tides every day. It is far more likely that tides were given us by an Intelligent Creator long ago (to keep the oceans shores cleaner with movement in and out!) and they have been with us ever since. In any case, the fact that there are two high tides falsifies gravity.
There are numerous other flaws. For example, astronomers, who seem to have a fetish for gravity, tell us that the moon rotates on its axis but at the same time it always presents the same face to the earth. This is patently absurd. Moreover, if gravity were working on the early earth, then earth would have been bombarded out of existence by falling asteroids, meteors, comets, and other space junk. Furthermore, gravity theory suggests that the planets have been moving in orderly orbits for millions and millions of years, which wholly contradicts the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Since everything in the Universe tends to disorder according to the Second Law, orderly orbits are impossible. This cannot be resolved by pointing to the huge outpouring of energy from the sun. In fact, it is known that the flux of photons from the sun and the "solar wind" actually tends to push earth away.
There are numerous alternative theories that should be taught on an equal basis. For example, the observed behavior of the earth's revolving around the sun can be perfectly explained if the sun has a net positive charge and the planets have a net negative charge, since opposite charges attract and the force is an inverse-square law, exactly as proposed by the increasingly discredited Theory of Gravity. Physics and chemistry texts emphasize that this is the explanation for electrons going around the nucleus, so if it works for atoms, why not for the solar system? The answer is simple: scientific orthodoxy.
The US Patent Office has never issued a patent for anti-gravity. Why is this? According to natural law and homeopathy, everything exists in opposites: good–evil; grace–sin; positive charges–negative charges; north poles–south poles; good vibes–bad vibes; and so on. We know there are anti-evolutionists, so why not anti-gravitationalists? It is clearly a matter of the scientific establishment elite's protecting their own. Anti-gravity papers are routinely rejected from per reviewed journals, and scientists who propose anti-gravity quickly lose their funding. Universal gravity theory is just a way to keep the grant money flowing.
Even Isaac Newton, said to be the discoverer of gravity, knew there were problems with the theory. He claims to have invented the idea early in his life, but he knew that no mathematician of his day would approve his theory, so he invented a whole new branch of mathematics, called fluxions, just to "prove" his theory. This became calculus, a deeply flawed branch having to do with so-called "infinitesimals" which have never been observed. Then when Einstein invented a new theory of gravity, he, too, used an obscure bit of mathematics called tensors. It seems that every time there is a theory of gravity, it is mixed up with fringe mathematics. Newton, by the way, was far from a secular scientist, and the bulk of his writings is actually on theology and Christianity. His dabbling in gravity, alchemy, and calculus was a mere sideline, perhaps an aberration best left forgotten in describing his career and faith in a Creator.
To make matters worse, proponents of gravity theory hypothesize about mysterious things called gravitons and gravity waves. These have never been observed, and when some accounts of detecting gravity waves were published, the physicists involved had to quickly retract them. Every account of anti-gravity and gravity waves quickly elicits laughter. This is not a theory suitable for children. And even children can see how ridiculous it is to imagine that people in Australia are upside down with respect to us, as gravity theory would have it. If this is an example of the predictive power of the theory of gravity, we can see that at the core there is no foundation.
When the planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, he relied on "gravitational calculations". But Tombaugh was a Unitarian, a liberal religious group that supports the Theory of Gravity. The modern-day Unitarian-Universalists continue to rely on liberal notions and dismiss ideas of anti-gravity as heretical. Tombaugh never even attempted to justify his "gravitational calculations" on the basis of Scripture, and he went on to be a founding member of the liberal Unitarian Fellowship of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The theory of gravity violates common sense in many ways. Adherents have a hard time explaining, for instance, why airplanes do not fall. Since anti-gravity is rejected by the scientific establishment, they resort to lots of hand-waving. The theory, if taken seriously, implies that the default position for all airplanes is on the ground. While this seems true for Northwest Airlines, it appears that JetBlue and Southwest have a superior theory that effectively harnesses forces that overcome so-called gravity.
It is unlikely that the "Law of Gravity" will be repealed given the present geo-political climate, but there is no need to teach unfounded theories in the public schools. There is, indeed, evidence that the Theory of Gravity is having a grave effect on morality. Activist judges and left-leaning teachers often use the phrase "what goes up must come down" as a way of describing gravity, and relativists have been quick to apply this to moral standards and common decency.
Finally, the mere name‚ "Universal Theory of Gravity" or "Theory of Universal Gravity" (the secularists like to use confusing language) has a distinctly socialist ring to it. The core idea of "to each according to his weight, from each according to his mass" is communistic. There is no reason that gravity should apply to the just and the unjust equally, and the saved should have relief from such "universalism." If we have Universal Gravity now, then universal health care will be sure to follow. It is this kind of universalism that saps a nation's moral fiber. It is not even clear why we need a theory of gravity: there is not a single mention in the Bible, and the patriotic Founding Fathers never referred to it.
Overall, the Theory of Universal Gravity is just not an attractive theory. It is based on borderline evidence, has many serious gaps in what it claims to explain, is clearly wrong in important respects, and has social and moral deficiencies. If taught in the public schools, by mis-directed "educators", it has to be balanced with alternative, more attractive theories with genuine gravamen and spiritual gravitas.
END QUOTE!
Simple hilarious that David gets OWNED once again in ACTUAL LOGIC and REASONING that makes sense about the religion of grabbity (gravity)!
A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 13 Apr, 2021 01:27 AM
Unless the Spirit is given there is no understanding, that is why the musuem or Kingdom of Heaven is within us..
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 13 Apr, 2021 08:45 AM
QUOTING THE AMAZING ADAM: “Unless the Spirit is given there is no understanding, that is why the musuem or Kingdom of Heaven is within us..” END QUOTE THE AMAZING ADAM
YES, he did said the “museum...is within us..”
So now the Kingdom of Heaven compares to an earthly museum—ok got it
What “spirit” is giving the Amazing Adam such “understanding”??
A science center’s not-so-scientific critique of the Creation Museum
Posted : 13 Apr, 2021 09:34 AM
i have been experiencing more indigestion lately wonder if it's because of the " museum within us " or that three for one special from the flat earth pizza company ??
maybe I should give the latest anti-gravity walking upside down exercise craze sweeping some nations a try -- might disperse some of the gas out of my system
GEESH, David's CULT beliefs make the WORD OF YHWH a disgrace to REAL Creation science, for David is an imposter 'christian' clothed in 'secular globalist teaching' for real! 
