This video from Britain about the USA is called creationist museum.
From the American Institute of Biological Sciences in the USA:
Vertebrate Paleontologists Blast Creation Museum
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the leading North American scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, recently released a statement of concern about the newly opened Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. The statement begins:
“Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a ‘reasoned, logical defense’ for young-earth creationism by Ken Ham, President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disprove[d] for over a century.”
“The Creation Museum’s fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive, include a vast number of scientific errors, large and small. These errors range from implying that the Earth’s sedimentary rocks were deposited by a single biblical Flood, to claiming that humans and dinosaurs lived alongside one another, to denouncing the reality of transitional fossils.”
The statement continues with specific criticisms that detail how the exhibits at the museum “discount the last 150 years of paleontological and geological discovery” and includes comments from a number of the society’s leading paleontologists.
The Creation Museum, one year on: here.
Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, has announced that his latest venture, Ark Encounter, is facing dire financial difficulties. With quick visit to the Creation Museum website, the first words you run into are “Prepare to Believe”. If you don’t mind swallowing a little bullshit, you too can believe: here.
Turkish millionaire creationist “Harun Yahya”: here.
Art exhibition on religious fundamentalism: here.
Related articles
Council of Europe firmly opposes creationism in school
Thu Oct 4, 2007 2:05pm EDT
Council of Europe to vote on creationism next week
By Gilbert Reilhac
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – Europe’s main human rights body voted on Thursday to urge schools across the continent to firmly oppose the teaching of creationist and “intelligent design” views in their science classes.
The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted “in forms of religious extremism” and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights.
The text said European schools should “resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion”. It said the “intelligent design” view defended by some United States conservatives was an updated version of creationism.
Creationism says God made the world in six days as depicted in the Bible. Intelligent design argues some life forms are too complex to have evolved according to Charles Darwin’s theory and needed an unnamed higher intelligence to develop as they have.
Anne Brasseur, an Assembly member from Luxembourg who updated an earlier draft resolution, said the report showed how creationists — most recently a shadowy Turkish Muslim writer Harun Yahya — were trying to infiltrate European schools.
“The purpose of this report is to warn against the attempt to pass off a belief — creationism — as a science and to teach the theses of this belief in science classes,” she said. “Its purpose is not to fight any belief.”
The vote was due in June but was postponed because some members felt the original text amounted to an attack on religious belief. A few changes were made to spell out that it was not directed against religion.
The Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, oversees human rights standards in member states and enforces decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
The resolution, which passed 48 votes to 25 with 3 abstentions, is not binding on the Council’s 47 member states but reflects widespread opposition among politicians to teaching creationism in science class.
Some conservatives in the United States, both religious and secular, have long opposed the teaching of evolution in public schools but U.S. courts have regularly barred them from teaching what they describe as religious views of creation.
Pressure to teach creationism is weaker in Europe, but has been mounting. An Assembly committee took up the issue because Harun Yahya has been sending his lavish Islamic creationist book “Atlas of Creation” to schools in several countries.
Supporters of intelligent design want it taught in science class alongside evolution. A U.S. court ruled this out in a landmark decision in 2005, dismissing it as “neo-creationism.”
Public release date: 23-Oct-2007
Contact: Aeron Haworth
aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk
44-161-275-8383
University of Manchester
St. Bernard study casts doubt on creationism
The St Bernard dog – named after the 11th century priest Bernard of Menthon – may have ironically challenged the theory of creationism, say scientists.
Biologists at The University of Manchester say that changes to the shape of the breed’s head over the years can only be explained through evolution and natural selection.
The team, led by Dr Chris Klingenberg in the Faculty of Life Sciences, examined the skulls of 47 St Bernards spanning 120 years, from modern examples to those of dogs dating back to the time when the breed standard was first defined.
“We discovered that features stipulated in the breed standard of the St Bernard became more exaggerated over time as breeders selected dogs that had the desired physical attributes,” said Dr Klingenberg.
“In effect they have applied selection to move the evolutionary process a considerable way forward, providing a unique opportunity to observe sustained evolutionary change under known selective pressures.”
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences tomorrow (Wednesday), are based on studies of St Bernard skulls donated by Swiss breeders to the Natural History Museum in Berne.
Compared to their ancestors, modern St Bernards have broader skulls, while the angle between the nose and the forehead is steeper in modern dogs and they have also developed a more pronounced ridge above the eyes.
“These changes are exactly in those features described as desirable in the breed standards. They are clearly not due to other factors such as general growth and they provide the animal with no physical advantage, so we can be confident that they have evolved purely through the selective considerations of breeders.
“Creationism is the belief that all living organisms were created according to Genesis in six days by ‘intelligent design’ and rejects the scientific theories of natural selection and evolution.
