Cook's museum of natural pseudoscience (credit, house, high school)

[CoreLysium]

Wow, all this controversey about the old Cook's museum.

It all boils down to:
- It's private property. They can have whatever displays they want.
- It's freedom of speech. You can complain about it however you want.

I've never been. I don't plan on going, even though it's free. But the new location won't be free.

I heard the new museum was going to change it up and have an islamic slant.

(I kid, I kid.)

[writerwife]

Would some creature crawling out of the primordial slime and becoming a primate and then a caveman and then what we are now be better "science"? "Theory"

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by writerwife

Would some creature crawling out of the primordial slime and becoming a primate and then a caveman and then what we are now be better "science"? "Theory"

Yes.........

[writerwife]

No proof.

[harry chickpea]

"What you may not understand is that there is a very determined contingent of creationists that want their religious theory taught alongside the theory of evolution in public school science classrooms."

What you may not understand is that there is a very determined contingent of global warming proponents that want their religious theory taught alongside the theory of evolution in public school science classrooms.

What you may not understand is that there is a very determined contingent of animal rights activists that want their religious theory taught alongside the theory of evolution in public school science classrooms.

What you may not understand is that there is a very determined contingent of anti-gun activists that want their religious theory taught alongside the theory of evolution in public school science classrooms.

Most kids see through the idea of a literal translation of the (current) Bible once they have a few pictures in front of them. I was five years old when I freaked out because I thought my Babble school teacher had escaped from the local asylum as she seriously told about Jonah living in a whale. (I was already familiar with whale anatomy thanks to National Geographic). Kids are less likely to see through the other twistings of reality. The negative influence of Creationists warping kids is far less than that of Disney, that would have people believe giant mice are a good thing, girls grow up to be princesses, boys have superhuman strength, and the right of the public to copyright expiration is trumped by the right of billion dollar companies to withhold those rights by buying Congress. At least Cooks kill mice.

[catfishin2000]

A field trip to Cook's is almost a rite of passage for school kids in North Alabama. Kid's like bugs. Period. Why get all wound up about a few bible verses? This is Alabama. We are in the bible belt. We are conservative and mostly Christian. Deal with it.

[JakeWilliams]

Interesting. You are sure getting spun up over nothing.

I went there on a field trip almost exactly a year ago and did not consider it a creationist museum at all. There may have been a bible verse or two but I honestly don't remember any. Being an Atheist I typically notice those things. Comparing it to the McWane is a laugh. If they get close to Sci-Quest it would be great for Decatur and a huge improvement over the current museum. It would take a lot for me to pay money to go there, the current museum was worth the lack of admission.

The new director of the science museum seems to have a good pedigree at a real science museum. Maybe they hired Marsh because he made good exhibits, even if they are full of BS?

[CoreLysium]

Originally Posted by JakeWilliams

...the current museum was worth the lack of admission.

Very well said.

[zenjenn]

I'm glad to hear that Jake. I am not at all one to get up in arms over references to religion in school, but if public schools were taking kids to an actual Creationist museum, I'd find that seriously problematic.

I took my kids to De Sotto Caverns once and the tour had a lot of young Earth creationist stuff and religious content. I was there as a private individual but I believe they said they did public school tours.. I was shocked. :/ But when I got home I looked on their web site and it looks like they had science-based materials. Idk.. maybe we just got the religious spin and public schools get something different.

And really, I don't argue with people on most points of theology, but I have trouble with the twisted approach to observable science as somehow backing up young earth Creationism. It's really weird. I've met people who say "I believe the world is 6,000 years old, and God just created a ready-made world locked in a certain moment in its development", in other words, God snapped everything into existence with the strata and the fossils and the whole bit already intact. I seriously won't argue that. Point of faith. Fine!

But when the guy at the cave tried to explain to my kids that stalagmite/stalatite growth only slows down to observable rates when it's exposed to humans, and prior to human exposure they were growing way faster..... seriously. What?

[writerwife]

That's funny.. when I went to DeSoto nothing like that was ever mentioned at all, not even once. I wonder if it's just the difference between the individual guides.