I don't know how many of you know this, but I currently live in Kentucky. There is a Creation Museum here which tries to explain Creationism and many people attend it with their children.

Here is a bunch of photos from the museum, which I did not take, for the curious:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorellana/Cr...directlink#

Some short videos:

Paleontology
Fossilization
How Canyons are Formed
Animatronic Noah

NOTE: These views do not represent the majority of Christians around the world, so this is not telling of Christianity in general. Please keep comments civil.

The pics are interesting.

"God made Adam and Eve on the same day as land animals. So dinosaurs and people lived at the same time."
"Originally, before Adam sinned, all animals - including dinosaurs - were vegetarian"

Wha..

Yes, these Creationists believe that dinosaurs coexisted with humans and were all vegetarians before the fall, because they were good and there existed no death.

It is also worth noting that plants dying does not count as "death," because they have no "lives."

I mean, some of the "arguments" make "sense"....

Bill Maher visits the museum in his documentary about religion, fast forward to 7:45

(the documentary is funny but Maher isn't exactly fair in the way he's edited it, so um, best to chew on some salt while watching)

I'm glad they thoroughly explain things so you really can understand it. Really, I can't even begin to take any of this seriously, it's like a really elaborate joke.
I like the accent on Noah w

It's important to know that this museum is actually very popular and many Americans take it seriously. They travel from all over the country with their children to find support for their beliefs. It is a very real belief for many Americans.

Quote:According to a study published in Science, between 1985 and 2005 the number of adult Americans who accept evolution declined from 45% to 40%, the number of adults who reject evolution declined from 48% to 39% and the number of people who were unsure increased from 7% to 21%.

Quote:According to a 2001 Gallup poll, about 45% of Americans believe that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so." Another 37% believe that "human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process", and 14% believe that "human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process".

Only about half of Americans accept evolution.

the truly disturbing thing about it is not (the scientifically trashed) theories... if someone wants to have faith in the bible, that's up to them. It's even possible to beleive in what the bible says as metaphor which gestures towards other things, which leads to much stronger interpretations anyway. Its the presentation of it as Scientific Fact, and the actual lies that are told about real science. "We all have the same facts, we just interpret them different ways"?!?! ummm no. We have evidence and methods to determine the age of things. Really really really indisputable evidence. The dinosaurs did not exist 4000 years ago.

i swear, everyone who is not stupid should do their bit for the evolution of human beings and have 6 kids.

Smackle Wrote:They travel from all over the country with their children to find support for their beliefs.

If only there was some kind of.. book.. that could serve this purpose.

Maybe it's because of my upbringing, but I find it extremely hard to believe that people who were raised in "developed" countries and have access to an excess of education and information could actually fall for something like this.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:Maybe it's because of my upbringing, but I find it extremely hard to believe that people who were raised in "developed" countries and have access to an excess of education and information could actually fall for something like this.

It's absolutely true. If you make fun of the exhibits, dozens of people will give you the evil eye.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:

Smackle Wrote:They travel from all over the country with their children to find support for their beliefs.

If only there was some kind of.. book.. that could serve this purpose.

Maybe it's because of my upbringing, but I find it extremely hard to believe that people who were raised in "developed" countries and have access to an excess of education and information could actually fall for something like this.

That's just the thing, many of the kids in america don't have access to proper education. Half of the teachers in public schools don't "believe" in science. Not to mention the parents of the children are telling them not to believe what "the world" tells them.

Edit for mistakes.

~2348 BC.

nest0r Wrote:~2348 BC.

For those of you not in the know, that is when Ussher chronology says Noah's flood occurs, so it pops up a lot in these images.

To think, this could all be solved just by teaching some simple spatial reasoning skills. Just a little bit of picking at the frayed threads in the Flood story, and before you know it the entire sweater crumbles.