“But this research once again demonstrates how selection – whether natural or, in this case, artificially influenced by man – is the fundamental driving force behind the evolution of life on the planet.”
###
The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/uom-sbs102307.php
Texas science curriculum director resigns, blames “creationism polit
Posted by: “bigraccoon” bigraccoon@earthlink.net redwoodsaurus
Sat Dec 1, 2007 11:12 am (PST)
AUSTIN STATESMAN
November 30, 2007
Texas Science Curriculum Director Resigns, Says Creationism Politics To Blame
by Laura Heinauer
The state’s director of science curriculum has resigned after
being accused of creating the appearance of bias against
teaching intelligent design.
Chris Comer, who has been the Texas Education Agency’s
director of science curriculum for more than nine years,
offered her resignation this month.
In documents obtained Wednesday through the Texas Public
Information Act, agency officials said they recommended
firing Comer for repeated acts of misconduct and
insubordination. But Comer said she thinks political concerns
about the teaching of creationism in schools were behind
what she describes as a forced resignation.
Agency officials declined to comment, saying it was a
personnel issue.
Comer was put on 30 days paid administrative leave shortly
after she forwarded an e-mail in late October announcing a
presentation being given by Barbara Forrest, author of
“Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse,” a book that says
creationist politics are behind the movement to get
intelligent design theory taught in public schools. Forrest
was also a key witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case
concerning the introduction of intelligent design in a
Pennsylvania school district. Comer sent the e-mail to several
individuals and a few online communities, saying, “FYI.”
Agency officials cited the e-mail in a memo recommending her
termination. They said forwarding the e-mail not only violated
a directive for her not to communicate in writing or otherwise
with anyone outside the agency regarding an upcoming
science curriculum review, “it directly conflicts with her
responsibilities as the Director of Science.”
The memo adds, “Ms. Comer’s e-mail implies endorsement of
the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s
position on a subject on which the agency must remain
neutral.”
In addition to the e-mail, the memo lists other reasons for
recommending termination, including Comer’s failure to get
prior approval to give a presentation and attend an off-site
meeting after she was told in writing this year that there
were concerns about her involvement with work outside the
agency.
It also criticized Comer for allegedly saying that then-acting
Commissioner Robert Scott was “only acting commissioner
and that there was no real leadership at the agency.”
Comer, who hadn’t spoken about her resignation publicly
until Wednesday, said she thinks politics about evolution
were behind her firing.
“None of the other reasons they gave are, in and of
themselves, firing offenses,” she said. Comer said her
comments about Scott, who eventually received the
commissioner appointment, were misconstrued. “I don’t
remember saying that. But even if I did, is that so horrible?”
she said. “He was, after all, acting commissioner at the
time.”
Comer said other employees don’t report off-site activities
and that the presentation mentioned in the memo had been
approved previously. Agency officials did not respond to
Comer’s assertions.
As for the e-mail, Comer said she did pause for a “half
second” before sending it, but said she thought that
because Forrest was a highly credentialed speaker, it would
be OK.
Comer’s resignation comes just months before the State
Board of Education is to begin reviewing the science portion
of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, the statewide
curriculum that will be used to determine what should be
taught in Texas classrooms and what textbooks are bought.
Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said the issue of
teaching creationism in schools has not been debated by the
board in some time.
“There’s been a long-standing policy that the pros and cons
of scientific theory must be taught. And while we€ ¦’²ve had a
great deal of public comment about evolution and
creationism at state board meetings, it’s not been a
controversial issue with the board.”
The call to fire Comer came from Lizzette Reynolds, who
previously worked in the U.S. Department of Education. She
also served as deputy legislative director for Gov. George W.
Bush. She joined the Texas Education Agency as the senior
adviser on statewide initiatives in January.
Reynolds, who was out sick the day Comer forwarded the
e-mail, received a copy from an unnamed source and
forwarded it to Comer’s bosses less than two hours after
Comer sent it.
“This is highly inappropriate,” Reynolds said in an e-mail to
Comer’s supervisors. “I believe this is an offense that calls
for termination or, at the very least, reassignment of
responsibilities. This is something that the State Board, the
Governor’s Office and members of the Legislature would be
extremely upset to see because it assumes this is a subject
that the agency supports.”
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for
Science Education, which sent the original e-mail to Comer
announcing the event, said Comer’s situation seems to be a
warning to agency employees.
“This just underscores the politicization of science education
in Texas,” Scott said. “In most states, the department of
education takes a leadership role in fostering sound science
education. Apparently TEA employees are supposed to be
kept in the closet and only let out to do the bidding of the
board.”
€ ¦© 2007 Austin Statesman
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