The NorthWest ‘Science’ ‘Museum’ Set to Open in Idaho

A new building dedicated to preaching Creationism will soon open in Nampa, Idaho, though it doesn’t look like they’ve even broken ground yet. They call it the NorthWest Science Museum:

What is the purpose? To lead people to a better understanding of God by viewing His Creation and to show that creation science can explain the evidence we see in the world around us and that it is not just religion.

…

Our dream for the Treasure Valley of Idaho is to create a science museum where these questions and more could be answered in an accessible and interactive way. We want to present science not only from the evolutionist paradigm shown in state-controlled museums, but also show the compelling censored science that those museums do not show, in order to allow people to draw their own conclusions about the origins of life.

As you may know, our goals are beyond what we, as individuals, can do on our own. This means that we must rely on our mighty God to accomplish the task that he has set before us. This also means that we must ask you for help.

We currently plan to open with a few displays this summer (2011) at Zion Christian School in Nampa, Idaho. To accomplish this opening, we need building supplies, a workspace, volunteers and about $2000 to complete the displays.

Those “state-controlled” museums never censor science, of course. They just show things that can be backed up with evidence, something the Ken Ham clones in Idaho know little about.

If the website is any indication, this place is going to be ripe for mockery. Like the section called “Research Papers.” Currently, there’s only one paper on file (PDF). It has no author, it’s been published nowhere, and it quotemines Francis Crick. (Have fun finding the flaws in it.)

The whole building is misnamed twice over — it’s not science and it’s hardly a museum. It’s looks like it’ll be a series of displays cherry-picked right from the Bible. We might as well call it the NorthWest Outhouse since it’s so full of shit.

(Thank to Brielle for the link)

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Anonymous

I’m always emotionally conflicted about these things.
On the one hand, I’m very amused. The “paper” above wouldn’t make the cut for 5th grade science homework. Apparently we evil “Evolutionists” think the Universe is 20 billion years old. They’re so bad they actually manage to be wrong within being more wrong. A visit to one of these museums would probably be entertaining, in a morbid kind of way. I know this sort of bullshit has already lost and eventually will be as much a embarrassing part of history as people who vigorously defended the flat Earth.

On the other hand this shit makes me deeply, deeply angry. These places are catered to missinform children. In a double blow of despicable they teach children outrageous lies about physics, geology and biology, hobbling their education, and at the same time teach them to mistrust scientists and intellectuals generally. They are being taught that mayor institutes of higher learning and science are out to get them, so they better stay away. Essentially, they working to ensure that these kids never become scientists or serious scholars of any kind, dragging them down into the cesspool of ignorance and fanaticsm of fundamentalism. It makes you want to scream.
Maik Both

From the beliefs page on their site:
“No apparent, perceived, or
claimed interpretation of evidence in any field, including history and
chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record”

Yes – very ‘scientific’.
Greg

Ooh and it looks like an Ark running over a dinosaur, and about to crash into a giant blancmange.
Ben

At least outhouses are useful. Full of redback spiders, but useful nonetheless.
Anonymous

Wow, a religious theme park. Are they going to have costume play of major bible characters too? And reenact the scene where Jesus hides all those dinosaur bones to “test” his believers?

Lovely slam at the “state-controlled museums”, those evil evolution museums must be out to lie to you because they keep our lies out. What does that make this, a church-controlled museum? Is that really supposed to be better? What a sad sack that is.
Slugsie

Can’t someone please Trade Mark (or whatever) the words Science and Museum, and only offer them free for use by organisations that are actually science based museums?
Steve Bowen

Ooh and it looks like an Ark running over a dinosaur, and about to crash into a giant blancmanche

LOL. I think it’s on the bridge of a creationist Titanic about to burst into a chorus of “My Heart Will Go On”
Tom

It’s amazing how they act like they’re the ones being discriminated against by the twin evils of science and government.

It reminds me of those shirts with a cross and the statement, “This symbol is illegal in 50 countries,” or whatever. It’s like they have such a strong desire to be persecuted that they try to manufacture circumstances where it might be valid. I would love to see some of these people react to actual persecution and discrimination.
Marguerite

Wow. Stuff like this makes my head hurt. So real science museums “censor” them, rather than reflecting reality. And then they claim that all scientific evidence must be discarded if it conflicts with the Bible. Who’s censoring what here?

