NASCAR and the Creation Museum

***Update***: Richard Wade wins the prize for greatest comment in this thread:

The Creation Museum NASCAR team thinks the Meijer 300 race is only 3 miles long.

Nicely put, Richard.

…

It’s stereotypical I suppose… but the match doesn’t surprise me at all.

The Creation Museum will be sponsoring a car driven by Bobby Hamilton Jr. in this weekend’s Meijer 300 race at the Kentucky Speedway.

“When Randy MacDonald approached us with the idea of participating in the race this weekend, we were delighted to be included. Racing is very popular here in Kentucky, and this is a great opportunity for the Creation Museum to be brought to the attention of a new audience at an incredible venue just an hour from us,” said museum founder Ken Ham. “We are proud to be a part of the MacDonald Motorsports team for this weekend and will be cheering them on to victory.”

“As we were planning for the Meijer 300 at the Kentucky Speedway, we looked around for local businesses and organizations that would mesh with our team’s values and audience, and we felt the Creation Museum fit that criteria,” said team owner Randy MacDonald.

And how might this collaboration look?

Yikes.

Question: Which sponsor’s car would you rather see win the race?

Seriously, I know nothing about NASCAR except the stereotypes. But this story just confirms everything I thought. Is MacDonald Motorsports that desperate for a sponsor that they’d promote a lie? Is every person on that team a Creationist? Where’s the car sponsored by the psychics? Maybe the British Chiropractic Association wants in on this.

(Thanks to Todd for the link!)

Jeff

Even though I personally know some Young Earth Creationists who are very big NASCAR fans, I have to think this will be embarrassing to NASCAR in general.
Mark

I never really considered NASCAR to be a sport, anyway. To quote Bill Maher on this one, “It’s just rednecks turning left.”
Jeiel

Eyy! Finally, something that encapsulates the creationists arguments! Like their arguments, this car will just go around in circles.
Ubi Dubium

When the creation museum was trying to team up with the Cincinnatti Zoo, that upset me. The Zoo is supposed to be an institution for real science, so I protested that. NASCAR? This really doesn’t bother me. Or surprise me. NASCAR isn’t supposed to be promoting science (or promoting anything really, except NASCAR) and I think their fan base is pretty similar. Let the god-bots spend their money by putting their logos on noisy cars. Better than having them put their money into building more of those temples to ignorance.
Carlie

Is it wrong of me to hope that it spins out and crashes on the first lap?
Spork

I hope you notice that “Answers In Genesis” is also a sponsor on the rear of the car…

Embarrassing? You have seen the Viagra car, right?
Mikey

I’m hoping they incorporate a saddled dinosaur look to the car.

Morons.
Luther

All I know is if it does not win the race that we can all agree with the Creationists that it is not God’s fault.

What would I like to see? Anything on the car developed with science removed: Gasoline, starter, tires, crash helmet. Let God be the designer and protector.
Mikey

And another thought…

Can we get together and sponsor an “Atheist” car or even an “Evolution” car. Hemant can have a contest for slogans and design. This could be big fun.
Infinite Monkey

I’d like to point out that started from rum running. You know, transporting liqiour during prohibition and afterwards. Which, guess who started Prohibition…I’ll give you three guesses.

Its like Clark Kent married Lex Luthor’s daughter. I’d hate to see those family reunions.
Miko

Is MacDonald Motorsports that desperate for a sponsor that they’d promote a lie?

… as opposed to those more honorable athletes who refuse to advertise for Wheaties until they’ve seen scientific evidence backing up its “Breakfast of Champions” claim.
Revyloution

I bought a new Palm Pre over the weekend, and was disappointed that it came installed with Nascar bloat ware. If it was a fun driving game, I might like it, but its a stupid stats keeping database.

Now I really want to get it removed. Stupid non-deletable bloatware.

