With the recent and prominent
debate between Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Ken Ham (who, in case you don't know, is an incredibly vocal Christian and Creationist), I was curious about the Creation Museum and read an
article on the blog 'Debunking Christianity' about John Loftus' trip there.
Loftus was curious about the place and dropped in, and actually toured the place for free:
John Loftus
...I got into the Creation Museum for free. I didn't expect it when I told Susan, the head cashier, that I was a skeptic. But she offered and I accepted. My ex-mother-in-law took her daughter and grandson to visit the museum about a year ago and loved it. So when she heard I was speaking at a Freethinkers group in Covington, Kentucky, she suggested I check it out. Since it wasn't that far out of my way home, I thought I would at least drive past it. That's all I initially thought I would do. Then I pulled into the parking lot. I meandered inside. I asked Susan how much it costs to get in. She told me $29.
I said, "Well, I don't know. I'm a skeptic."
Susan: "Are you open-minded?"
John: "Yes, sure."
Susan: "Well then, I'll give you my pass and a ticket to see the Planetarium presentation."
John: "Thanks."
While he was there, he took pics of the exhibits, and basically elaborates on the absurdities he witnessed therein, which he made his article about.
Well, just like he did when Bill Nye said that Creationist doctrine was bad for children (which is kinda what inspired the debate), Ham responded to Loftus' article with one of his own, entitled
"The Chutzpah of Unethical Atheists - But We Actually Understand Why". (No, seriously, that's what it's called.) Throughout, Ham keeps insisting about how he's not mad about how Loftus wrote the article, (yet he had to write this lengthy response about it, in some passive-aggressive version of turning the other cheek) and also how 'stealing' (getting in for free) and deception (he claims that Loftus tricked Susan) can only be expected from atheists such as him. I'd like to bring attention to a few bits from Ham's response:
Ken Ham
"...because he is an atheist, this man is only acting consistently with his worldview. I understand his actions, though I certainly don’t condone them, for stealing is against all sorts of biblical teachings, including one of the Ten Commandments. But you see, he has no absolute standard by which he lives his life. So why is it even wrong in his secular worldview to misrepresent himself to us? He can justify being a cheater."
"If there is no God, how could an atheist ever say what is right or wrong? By what standard can he make that determination?"
"Secular atheistic humanism is a belief system about what we supposedly came from (nothing), what our purpose is in life (nothing), and what happens when we die (which again is nothing)."
"It also did not make me mad when I learned that as this atheist was leaving the museum, he left a business card with our guest services staff member—the one who had been so kind to him. The card had the words 'Debunking Christianity' on it along with his website address. Now he wanted her to know what he was really doing at the museum, as if he was gloating, 'Ha! I deceived you.' But this behavior was consistent with his atheism."
"...for any atheists reading this blog post, I urge them to consider
this AiG article on why atheism is irrational."
"...Even before his visit, his atheistic, blind-faith religion had already biased what he would write about the Creation Museum!"
"We’ve had a number of instances of atheists not telling the truth (for them there is no such thing as “truth” anyway) in order to take advantage of us at the Creation Museum."
(Loftus responded to Ham's retaliatory reply
here, and a little bit more
here.)
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