If I’m reading this correctly, though, that enormous building must be a fair distance into the future, if right now they’re still working to raise $2000 for a few displays…
cipher

Horrendous waste of money. They could be using it to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked… you know, the stuff Jesus was tricked into saying by Liberals.
Jeff P

As religion wanes in importance with new generations, it
wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a museum or two informing the public about the
religious practices and beliefs of generations past. It would be ironic if this project ever got funded, that in a few generations (if it still was in existence) that it might be run by secularists as a true museum showing the (strange) beliefs of many in the past. If this one turns out to be anything like the Creation Museum in Kentucky, future generations wouldn’t even have to change any of the exhibits. They speak for themselves in explaining the bizarre mental constructs necessary in order to maintain faith in proclamations made over 2000 years ago.
ACN

Brain = exploded
Anna Gaw

There have always been creationists, but they were usually backwater rednecks that had little impact on this country as we flew to the moon and developed advanced technologies. But today we see millions of dollars pooring into this ignorance and spreading like a virus across this country. I am really concerned of the impact these kinds of things have on us as a nation. The dumbing down of America marches on.
Life Post-Shaggy

“What is the purpose? To lead people to a better understanding of God by
viewing His Creation and to show that creation science can explain the
evidence we see in the world around us and that it is not just religion.”

Holy run-on sentence, BatJesus.
Steve

I wouldn’t worry about it.
It’s in IDAHO!
Who’s going to see it there? Potato farmers? Visiting skiiers? Lunatic separatist gun nuts?
Driving to Idaho on purpose is the sort of thing that will make you an atheist.
Beadknitter

I live in the beautiful state of Idaho and this makes me cry. Sigh.
Justin M. White

I really hope the term “NorthWest Outhouse” catches on.
Martin

“…in order to allow people to draw their own conclusions about the origins of life.”

Since allowing people to draw their own conclusions is so important, I’m assuming they’ll provide all the evidence for and against Christianity? You know, while we’re on the subject. But what confuses me is how people so proudly faith-based, who glory in the illogicality of their beliefs – the absurdity only proves that it’s true! – would bother with ‘scientific’ proof. If you’re going to choose faith over reason, then OK, awesome, you’re an ignorant hick, but go with it. But if you’re going to try to reconcile science and your religion – good luck with that, but at least stick with, you know, science. These Ken Ham-style pseudo-science museums provide just as much evidence for their claims as the Bible, meaning all they’re doing is adding new stories to an ancient myth.
Alexis

As George Carlin says about god – he’s all powerful, all knowing, but he has a little problem with money, he always needs money…
CdAHumanist

Hell, I live in Idaho and I’ve never even heard of this so I don’t think it has much traction. And for all who think that Idaho is nothing but potato farms, you need to visit the Coeur d’Alene area. It’s crazy beautiful here. Unfortanately, there ARE a lot of conservative, christian, redneck racists in this area, but that’s actually starting to change. Guess what those folks blame the change on? Liberal Californians moving here. 🙂
Fozzy

This things make the whole holocaust denial people look sane
Anonymous

How can history not be valid?
Al

I live ‘across the pond’, and it amazes me how such a technologically advanced country as the USA, which leads the world in some areas of scientific research, can, at the same time, have a growing number of people who want to take their fellow-citizens back to the times of myth, superstition and mumbo-jumbo.

Can anyone explain this growing phenomenon?
Drew M.

I’d pay to watch Genesis 19:30-35 in action.
Anonymous

$2000 for displays? So, they are using those tri-fold science fair project display boards, then?
Cojin197

Looks like the perfect money hole.
Anonymous

It is politically advantageous to keep a large chunk of our population ignorant and scared of the world around them. Thus, some religious authorities and political entities have spent enormous amounts of time and money convincing people that a literal reading of the bible is the key to salvation, and that there is a vast conspiracy of liberals, scientists, and devil worshipers who are trying to lead them astray. The public education system here is rather poor (for some reason we believe that filling out endless standardized exams constitutes a proper education), so many of us are not equipped with the knowledge necessary to counter the silly claims made by religious fanatics. And the fanatics are quite tenacious when they argue. As soon as scientific evidence is presented to demonstrate that the universe isn’t only 6000 to 10000 years old, they contrive some silly explanation for why they believe 99% of the scientific community is incorrect or lying.

Hope that helps.
Annie

Of course any science museum worth its salt must have a faith statement…

And I love the typical creationist tactic of simply calling any scientific evidence a “joke”… it’s the magic word that requires no proof to refute.
Mogens Larsen

My initial impression was museum with greenhouse and lifeboat.