On the plus side, its really Neat-O! I read this article and posted this from it!
Reginald Selkirk

I expect they’ll be replacing their pit crew with a prayer circle.
TXatheist

As someone who will be at the Indy Brickyard 400 next month this is just more of the same(wrong direction). Did you all know they pray to jc before the race? I sit there and do not stand. If one of the drivers comes out as an atheist I’ll support him/her in some way.
SmellyGirl

Miko, that Wheaties analogy makes no sense.

I think we can agree that Wheaties is a breakfast food. Star athletes (ie: CHAMPIONS) endorse Wheaties. Therefore, by definition, Wheaties is “Breakfast of Champions”.

Hello?
Jeff

Embarrassing? You have seen the Viagra car, right?

no…

Does it have “Viagra” mis-spelled in every conceivable way just like in the Viagra email spams (to try to foil the spam filters)?
Tony

I hope BH Jr. doesn’t win the race. That when a different driver does and thanks g for the win we can make jokes about how g doesn’t support creationism.

It’s an expensive sport to take part in and teams are likely to take sponsorship money however they can get it.
Colm

I don’t know what name I would like on that car, but I would like another car to follow it around all the way with the logo “I’m With Stupid”
littlejohn

Jeff: You are aware, aren’t you, that you misspelled misspelled?
Damn me, I had a wonderful joke about when Young Earth Creationists think petroleum was formed. Then I remembered stock cars burn ethanol. So do their drivers, I’d guess.
Anyway, if the god car doesn’t win, what does that suggest about their god?
Cypress Green

I sent them an email thru their link congratulating them for making themselves and their racing fans look like ignorant idiots.
Reginald Selkirk

As someone who will be at the Indy Brickyard 400 next month this is just more of the same(wrong direction). Did you all know they pray to jc before the race?

Yes, they pray. And then they go to work on the Sabbath.
Devysciple

Which reminds me of this…

Then I remembered stock cars burn ethanol. (littlejohn)

What?! They don’t use methanol? They burn wonderful, brain cell-killing booze to go round in circles?! Oh, the stupidity…
Rob

Ugh….

I’m a NASCAR fan and I hate the stereotype too – more honestly, the stereotype is absolutely spot on for 99% of the fans.

I’m the upper middle class atheist abnormality at the tracks. My wife and kids and I love the sport. It’s a fun event to go to, the drivers are (mostly) very down to earth and rarely thank God at the end of the races. There’s also a ton of great science and engineering that go into the cars that I’d love for my kids to learn. (Plus I live in Charlotte, NC and we get a lot of NASCAR action down here).

BUT, I get annoyed at the JC invocation before the race and see a few wacko sponsors like this in the lesser series. This race is Nationwide and more like the minor leagues. The Sprint Cup does’t have these silly sponsors – they can’t afford it – and the cars that try never qualify for the race anyway. However NASCAR is a private organization run by the France family and they can do as they please. And the marketing power (money) is there for the other MAJOR sponsors so they won’t protest.

BTW, I was more annoyed by Joe Gibbs invocation at the All Star race where instead of saying a prayer, he basically gave a standard fundamentalist sermon. How’d all the liberaly folks in DC tolerate him as a Redskins coach?
ccubeman

There is: http://www.jayski.com/schemes/2004/busch/50enzyte-front.jpg

Motor oil, tools, creationism, natural male enhancement… If someone pays, they can get a car. Strictly business for the teams, i would guess.
PowerPopPat

too bad pro wrestling doesn’t allow sponsorships……or does it?
Teleprompter

But I have proof that the Creation Museum car was intelligently designed!
John Larberg

Well if there’s an Enzyte car then I guess you might as well have a creationist car since Enzyte has been found by the FDA to just be a bunch of vitamins that do nothing. Technically orange juice is “male enhancement”.
stephanie

I’m not so upset about the creationist museum spending their hard-conned money on a Nascar car. And, selfishly, I don’t watch Nascar. Maybe I’d be more up in arms if it were F-1 or MotoGP. Then again, I think they’d be laughed out of those circles.
I’m much more upset that Coke is supporting the creationist museum- it might be the final straw to get me to sell my stock and to switch to another brand:
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/museum/2007/07/13/thirsty-museum-guests-choose-coke/
Thumpalumpacus

What if they lose?
Richard Wade

Not to worry. The Creation Museum NASCAR team thinks the Meijer 300 race is only 3 miles long.
domc

The stereotypes are spot on with Nascar. Usually when I watch it I will tape it and skip all the patriotic junk and the prayer before each race. Fast forward right to when the green flag flies.

