Scalzi wasn’t the only one to visit the Creation Museum! Scientist Tom Robey paid a visit, and found a 500 million year-old fossil in the nearby Wal-Mart parking lot.
I hedged my bets that I could find something good if I sought out that beacon of American consumption. I was hoping for something like I bought as a 10 year old from the Field Museum of Natural History. I wasn’t disappointed with the 45 minutes I spent scrambling over clay-slickened rocks behind the bargain center’s loading dock…In under an hour, I had unearthed ample evidence of life extinct for more than 500 million years
And I didn’t know this. The Creation Museum is built atop one of the richest fossil beds in the world. Imagine that!
r€nato
It’s just more evidence of God testing our faith.
Notorious P.A.T.
The Creation Museum is built atop one of the richest fossil beds in the world.
No, you meant to say “atop one of the largest concentrations of Satan-planted false evidence” in the world.
r€nato
Flying Spaghetti Monster sure groks irony.
SP
I just watched “Inherit the Wind” last night on TCM. How sad that we still haven’t really advanced that much in 80 years. Mike Hukabeeee boils it down nicely ” Science is always changing. God’s word doesnt change, and I’ll stick with God’s words”
r€nato
I disagree, SP. We HAVE advanced on the teaching of evolution in our schools. In some areas it’s controversial, in some areas there are a significant minority of hardline Christian Taliban who still want their kids taught Noah’s Ark fairy tales, but pretty much every public school these days teaches evolution in biology classes.
The IDiots are reduced to pathetic rear-guard actions. It’s a shame we still have so much ignorance with us, but I’m not going to wring my hands too much over it. When the day comes that we’re fighting school boards all over the country (not just isolated ones here and there) to get evolution taught, let me know.
Notorious P.A.T.
Science is always changing. God’s word doesnt change, and I’ll stick with God’s words
Heheh, that’s for sure.
200 years ago: “The Bible condones slavery”
Today: “The Bible does not condone slavery! How dare you say so!”
500 years ago: “Women bad! After all, Eve caused the downfall of man.”
Today: “Everyone is welcome in God’s church!”
1000 years ago: “Everyone knows the sun travels around the Earth! Just like in the Bible”
Today: “No one ever said the Church teaches the sun travels around the Earth! Don’t be silly!”
etc. etc. etc.
r€nato
God’s word may not change, but human beings are constantly changing the words they put in His mouth.
MobiusKlein
Doesn’t the Bible have a lot more parts about compassion for the poor, sick, and oppressed than parts about paleontology?
Certainly seems like the better approach for Christians would be “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar.” regarding science.
r€nato
are you suggesting that baby Jesus was a socialist, or worse, a Democrat? Heresy!
r€nato
there’s a Wal-Mart by the Creation Ignorance Museum? Well, I guess they know their demographic.
SP
Matthew Harrison Brady: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!
Henry Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one thing that sets above the other animals? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse stronger and swifter, the butterfly more beautiful, the mosquito more prolific, even the sponge is more durable. Or does a sponge think?
Matthew Harrison Brady: I don’t know. I’m a man, not a sponge!
Henry Drummond: Do you think a sponge thinks?
Matthew Harrison Brady: If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!
Henry Drummond: Does a man have the same privilege as a sponge?
Matthew Harrison Brady: Of course!
Henry Drummond: [Gesturing towards the defendant, Bertram Cates] Then this man wishes to have the same privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!
Tom Hilton
That guy probably forged the ‘fossils’ himself and then planted them there. You can’t trust anything a godless Darwinist says, because without God to rain hellfire on them there’s nothing at all to restrain them from lying (or any other immoral conduct, for that matter).
(Yeah, I’m being snarky…but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some wingnut say exactly that.)
Notorious P.A.T.
Doesn’t the Bible have a lot more parts about compassion for the poor, sick, and oppressed than parts about paleontology?
The problem is, it states explicitly in scripture that believers can’t pick and choose, they have to believe it all. No exceptions. So an attack against “Earth was created in 6 days” is the same as an attack against Jesus being divine.
And yes, there is some nice stuff in there about helping people (nothing we couldn’t figure out on our own) which is all well and good, but when that content is overwhelmed with a “loving” god who is constantly smiting, destroying, and even torturing people, you begin to see where the authors’ heads were really at.
Ed Drone
”Science is always changing. God’s word doesn’t change, and I’ll stick with God’s words. [Mike Huckabee]”
If I slapped Huckabee on his right cheek, would he turn to me his left? Is he a peace-maker? Does he pray loudly in the center of the temple, or quietly, in a closet?
He talks the talk, does he walk the walk?
Ed
r€nato
I’m agnostic, but I’ve always believed that evolution and religious faith are not mutually exclusive. After all, we have discovered laws of physics and gravity. These are rules by which our physical world operates. Acknowledging these laws does not in any way negate the existence of a deity.
Why isn’t it possible that, in much the same way, evolution describes the ‘rules’ by which life evolves? Evolution – and all of science – addresses ‘how does that happen’, not ‘why is it that way’?