The plans seem somewhat ambitious given their problems finding $2200 for a few displays.
Anonymous

That’s where I fall, too, Claudia… amusement that quickly turns to dismay and slides even faster into anger. I know many people personally here in my northwest bible belt town that are very excited about this place, that it will finally tell the “truth” about “evilution.” I try very hard to keep a smile plastered on my face because they know what I’ll say and I’m tired of being bloody from bashing my head against that particular wall. I’ll scream right along with you.
Heidi

I skip right over amusement these days. Would love to see these people sued for misrepresentation of their “product.” Science museum indeed.
Richard Wade

I’m getting seriously depressed. Please, somebody throw me a credible
rope of hope. My country is failing fast. This cancer of willful
ignorance is metastasizing. We’re not just falling behind,
we’re going backwards. If this continues, we will be like Greece.
Tourists from China and Europe will take pictures of us standing in
front of our crumbling buildings, the picturesque traces of a once great
civilization. Maybe if we wear our traditional costumes, they’ll give
us a tip.

I want to fight back, but sometimes I feel nothing but dismay. What
can we do to turn ourselves around again? Sorry for the bummer, but I
need some help here.
Meyekael

I’m always amused when the people who decry the relativism of secular society decide to create their own versions of science and history that say what they want them to say.
TychaBrahe

Or, you know, in this age of budget cuts, spread a few prepared science curricula around.
Anonymous

You can remember that the feeling that everything is going terribly terribly wrong is commonplace in every generation. Imagine what people felt during Prohibition, with the morality police (and the actual police) condemning you for an after work drink. Think about the brutal intellectual witch hunts of the Red Scare, when it seemed that freedom of speech had been lost in the face of zealous nationalism. I’m staying within a century and within the US, people in other times and places have faced far more dire problems.
Is the US guaranteed to succeed? No. Countries fail and empires inevitably fail. It looks like the time or empire is passing (good riddance, as far as I’m concerned). The ultrarreligious are creating their own little universe, but think of why they do it. They do it because they can no longer trust that they’ll get what they want where they want it. The internet plugs into even fundamentalist homes and before their childrens eyes unfolds an entire world their parents have taken great pains to hide from them. They can see videos of far-off lands, learn about other religions, learn science. They can even contact people who don’t think like their parents do, who live lives where Church isn’t everything and yet are happy lives. Their kids can now see us, and that is hugely threatening to a worldview that heavily depends on not being challenged and of even the possibility of challenge seeing bizarre.
You do more than your part by answering the emails of frightened young people longing to be free but afraid there will be no one on the other side to catch them. The more visible we are, the most we force the fact of our happy, rational existence into the cracking walls of the theist fortress, the better we can fight a descent into Pakistan-with-Walmart.
Jeff P

Richard,

This particular “museum” is currently nothing other than an artist drawing and a quickly thrown-up web-site. They are trying to raise $2000 to get some card-board displays to put in a church basement or something right now. Unless someone rich (and foolish) dies and gives them an ark full of money, this won’t get off the ground.

Of course the world is never-the-less going to hell in a hand-basket. People have been saying that for as long as there has been recorded history. 🙂 Cheer up, its not so bad.
John

Instead of complaining , why not built you own museum that suit you the way you believe it ought to be????????????? No conflict. You don’t like what these people do then go ahead and set up your own shop. Nag nag nag……..
Richard Wade

I Claudia and Jeff P,
You’ve both been such good friends for so long, so often encouraging me. Thank you for these very wise, rational, yet reassuring remarks. I definitely feel inspirited again. We all need supportive advice from time to time, including the advice giver. In the future I’ll not read stuff like this on an empty stomach. The low blood sugar makes me more susceptible to a negative spiral.
cipher

Jeff, you can’t be serious. Look at what Ken Ham did in a few short years.
Thin-ice

Exactly, and the proof of their “objectivity” comes from their Statement of Faith:

“No apparent, perceived, or claimed interpretation of evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record.”
Thin-ice

Tend to agree with Jeff. The main Creation Museum is in Kentucky in the the densely populated heart of the Bible Belt. Idaho is not Kentucky, and I doubt whether the people that could donate large amounts of money are going to waste it in the backwoods of Idaho, where the attendance at such a proposed museum would be a tiny, tiny fraction of what they get in Kentucky.

If I were a betting man, I would put money on this never getting built. And there’s nothing like making yourself look foolish than asking for cardboard and magic markers to make a placeholder exhibition in a christian school.
cipher

All right, that’s a legitimate point.

It’s still a travesty that the cultural climate is such that they think there’s a need for two such abominations – not to mention the dozens (hundreds?) of roadside attractions employing the same theme.