Riding Dinosaurs

(Note: This post is a follow-up to the excellent piece that Daniel Phelps, President of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, wrote about the "Anti-Museum" (aka Creation Museum), as well as his disturbing discovery concerning the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau, as discussed below.)

If some people want to believe that humans once put saddles on the back of dinosaurs and rode them (per the display at left from the Creation Museum), well, knock yourself out. I'm sure they're one of those rare voting blocks that Governor Fletcher (R) has in his pocket.

But when legislatively-created agencies like the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau start pimping a place that promotes the fraudulent notion that humans and dinosaurs once happily co-habitation -- and where we rode them like something straight of The Flintstones -- well, I do have a problem with that.

Here's a page directly from the Bureau's website:

The 50,000 sq. ft. Creation Museum located within the greater Cincinnati area will proclaim the Bible as supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice in every area it touches on. Set to open in June 2007, this “walk through history” museum will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture.

According to this legislatively-created group we're told that national history museums "turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture." Got that?

After doing a little research, I learned that the President and CEO of the Bureau is a gentleman named Thomas P. Caradonio. Aside from the offensive proselytizing of his organization's depiction of the whackjob museum, I also noted that Caradonio was just appointed by Governor Fletcher as the Chairman of Kentucky's Tourism Development Finance Authority, a public agency that is charged to "assist small tourism attractions obtain financing necessary for the development or expansion of small tourism attractions."

So I guess this begs the question whether the Caradonio-led Tourism Development Finance Authority will be recruiting and spending valuable state dollars in trying to bring more Creation Museums to Kentucky while shunning others who his group accuses of shunning of Jesus Christ and Scripture?

Seems like another sad black mark on a state that spends so much money trying woo high-tech companies (i.e., those whose business models are firmly rooting in the very science its leadership mocks) to relocate to Kentucky while blasting those of us who (gasp) rely on science to explain things in our history...

Maybe we can just change the Unbridled Spirit logo to this:

 

Comments

[kycobb]

Looks like they are at least willing to give equal time to those godless scientists; there is also a page for the Cincinnati Museum Center, which includes the Museum of Natural History and Science. Strangely, that pade doesn't mention that part of its mission is to "turn minds against Christ and scripture."

[davidunn]

Flintstones creationist theology is derived from footnotes found in reference Bibles. To Flintstone creationists, footnotes are revered as scripture.

Archbishop James Ussher, in the seventeenth century, said that the date of the creation of the world was Sunday, October 3, 4004 BC.

Ussher's footnotes also said that Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden on Monday, November 10, 4004 BC.

Ussher further said that Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat, Wednesday, May 5, 1491 BC.

So, armed with this information, Flintstone creationists figured the earth to be some 6,000 years old.

Under the Bush administration, the Grand Canyon's development has to fit within this time frame.

Anything that doesn't fit within this time frame is considered heresy.

Under Fletcher's Flintstone creation theology, coal would only be 6,000 years old. That's hardly enough time for it to develop so it can be pollution free.

So, cancel the special session. Tell Peabody Coal that they'll have to leave the coal lie fallow for at least another 6,000 years. Then maybe it can be resurrected and converted into a pollution-free form of liquid.

[taylordog]

This is an obvious violation of separation of church and state. Someone should tell the ACLU-KY.