# "creation" Museum Opens: USA a Laughingstock? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 30, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078 "2007-05-30T16:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/41 "2007-05-30T23:13:01Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] [One of them is opening in Alberta](http://www.bvcsm.com/) – I won’t say Canada out of embarrassment. And people wonder why I am concerned about American culture seeping into Canada. [/QUOTE] Grand opening in July: > [@Alberta creato-turds](#): > > [http://www.bvcsm.com/](http://www.bvcsm.com/) Grand Opening celebrations for July 7, 2007. Just remember 7/7/7, begins at 11 am! Clearly, the cousin of the Beast. ---
**Author:** ![Hubert\_Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hubert\_Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hubert_Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/42 "2007-05-30T23:34:25Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] [One of them is opening in Alberta](http://www.bvcsm.com/) – I won’t say Canada out of embarrassment. And people wonder why I am concerned about American culture seeping into Canada. [/QUOTE] I wonder if the U.S. would be interested in trading us a few northern states in exchange for Alberta? ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/43 "2007-05-30T23:54:05Z")
> [@article](#): > > On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, “I’d give it a 4 for technology, 5 for propaganda,” Krauss said. “As for content, I’d give it a negative 5.” This quote right here, for me, is worth the 27 million they spent. ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/44 "2007-05-31T00:35:45Z")
I really want to see the terrified look on Noah’s face when he realizes there are _TWO SCARY FUCKING MONSTERS_ on his boat. Will there be dinosaur poop on his boat? ---
**Author:** ![Hubert\_Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hubert\_Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hubert_Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/45 "2007-05-31T02:02:29Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] I really want to see the terrified look on Noah’s face when he realizes there are _TWO SCARY FUCKING MONSTERS_ on his boat. Will there be dinosaur poop on his boat? [/QUOTE] I always thought Noah had some kind of telepathic power over the animals to keep them from eating him. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/46 "2007-05-31T02:59:02Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Eh, they have the Vatican to deal with, I’ll take a creation museum any day. [/QUOTE] Not even the Roman Catholic Church is this absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/47 "2007-05-31T03:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] There are times when you have to stop and wonder-how stupid can people be? I caught a bit about the new “Creation” museum , that just opened up to paying customers 9sorry, don’t have link). P.T. barnum would be proud! Exhibits show humans coexisting with dinosaurs! And i guess there are also scientific proofs of the “young” earth. The Europeans must be laughing their heads off! Anybody know who funded this disgrace? [/QUOTE] All of the posts upthread are way too cynical and dismissive. I have absolutely positively got to see this sucker. I am not kidding; it is on the top of my vacation musts right now, except for golf. I am going with an open attitude (well; that’s a bit of a lie, but I am not going to mock). I am absolutely staggered it actually got built and the whole thing is sort of surreal–both the exhibits, and, I expect, the museum-goers. I am all over this thing. If anyone has been, how about an overview? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/48 "2007-05-31T03:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=Hubert Cumberdale] I wonder if the U.S. would be interested in trading us a few northern states in exchange for Alberta? [/QUOTE] No, but we’ll gladly give up Texas! Then again . . . Texas, Alberta . . . tomayto, tomahto . . . ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/49 "2007-05-31T03:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Hubert Cumberdale] I always thought Noah had some kind of telepathic power over the animals to keep them from eating him. [/QUOTE] **Him,** perhaps, but not necessarily each other. [gary larson] NOAH: Well, so much for the unicorns! From now on, all carnivores will be confined to “C” deck! [/gl] ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/50 "2007-05-31T04:07:04Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Not even the Roman Catholic Church is this absurd. [/QUOTE] They make up for it in volume. \ I had a long rambling thing going that mentioned [talkorigins.org](http://talkorigins.org) and used some big words (one of almost 4 syllables), but it was pretty boring and really far too pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/51 "2007-05-31T04:53:37Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] In the TV clip, they showed a fundamentalist preacher proclaiming how the "museum’ would provide the "answers’ for belivers! What a crock! How about a museum that proves the earth is flat? [/QUOTE] But the believers don’t need answers – they already believe. It’s just right there, in their handy-dandy little Bible. The museum isn’t to \*provide \* answers, it’s to reinforce the simplistic, dim-bulb viewpoint they already hold. It isn’t enough to have a church, a preacher, a Bible, some music, and a ritual. They need 3-D displays to show them exactly what they cannot, in their own minds, envision. That makes it real. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/52 "2007-05-31T10:32:43Z")
Religion provides a pretty good reason for being embarrassed to be a human. Of course, being an American one offers all sorts of even more extreme reasons. In just a couple years, we Americans get to celebrate the 40th anniversary of putting men on the Moon. There is no celebration that is sufficiently wry to note the variety of smart and stupid we are. