Our agents have reported back after a successful infiltration of Kentucky’s very own Creation “Museum”. Claudia has posted pictures of herself and her partner in crime as they attempt to fit in with the creationist. The t-shirts were a nice touch, proclaiming that “God don’t need no science” and “I pity the foo that don’t love Jesus!” (Artworks courtesy of the kids at Objective Ministries)

The photos are good, but many of the comments being left are comedy gold. Watch for the handful of Creation Scienticians that show up to dispute the lies and misdeeds of the Evil Evolutionists who leave comments.

Some quality signage from the museum is quoted below, and I’d critique the grammar, but that would detract from the argument over CONTENT.

Shark Teeth Variety
There are more than four hundred species of sharks in the world. In a sin-cursed world, most sharks consume swimming creatures, so their teeth are designed to prevent captured animals from escaping. Yet the teeth are also loose enough to break off if an animal is struggling too much. Some sharks have teeth specialized for very different diest, such as the flat teeth of the Port Jackson shark, which uses its rounded teeth to crush mollusk shells.

Flat or round? I’m confused… but such is the way things go in a sin-cursed world such as ours.

Fossils – The Biblical View
Views about fossils have come and gone. But fossils themselves do not tell us where these creatures came from or how they died.

Fortunately, we have another source of factual data — the first book of the Bible, Genesis. This book makes it obvious that carnivory [sic], disease, and death, as seen in the fossil record, came after sin. So the fossil record had to be formed after sin entered the world.

Genesis also give an eyewitness account of a catastrophic, worldwide flood, about 4,350 years ago, which covered the whole earth in water and destroyed the air-breathing animals on land. God send this Flood during the days of Noah, as a judgment for mankind’s sin. This Flood and its aftermath would have formed massive fossil layers all over the world.

God’s Word holds the key to our understanding of God’s world. Most fossils are a silent testimony to God’s worldwide judgment.

I really have nothing to add to that; it speaks volumes all on its own.

The comments on the pictures managed to extract responses out of me on a couple instances, interrupting the process of trying to put together a post on this. One creationist posted a list of “known Christian scientists” in an attempt to claim that God has a place in science, and I had to respond;

You can have Newton; he was also an alchemist and loved mystical things; I’d rather the Christians claim him that foist him off on us atheists like you do with Hitler and Stalin.

It’s not that Christianity and Science are incompatible; they’re completely different things. Apples and Oysters aren’t incompatible; they’re completely different things, and it’s conceivable that you might enjoy each of them for their own merits. However, one does not compare to the other on the same scale, even if a Christian does work in science, it doesn’t affect anything unless they bring faith into things;

1) Magic orb in sky lights up world
2) Magic orb goes away
3) God performs a miracle
4) Profit!

or …

4) Prophet!

Skeptical Dog has no ties to the duo of interlopers; I use the word “our” loosely in the title. Apparently that lucky photoset has been listed on Digg; should drag in a couple thousand more eyes and an Ark-load of pithy comments.

In a moment of memory lapse, I typed in the address for the Skeptics Guide to the Universe site with the wrong top level domain. Rather than typing in http://www.theskepticsguide.org, I typed in http://www.theskepticsguide.com/ and was lead to a site for someone who needs to use a dictionary when choosing a name for a book.

“The Skeptic’s Guide to the Adventures of Life” is a light-hearted look at life’s deeper lessons and mysteries as it chronicles business strategist Connie Siewert’s personal experiences, and those of her healers, during a three year journey to wellness.

The table of contents reads as a who’s who of pseudoscience:

• Past Life Regression-Hypnotherapist
• Healing Touch/Guided Imagery/Trauma Release
• Reiki Master/Shaman/Earth Goddess
• Iridologist and Doctor of Naturopathy
• Colon Hydrotherapist
• Angel Channeler
• Astrologer
• Medical Intuitive/Healer
• Gem and Mineral Show
• Our Connection with Colors
• Acupuncture/Chinese Herbalist
• Reflexologist
• Sounds and Vibrations
• Equine Assisted Psychotherapist
• Psychics, Dowsers, Intuitives, Channelers
• The Traveling Soul

I checked out some sample excerpts on the site, hoping that maybe this was a skeptic who went in with mind open, but not empty. I was hoping that this might be a good resource from the perspective of someone evaluating claims directly. Instead, I find poorly written examples of dictionary definition gullibility and empty-mindedness; very zen, but not at all skeptical.

Regarding Reflexology;

Just when you think you have learned everything you need to know about different energy modalities, you have an experience that helps you understand there is still a wealth of information out there to explore that you have yet to even touch on.

