Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Smithsonian Gets Tyrannosaurus rex, AiG Responds

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the Smithsonian Institution had finally purchased an original Tyrannosaurus rex fossil to replace the replica that has stood in the Dinosaur hall for the last fifteen years.  J. Freedom du Lac reports:
The world’s second-most-visited museum has big plans for the borrowed king carnivore: It will stand as the centerpiece of the new dinosaur hall that’s scheduled to open in 2019, after a five-year, $48 million makeover. The hall — one of the most visited spaces at the Natural History Museum — closes April 28.

“It’s an amazing object,” Johnson said of the T. rex.

The 38-foot-long dinosaur died more than 66 million years ago in a riverbed and was frozen in time — and rock — for ages. It remained unseen and undisturbed from the late Cretaceous Period until around Labor Day in 1988, when rancher Kathy Wankel spotted a small part of an arm bone during a day hike in a wildlife refuge.
The fossil will be in the hall for fifty years because it is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.  It will inspire students of science for decades to come.  Its purchase by the Smithsonian did not go unnoticed, however.  Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, had this to say:
From many of the responses I’ve seen to the Creation Museum’s exquisite dinosaur exhibits and sculptures (including life-like animatronic dinosaurs), it would seem that evolutionists think they “own” dinosaurs! They see dinosaurs as synonymous with evolution and millions of years, and evolutionists can become very upset when creationists use dinosaurs. Evolutionists know that kids are fascinated by these creatures, and so they can be used to draw kids in and teach them about evolution.

For example, recently, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (in Washington, DC), acquired a
T. rex skeleton, known as “the Nation’s T. Rex.” This T. rex is very complete. The museum director, Kirk Johnson, believes the new dinosaur skeleton will draw many children to the National Museum of Natural History, saying, “Dinosaurs are the gateway drug to science for kids.”

Of course, secularists know that children love dinosaurs, and they use dinosaurs to indoctrinate kids into evolutionary ideas. “The Nation’s
T. Rex” will be a centerpiece for the Smithsonian—a museum funded by our tax dollars. In reality, then, the government is imposing the religion of evolution and millions of years on children visiting the Smithsonian, while also claiming a supposed separation of church and state! Our tax dollars are funding the religion of naturalism (atheism) and its evolutionary story to be exhibited in the Smithsonian in the nation’s capital!
As I mentioned in a comment on my last post, this is part and parcel of how Ham works. As he did in the Ham on Nye debate, by dismissing all of the historical sciences as bogus, he can claim that the Smithsonian is practicing religious indoctrination.  Since, in his mind, evolution is only supported by the fossil record, a record of past events, it isn't scientific.  That evolution is supported by modern genetics either completely escapes him or, worse, is something he ignores because he has to.


5 comments:

  1. According to Ham's colleague Purdom, the genetic code is OBSERVATIONAL science (but only when the observations cast 'doubt' on evolution presumably):
    https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaPurdom
    "Isn't it interesting that the questions Americans are unsure about fall into the category of historical science (big bang, evolution, climate change) whereas questions about observational science (smoking causing cancer, genetic code) they are more sure about?
    Again, we see very clearly the difference between the two types of science. This is not "science ignorance" as the scientists say but rather a clear demarcation between the two types of science- historical science which is based on worldview/authority and observational science which is not.
    All I have to say is "there is a book" that answers these questions about historical science and it gives the only true answers!"

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  2. And Ham is getting very worked up in his anti-science crusade on facebook today:

    "Most of those who accept molecules to man evolution over millions of years and the Big Bang idea, just don’t want to face reality!
    During my recent debate with Bill Nye (http://debatelive.org/), I emphasized the important distinction between historical (or origins science), and observational (or experimental science). Secularists turn a blind eye to this—they just do not want to acknowledge it, as they have to! There is a big difference between knowledge about the past that one did not see and can’t empirically (directly using the five senses) test in the present, and knowledge gained by direct observation and experimentation (and based on the repeatable test). When one understands this, then it is obvious that molecules to man evolution and Big Bang are beliefs—they are really part of the secularist religion to explain life with out God.
    I believe this is intuitive for most people—even though the secularists have tried hard to brainwash the public into not understanding that the word ‘science’ means knowledge—and there are different types of knowledge (eg: historical science and observational science).
    I also believe this can be seen in a news item about a recent survey. If you read the article, you will see that basically there is much more acceptance what can be observed and experimented with in the present, but much less acceptance of things that involve the unobservable past. Here is an excerpt from the news item:
    "Few Americans question that smoking causes cancer. But they have more skepticism than confidence in global warming, the age of the Earth and evolution and have the most trouble believing a Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago, “ http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/big-bang-evolution-climate-change-widely-doubted-in-u-s-poll-suggests-1.2616585
    Even after the debate, most secularists either avoided or just brushed off the topic of historical vs observational science. We need to push this more and more. Here is a blog I wrote about that topic after the debate—I encourage you to keep spreading this information to help overcome the indoctrination by the secularists: http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/02/10/the-cats-out-of-the-bag/
    Of course the reason Bill Nye and other secularists do not want to admit the difference between historical and observational science, is that they would have to then admit they hold to beliefs (molecules to man evolution, Big Bang, naturalism), and the reality is that public schools are using tax dollars to impose this anti-God religion on millions of students."

    This man hypocritically claims to 'love' science yet dismisses vast areas of scientific understanding about the past as 'belief'. Hypocrite. He also indoctrinates kids whilst railing about 'brainwashing'.

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  3. This is nonsense. By this logic, the Civil War never happened, since there is now no one alive that lived through it. In fact, all of the events in the bible could be fake, as well because no one is alive tht lived through them, either.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:53 PM

      A tad confused by the "logic" of your response. The fact that there WERE people alive at the time of the Civil War means there are historical witnesses to the events. After that, the normal application of historiographical criteria would apply.

      In the case of T-Rex (or whatever), by definition, no one was around to ultimately know if reptiles are an evolutionary link to man. One cannot depend on an eye witness but residuals from the past.

      In discovering the past, all other things being equal, to claim that eye witness account is equal or of less value than no eye witness account is irrational.

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  4. The serious, serious problem with the genetic code being only observable and in putting forth the argument of "common function" (to use the Haarsmas' phrase) is that you then have to explain the fused chromosome 2 and the shared pseudogenes and ERVs.

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