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/53 "2007-05-31T15:05:02Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd] Christian _Fundamentalism_ is an American baby. As a movement it started with New Jersey Presbyterians and then branched out. The fundamentalist identity solidified with the publication of _The Fundamentals_ in the early twentieth century by the Los Angeles Bible Institute. It became highly politicized in the 70s with Falwell’s Moral Majority. Yeah, we have Fundamentalists up here, too - but it really is due to American influence. [/QUOTE] You have to define fundamentalism very narrowly to make this true. Puritans, inquisitions, burnings of heretics and witches, the Bonfire of the Vanities and on and on would all qualify as Christian fundamentalism in my book and they all preceded the creation of the US. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/54 "2007-05-31T15:07:24Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] I really want to see the terrified look on Noah’s face when he realizes there are _TWO SCARY FUCKING MONSTERS_ on his boat. Will there be dinosaur poop on his boat? [/QUOTE] That’s easy, because some animals hibernate, so they all did. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/55 "2007-05-31T15:30:47Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Lance Murdoch] You have to define fundamentalism very narrowly to make this true. Puritans, inquisitions, burnings of heretics and witches, the Bonfire of the Vanities and on and on would all qualify as Christian fundamentalism in my book and they all preceded the creation of the US. [/QUOTE] Christian Fundamentalism _thrives_ on narrow definitions. It’s a Protestant movement from the 19th century, holding that the Bible is literally true. (See “Inerrancy of Scripture.”) Of course, most Protestants are not Fundamentalists. And not all Fundamentalists are politically active. The RC Church has always held that the Bible should be interpreted–not taken literally. Fundamentalists tend to be anti-Catholic. And anti-many-other-groups–including other Protestants who don’t think the “right” way. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/56 "2007-05-31T15:36:14Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] I’m embarrassed for my country. To me, believing in the literal truth of the Biblical creation story puts you on the far side of the line that separates the smart from the not-so-smart. And then to build a museum celebrating your not-so-smart status? Cringeworthy, frankly. [/QUOTE] It isn’t a national museum. I can certainly understand being embarassed for the crackpots, but why for the country? Isn’t letting the crackpots have their park even though a whole lot of people think it’s ridiculous one of the good things about the US? I wonder what the most popular souvenir is. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/57 "2007-05-31T16:00:28Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] [One of them is opening in Alberta](http://www.bvcsm.com/) – I won’t say Canada out of embarrassment. [/QUOTE] Hm. You know, I’ve been to Big Valley, Alberta (the location of this creation museum) a few times. When my Dad’s been in town, I’ve taken him there to see the steam train that the link refers to. Anyway, despite the name, Big Valley is a small town you can see all of in a ten-minute walk. And for all their “close to the Royal Tyrrell Paleontology Museum” rhetoric, it’s actually kind of remote–about two hours from Calgary, and an hour or so from Drumheller. I can’t see them attracting many people from either one. True believers will undoubtedly go, but I can’t see many others making the trip. And for those skeptics, sinners, or the just plain uninterested who do find themselves there, Big Valley does boast a rather nice barroom in the town’s only hotel: plenty of cold beer, VLTs to gamble on, and the devil’s music on the jukebox. It seems to be a popular place, so not all Big Valleyites are religious nuts. I may pay the bar a visit on my next trip to Big Valley, but I think I’ll give its creation museum a pass. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/58 "2007-05-31T17:32:18Z")
I read [Salon.com’s](http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/31/creation_museum/) article on the museum this morning, and while I trust Salon much further than most mainstream news outlets, I’m a little puzzled by one assertion in the article: > [@](#): > > Recent polls show that 40 percent of all Americans would feel at home with the views put forth in the Creation Museum. Only about an equal percentage accept the underlying message of the country’s mainstream science museums. Only 39 percent answer yes to the question, “Do you believe that human beings as we know them developed from earlier species of animals?” If I read that paragraph correctly (always a dicey proposition), it totes up to about 119%. But the bigger question is about the accuracy of the statement that 40% of Americans “would feel at home with the views put forth in the Creation Museum.” That tells me just under half of Americans believe in a literal reading of the Bible. Does anyone have a reliable source that addresses this? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/59 "2007-05-31T17:50:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sunrazor] If I read that paragraph correctly (always a dicey proposition), it totes up to about 119%. [/QUOTE] As I read it, it means they asked “Do you believe human beings developed from an earlier species,” and 40% said “No,” 39% said “Yes,” and 21% said “Not sure.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078/60 "2007-05-31T19:23:14Z")
I see now – the two sentences (“about an equal percentage” and “39%”) refer to the same group. Still, it’s a little disappointing to see 40 percent believing in a literal meaning of the Bible. And I think that’s a little high, frankly. I’d like to see some reference to the source for that number. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creation-museum-opens-usa-a-laughingstock/406078.md?page=4)