Well, she hasn’t learned everything, but she’s learned to speak the mumbo-jumbo with the best of them;

It was during this part of the session that I started seeing purple energy blobs appear in my closed-eye darkness. I am always entertained when something like this happens, but this was even more unusual than what I had experienced before. Typically I would see little purple blobs changing shapes and coming towards me indicating little spirit guides coming to aid in the healing process. But this time, the purple blobs were big and coming from behind my eyes and then disappearing into a yellow blob of energy.

Being a skeptic does not mean that you’re a blank slate waiting for any loonie to come along and fill in what you should believe in chalk. It’s not about being so open minded that your brain falls out; it’s about evaluating evidence and judging.

What we have here is a skeptic that believes everything she’s told by anyone who uses the word ‘energy’. What’s next, cats that bark? atheists that pray? a Pirates of the Caribbean movie that’s good?

(from foo.ca)

I listen to the Kevin Smith “Smodcast” every so often, but paitence wears thin on some of the topics of discussion. The premise is that Kevin Smith and Scott Moser get together and bullshit about whatever the hell they want; blowjobs, politics, kids, etc. They give their unprofessional, uninformed opinions on whatever the hell they can think up; giving a bit of credence to something Bruce Willis expressed not so long ago.

“I don’t think my opinion means jack s**t, because I’m an actor. “Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds – thousands – of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. “Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor’s mouth lately?”

I think that Kevin and Scott might agree that they’re just sitting around bullshitting, and that they really shouldn’t be believed or trusted. They don’t appear to be THAT full of themselves to believe their opinions really matter. Kevin is joined by pals Walter Flannagan and Malcolm Ingram on episode 14 when Scott is out of town. Episode 14 covers how it’s easy to believe that aliens are responsible for recent technological advances like the Stealth Bomber and MP3s.

Keep in mind that Malcolm, a Canadian, states that the leader of Canada is Paul Martin (absolutely 1000% positive – I will cut off my little finger right now if that’s not it) who left office in 24 January 2006. He doesn’t cut off his finger when the Americans correct him thanks to their superior use of Google.

These guys have obviously spent much too much time getting high, as they move on to ‘Loose Change’ and UFO documentary and rods. They say that rods are claimed to be sticks with wings that move too fast for anyone to see, and they tell stories about the UFOs and rods they have seen, including one that allegedly appeared on a TV broadcast of a hockey (Devils Stanley Cup game 3 in Dallas) game, and nobody has any problem believing it.

There’s a period where they argue about the origins of rods; one expresses belief that they are an earth-based insect of some sort, and the other is incredulous; he can’t believe that he’s sitting there with someone who honestly doesn’t believe that rods come from OUTER SPACE!

Marijuana doesn’t hurt you, but you will believe nearly anything you’re told, you’ll hallucinate, and maybe you won’t even remember who is running the country you live in. Just as I start to think that these xenophiles would believe anything, they express skepticism over the existence of the monster in Loch Ness.

Episode 14 was a near complete suspension of disbeliefe in crazy, but Episode 15 became an example of strange historical skepticism. Kevin put forward a thought that maybe, just maybe, Helen Keller wasn’t really deaf and blind. I can see how there might be a possibility if Anne Sullivan was the only person who translated between Helen and the world. Like with facilitated communication and the severely autistic, it is conceivable that Anne Sullivan might have been the brains behind the speech and writings or Helen if she was the sole conduit. I’m not so sure that was the case, without further research, and it’s not something that Wikipedia really touched on.

I don’t really understand partial skepticism; it’s okay to believe in ghosts, but UFOs are insanity, or it’s okay to believe in an all-knowing god who performs miracles, but it would be insanity to believe in werewolves.

—–

Smodcast at Quick Stop Entertainment

Episode 15

In which things go back to normal and our heroes [...] incur the wrath of all right-thinking and decent people by spending nearly an hour trying to figure out whether Helen Keller was truly impaired or just party to an elaborate ruse.

Episode 14

In which our heroes cross the border with a guest from the True North, analyze the “Loose Change” of UFOs, posit that even unidentified species worship the Devils, lament the loss of Bigfoot, question Nessie’s diet, theorize how the Republicans can take the White House for the next one hundred terms, and reveal Canada’s greatest shame.

(From foo.ca)

When your dog is more skeptical than most people you meet in a day, you begin to question just what kind of future the planet has, even ignoring global warming, nuclear weapons or anything.

Our skeptical dog is Sera, the dog that will be featured here on skepticaldog.com in the header and assorted images over time. She appears to be a Rottweiler / Corgi mix, though other theories have been floated regarding Bassett Hound or Dachscund involvement in recent generations.

She has encountered unidentified flying people twice in her young life, with people floating past our 22nd floor window. She was very shocked this past week to see someone right outside our window; a lesser dog might have attributed this U.F.P. magical powers of flight, but not Sera. She was right there to check things out, looking for ropes and other tricks.