Darryl

I don’t know what these rallies are. I don’t have anything I want you to add to your speech, but I do have something that I would like to say to the get-I.D.-taught-in-the-schools people: why are you dishonest about your motivations? In my experience, whenever you are accused of trying to sneak your religion into our schools under the cloak of science you deny it. Why do you deny what I know to be the case? Do you think that to admit this would undermine your position, or are you embarrassed by being caught in a deception, or are you ashamed for being dishonest, knowing that as a Christian you are all the more guilty? You’re not fooling anyone, so just be honest.
thegoodatheist.net

I don’t want to be redundant, since I already posted something on “NoGodBlog” concerning the subject, but I’ll repeat most of the points i made there. Firstly, holding a rally to protest a creation museum does nothing. If anything, it legitimizes their efforts to show that science is somehow imperialist, vowing to destroy its opposition rather than be content with open discussion and debate. The best way example of this is Holocaust revisionists, who when forbidden to speak, create sympathy for their cause by fighting for their free speech rights.

Here’s the relavent part of my article “There has been a great deal of protest in the US over the opening of the museum, which has somewhat delayed the previous scheduled opening. Alas, the effort is both in vain and counter-productive; regardless of the protestations of scientist and secularists, creationists simply refuse to accept any theory that undermines their religious convictions. Strong opposition only enforces the idea that they are being unfairly prosecuted by intellectual “fascism”. The museum is not the cause of scientific ignorance in America; rather it is a symptom of it. Attempting to shut it down is tantamount to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.

As creationists further remove themselves from the inconvenience of reality, they will continue to build whatever institutions they can to house their antiquated beliefs. A museum is perhaps only the start for them. Their ambitions extend far further. But the intellectual havoc they create is not impossible to combat, nor is it necessarily permanent. The will of the general American public has to push strongly for scientific education.. Sadly, the average citizen is interested less in the pursuit of truth and more in the pursuit of happiness, which the museum undoubtedly fulfills for some. The way to fight this museum will therefore come not from protest, or even boycott, but from a campaign on the part of secularists of equal and greater vigor to ensure that we do not become complacent and uncaring about the importance of science and reason, lest it become hijacked by those concerned less with the truth of the natural world, but rather by Bronze age myths.”
Chris Hallquist

If you want to be sure to make your five minutes count, spend as much time as you can reading Ingersoll before hand and reflecting on his techniques… not sure what that translates to in terms of what you’ll actually say, but worth thinking about.
Kelly

Nothing to add, but I hope to meet you there! Not sure if I’ll make it Sunday night, but I’ll be there Monday.
Siamang

Ken Ham and his folks would have you believe that T-rex dined on coconuts and herb. But we know that’s not true. T-rex fed on red meat. Dinosaur- It’s what’s for dinner.

Hemant, I really rather it was me than you. I’d write up a brilliantly humorous speech, because I think the Ham museum is just about the funniest thing in the world.
Siamang

My daughter is adorable. She’s almost four, but when she was just two she told her first joke. I swear she thought of it herself.

Anyway, you can use it. I totally recommend it as an opening joke.

It went like this:

What do dinosaurs eat for dinner?

(pause)

Dinosaurs!
Richard Wade

After I do my dinosaur talks for kids, on rare occasions adults come up and ask me about creationist ideas. I’m always patient and polite while I make sure they’re not armed. Once someone asked me about T-Rex being a vegetarian. We were standing right next to the full sized model of a T-Rex skull that I bring for the show. I pointed to that mouth with nothing but those long, edged fangs and I said, “Okay if you try to eat a stick of celery with only your front sharp teeth, no cheating by grinding it with your back flat molars, be careful because you’ll probably choke to death. Teeth are the tools of eating, and the shape of a tool shows what it is used for. You don’t pound a nail with a saw.” He seemed a bit taken aback at first but my delivery was gentle and friendly, and finally he nodded with a more accepting look on his face.

I feel so sad for naive people who are taken in by these charlatans and I get angry at the perpetrators of this fraud because I don’t think that most of them actually believe the crap they feed the public. I really don’t get it. How does a vegetarian T-Rex support belief in God? I mean if you’re going to lie, at least make it plausible.
txatheist

Hemant,
Based on my understanding of you..I’d suggest something uniting that having bad science taught only makes finding cures for cancer, polio, and the like even more difficult. When kids are taught sound science they can grow up and become scientists who find cures because of the solid science background they received in school and at home. Who wouldn’t want their kid to discover the cure for cancer? That may or may not be a good theme for your talk 🙂
Lou Doench

Good luck and have fun. To paraphrase the recently departed Molly Ivins, having fun is the most important part of the process of political protest.

I’ll be at Taste of Cincinnati eating grilled chicken with my evolved canines and listening to Over the Rhine with my evolved ears and perhaps processing some frosty malted beverages with my evolved liver (c’mon liver! you can make it a little longer!).

Either that or I’ll be helping my evolved (and lovely) wife squeeze out our evolved 2nd offspring.

Thanx Evolution!
Mriana

Oh yeah. Add to it that the Flinstones are a cartoon. There weren’t really humans during dino times eating bronto burgers. IF there were, they wouldn’t have thought about a deity because they would be too busy running for their lives and struggling to survive. Noah wouldn’t have had time to build an arc and the walls of Jericho would not be there to come tumbling down. 🙄 So the stories would be even MORE mythical.

Oh are you suppose to be nice? Sorry.

Well, if you have to be nice, just say “Hi!” to Fred, Wilma, Barney, Wilma, Pebbles, and Bam-Bam for me. Oh and do becareful of Bam-Bam’s club. Then if you see that Big Purple Dino named Barney give him a big hug and sing that lame song.
Kelly

Lou-I’ll be there for Over The Rhine as well-looking forward to a great show, to be followed up by a morning spent with fellow evolutionists on Monday. I couldn’t ask for a better weekend!
Richard Wade

Oh no, it’s happened again! Since Ash’s comment with his link, everything on the “My Speech at the Creation Museum” posting is now a link including the box where I type, and I can’t post anything there any more.

Hemant, I know you can’t see what’s wrong, but there are glitches in the blog sofware that intermittently suddenly make everything come out bold, or italic or the worst is, apparently just for my computer, link.

See you guys elsewhere, damn it all.
Mriana

No, I’ve seen similar problems.
Richard Wade

Well Mriana,I don’t understand why some people can see it when it all becomes bold or italic, but I’m the only one shut out when it all becomes link. I see you and everyone else are still able to post on the “My Speech” posting. Very frustrating. This is a topic I can actually talk about.
Mriana

It was a link for me there for a while too, but it didn’t keep me from posting… I don’t think. It might be why I felt like I was going around in circles there for a bit. I don’t know.
Ash

richard wade – sorry hon, i have a genius with technology which often causes it to go poof. if i could control it, i’d be straight onto all the fundie sites to share the joy.

p.s. ash = short for aisling = female.
Richard Wade

Ash, I don’t think you caused it. It’s gone now by the way, so I can comment there again. The same thing happened on one of the other postings the other day, and another posting now has the “everything bold” problem. The link thing seems to go away within hours to a couple of days but the bold thing remains. Whatever. Hemant may not see what some of us see on the site. I wish he had a “report problems” spot on the right side of the windows.

Ah, Aisling, the Irish vision. I tip my hat to you. (and I actually wear one) Thanks for correcting me.

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