The biggest flaw in the Noah flood story is fish and aquatic animals. God wiped out all the animals and saved 2 of each, except for fish and ducks and walruses and crabs, which he saved all of. The world must be filled with evil aquatics.

Apparently "Scientists are puzzled about how so many finch species could arise". http://picasaweb.google.com/aorellana/Cr...9791418354

If only we could get our tiny science brains around the concepts of sym- and allopatric speciation. But we can't! We're so puzzled. Thank the Lord for the Bible.

Blahah Wrote:If only we could get our tiny science brains around the concepts of sym- and allopatric speciation. But we can't! We're so puzzled. Thank the Lord for the Bible.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorellana/Cr...4335797858
Human reasoning is a squiggly line. Just don't really try reasoning at all.

I grew up in Japanese and/or Asian communities while growing up around Silicon Valley (San Francisco), so I've never been exposed to much Christianity. So not believing in it was never hard for me. How about the many of you, showing negative view points, were raised Christian, and later left it?

Also the opposite, how many weren't raised Christian, then converted?

I personally have had almost only bad experience with Christians (being yelled and screamed that I'm going to hell, being followed until I take a bible, etc), but I'm smart enough to realize these are probably the minority (a very noisy minority).

Grinkers Wrote:I grew up in Japanese and/or Asian communities while growing up around Silicon Valley (San Francisco), so I've never been exposed to much Christianity. So not believing in it was never hard for me. How about the many of you, showing negative view points, were raised Christian, and later left it?

Also the opposite, how many weren't raised Christian, then converted?

I personally have had almost only bad experience with Christians (being yelled and screamed that I'm going to hell, being followed until I take a bible, etc), but I'm smart enough to realize these are probably the minority (a very noisy minority).

I personally was never Christian, though everyone else I knew practically was. Again, I have to stress that this is not a general Christian thing. Many, many Christians reject the idea of Creationism.

Of the Christians I've met (that weren't yelling at me), they've all been very practical/logical. I also have a feeling I've met a lot more of these kind of people than I know about, simply because they aren't shouting and screaming it.

It's interesting to me, because I've never seen the "50% don't believe in evolution" communities. It's probably something more like 10% communities, and 90% communities, averaged out?

Grinkers Wrote:I grew up in Japanese and/or Asian communities while growing up around Silicon Valley (San Francisco), so I've never been exposed to much Christianity. So not believing in it was never hard for me. How about the many of you, showing negative view points, were raised Christian, and later left it?

Also the opposite, how many weren't raised Christian, then converted?

I personally have had almost only bad experience with Christians (being yelled and screamed that I'm going to hell, being followed until I take a bible, etc), but I'm smart enough to realize these are probably the minority (a very noisy minority).

I was raised Christian, I suppose, though I don't think I ever really bought any of it. I just went through the motions for years, and always hated Sundays because I had to wear stupid fancy clothes and be bored for two hours. Then I stopped pretty much as soon as I was on my own.

Of course, the kind of Christian I'm talking about isn't the same kind of Christian as these people. They were Methodists, granted, so they were crazy, but not this crazy. I think my dad might not believe in evolution, but that's probably because he suspects Al Gore has something to do with it, and not because of "God said so".

There's been a lot of articles on 'denialism' lately: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20...truth.html (From series: http://www.newscientist.com/special/living-in-denial)

Also:

Students' Perceptions of Earth's Age Influence Acceptance of Human Evolution

"High school and college students who understand the geological age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) are much more likely to understand and accept human evolution, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the March issue of the journal Evolution."

Wow, and I thought it was just a joke from The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/creatio...x-skel,13/

"Only about half of Americans accept evolution"

Just curious - where is this information is coming from?

TaylorSan Wrote:"Only about half of Americans accept evolution"

Just curious - where is this information is coming from?

Well, I quoted two polls, but in case you want to read the whole thing...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/su...3/5788/765 (Requires subscription)

http://www.gallup.com/poll/14107/Third-A...heory.aspx