The ‘why’ is a matter more for philosophers and metaphysicists. It’s only the insistence on treating the Bible as literally true and as a science text which creates this artificial conflict where none need exist. IDiots conveniently overlook how their literalist interpretation overlooks other areas where the Bible is scientifically incorrect.
r€nato
…of course, most Catholics and the Catholic church itself have no problem with evolution, because they don’t treat the Bible as a 100% literal text.
So, this is just more religiocentrism from the god-botherers who consider Papists as cult members.
LITBMueller
Silly heathen! Everyone knows that the “fossil record” is complete BS. All those bones were created by an Intelligent Designer at the exact same time about 2000 years ago. The so-called “scientists” are all confused about the fossils being at certain levels within the soil, and say that shows they are certain ages. Hah!
The only reason those “fossils” are down there is ‘cuz of that other “theory,” Gravity…
…which, of course, is due to Intelligent Pull.
Bombadil
The Bible was written by people who didn’t understand the mechanics of rainfall. Nothing in the book that purports to explain the natural world is worth the paper it’s printed on.
Tony J
Clearly this guy, as a fully paid-up member of the Islamoscientist Conspiracy, already had a bone to pick with the Flinstone Museum before he went there. Why is it surprising that he gets there and – lo and behold – ‘finds’ a bone. That’s kind of his job, isn’t it?
Anyway, me and some friends tried replicating his experiment by digging up my driveway using only our bare hands and we proved that you couldn’t get through the concrete in less than an hour. This joker did it on his own? In 45 minutes? Not a chance.
Case closed.
r€nato
do you mean to tell me that rainfall is not caused by God’s tears due to the sinning of mankind?
and that hurricanes are not caused by God’s wrath but rather by a cycle of warm, moist air from the ocean surface rapidly rising up and encountering cooler wind, which draws heat from the ocean up into the atmosphere?
Heathen!
Michael D.
Deep Thoughts By Jack Handy:
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is “Probably because of something you did.”
Punchy
Fuck Wal-Mart. If I wanted to find fossils in a parking lot, I’d hit Bingo nite at the 1st Presby down the street. All rollin’ up in their Buick Park Avys and Licoln Mark 7s….
Trevor B
If anyone thinks creationism (intelligent design) is science please watch this NOVA presentation it will probably set you straight. This is a really great program about Intelligent design in a school system
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/
Tony J
And if he still won’t stop pestering you, just tell him “It’s all Clinton’s fault” and walk away.
It’s not cute, but it’s got the weight of tradition behind it.
Cindrella Ferret
Here is a link to a great video about the rich fossil beds near the Creation “Museum.”
Finnegan
This is a great way to illustrate the conceptual inanity of the creation museum. Unfortunately, its not entirely true. The fossil illustrated in the article definitely did not come from any rocks around Petersburg -it is a trilobite species called Elrathia kingii, which is found ONLY in the House Range of western Utah. These fossils are commercially mined and sold by the thousands in rock shops all over the world. The rocks around Petersburg are extremely richly fossiliferous, but they are actually about 450 million years old (Ordovician), not “more than 500 million” (Cambrian). Let’s try not to be so sloppy, OK? There is plenty of ammunition to be used against the creationists without fudging the data.
Notorious P.A.T.
Why isn’t it possible that, in much the same way, evolution describes the ‘rules’ by which life evolves? Evolution – and all of science – addresses ‘how does that happen’, not ‘why is it that way’?
But there is no “why” implied by evolution. Asking why organisms that are better suited to their environment have more offspring than others is like asking why 1 plus 1 equals 2; the question answers itself.
If someone walked up to me and punched me in the nose, I would rightly ask them why they did that, because it would in no way be obvious. But looking at evolutionary theory, there is no corresponding “why”.
Also, trying to assign science and religion their own separate cubicles ignores the fact that religions have always claimed the whole enchilada for themselves. No scripture that I’m aware of says “God created the world in such-and-such a manner, unless scientists discover otherwise, which would be cool with us”.
Ed Drone
It occurs to me that the existence of fossils means something very disturbing:
God pawned a used earth on humankind. All those fossils and such came from its use by the prior tenants.
So the earth is very old, but man is young. Nothing in the Biblical story about the creation says there was no intervening period between day five and six. If we can call an arbitrary day, “Day One,” then God can call any name he wants “Day One,” and can name a “Day Two” anytime he wants to. In fact, there probably wasn’t anything such as “time” until at least Day Three.
Ed
D-Chance.
This is why Wal-Mart rules. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, Wal-Mart probably has it…
slippytoad
Actually, Kentucky has a very lively fossil bed underneath it all, because 500 million years ago Kentucky was under an OCEAN.
My wife works at an outdoor education facility and they’re always digging trilobites out of the clay around here.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Ooooh, trilobites.
Here is a truly excellent site about trilobites. Far more fascinating than coconut-chomping T. rexes.
G in Indiana
My back yard is full of this stuff, even older since our stream cuts a lot deeper into the bedrock of shale than where that WalMart is. Go to the Falls of Ohio website or park and you can take a tour showing you exactly what Robey is talking about. Cool place!