Mr. WriterDD
Kevin Folta

Does the Viagra car always get pole position?

I wanted to hit on the idea that the fuel they are burning was made at a time that they claim doesn’t exist, but littlejohn beat me to it.

Brilliant point Richard Wade, you rock.
Nero Null

I’m not a huge NASCAR fan, but as a fan of motorsports in general who does a fair amount of amateur racing I think we have to cut the team some slack here. Racing cars is expensive. If you’re running a team you need to grab as much sponsorship as you can get so if the creation museum (repugnant pile though it may be) wants to slap a sticker on your bumper and they’re willing to pay then you kindagotta take it. The museum and everything about it sucks, but they’ve got a right to advertise. Remember how twisted our godless panties got when some companies didn’t want to put up our billboards.

Maybe the atheists should sponsor a car too? Make some inroads into areas that have been traditionaly resistant? Come to think of it that American Atheists atom logo would look pretty schweet stenciled across the hood of a racecar (dot, dot, dot)
Brian

I am a Christian who believes God created the Earth. I have a BS in Biology, my Wife has an MS in Micro and a Phd in Molecular Biology. To put it simply, we believe life is just too complex to be explained by evolution. Try to change a model T into a corvette by changing one part at a time. Better yet, try changing a model T into a space shuttle one part at a time, with each successive vehicle being superior to a measurable amount from its predecessor. It cant be done intentionally, let alone by accident. THE TRUTH IS THAT MOST PEOPLE WHO “BELIEVE” IN EVOLUTION DO NOT HAVE THE SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND TO EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY PROFESS TO BELIEVE IN. THEY JUST FOLLOW THE HERD.

Anyway, just curious why you would care what anyone else wants to believe if you dont believe there is a God. I mean if there is no God then we are all just a big accident of nature and are slaves to natural selection. When you die you die and nothing that passes on the Earth in the present, past or future has any lasting meaning at all. So what is the point of bickering about what some other person may want to beleive if life is ultimatley meaningless?
Michael

One doesn’t “believe” in evolution Brian, one understands evolution.

The herd is that group that imagines as truths the myths of the Bible. Do you know the history of that compendium of edited, re-edited, re-re-edited, translated, mis-translated, re-translated, de-translated, censored and culturally filtered cartoons? If somehow you’re basing your criticisms on some kind of claim to an expertise in scientific knowledge, it’d be impossible to prove the value of the foundation of your belief using the same method.

Your illustration proves a valuable point. With intellectual, scientific, and engineering development the Model T did, in a way, become the Space Shuttle. And that only took man a very intentional 73 years!

To answer your convoluted rhetorical question, personally I don’t care what you believe. However, I do care if the ignorance of creationism is institutionalized to pollute the minds of children. Talk about BS in biology- phew!
martin

I was gratified to see other atheists have noticed the standard NASCAR invocation to Jesus Christ. But why shrug this off? NASCAR is a public event, correct? I saw the invocation when I was flipping around ESPN, and I just marveled at ESPN’s carrying a specific religious invocation to “JC” at a public sporting event. So what do Jewish folks do when this is going on? Muslims? Why is there no invocation to JC at other ESPN sporting events, the football, the dogs shows, the skateboard shows, brought to you in living ESPN color by ESPN where the public can purchase tickets to hear a fundamentalist sermon before an alleged sporting event? What the hell – where’s the line? Why doesn’t ESPN just become the Entertainment Sports Religion Network? Do you have to show a cross to get into NASCAR? Is holy oil in the tanks?