We Made Ken Ham Angry February 17, 2012

We Made Ken Ham Angry

By Hemant Mehta
February 17, 2012

***Update***: Commenters are quick to point out that Ken Ham has no problem asking people to vote for the Creation Museum in the poll — that’s ethical and perfectly fine to him.

But when atheists tell people to vote against it, we’re “unethical” and “intolerant.”

How’s that for hypocrisy?

…

Ken Ham is *furious* with atheists:

For atheists, there really is no basis for their ethics, therefore they believe they can do whatever they want if they can get away with it. What is “right” or “wrong” to such people is all relative. So, to them, their tactics aren’t “unethical,” and their actions… are just what atheists are inclined to do because they are so intolerant of Christians.

Damn! We must be pretty damn evil. What did we do to invoke Ham’s wrath?!

Answer: We crashed a poll about places kids should go see before they turn 15 and pushed his Creation Museum off the top of the list.

They’re currently in third:

Atheists, Y U NO ETHICAL?!

Look, crashing the poll is just for shits and giggles.

Depriving children of knowing the evidence-based, scientifically-sound reasons for how we came to be because you insist on pushing the mythology mentioned in your outdated, inaccurate holy book? That’s unethical.

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  • Denis Robert

    Funny that, atheists crashed the poll *after* a bunch of Ken Ham’s morons did the same. And it’s the atheists who are unethical. Riiiiight…

  • NickDB

    Had the same thought, funny how if use their tactics we’re unethical, but they’re doing gods work and are upstanding citizens.

  • Michael

    Make that 4th.

  • Gordon Duffy

     Can I recomment the Kennedy Space Centre and the Statue of Liberty – both great to see and both within near over taking distance of the Big Building of Lies

  • Anonymous

    The Rocket center is well ahead of the Lie To Children Museum. I would personally put my votes into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, currently just behind the Creation Museum. The natural history museum actually gives accurate information about evolution, and should not be defiled by ranking under the idiocy theme park.

  • Michael

    The Kennedy space center is not far behind the top 5. Voting for that and Yosemite park could quickly dump the creationists off the leaderboard.

  • Marguerite

    Am I to understand that Ken Ham is suggesting WE crashed the poll, but that the Creation “Museum” was actually number one on the poll simply because ordinary, everyday people actually prefer that option over Disneyland and the Smithsonian?

    Pardon me while I roll around on the floor laughing for a while.

  • I should point out two things: You are allowed to vote for as many attractions as you want and you can vote again every 24 hours. 

  • We Made Ken Ham Angry

    Mission Accomplished. 😀

  • The creation museum’s facebook page has several posts encouraging people to vote for them in the poll, guess it’s” do as I say and not as I do” as usual with the fundies.

  • lmfao!!!! u go girl..

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tozy5FpXf0Q

    God is infinite God working in ways we don’t always understand, remember Ken?
    … Are you God?

  • Anonymous

    I find it funny how he went out of his way to avoid mentioning any of the Atheist’s names.  For example, he mentioned a University professor from the University of Minnesota-Morris. Hmmmm, I wonder who that could be? 🙂

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, in fact I’d like to thank Ken Ham for giving this blog a reason to repost, it made me remember to make a new vote today.

  •  Good point!
    Thanks Ken!

  • He mentioned FriendlyAtheist in the references. I love the comment just before it though

    Here are the links to the two atheist websites. However, I urge you not to go to these links, as I have to warn you they often use foul language, blasphemy, sexually explicit content, etc.—best not to even go to them (and I haven’t made the links active for those reasons).

  • Just shared the poll on some Atheist facebook pages, I really hope we can get that pseudo-science museum off the list… I don’t understand how something like that can stand up to places like the Smithsonian?

    Also I find it hilarious that obviously those supporting the Creation Museum are going every day to vote to keep it up there, yet we’re the a-moral ones for voting every day to get it off?

  • Danish Atheist

    Could we make him go away too?

  • Danish Atheist

    Hey!! I missed all the sexually explicit stuff in here!! *pout*

  • Anonymous

     Why don’t they trust that god wanted the poll crashed to test believers?

    For not believing, they must now expect to join us in that warm place they so fear – no more value in them following their moral code any longer.

  • Anonymous

    I guess prayer DOESN’T work.. LOL!
    i hate to kick a man while he is down but I am so so happy.

    Take that Ken Ham! 

  • LVatheist

    Thanks for reminding me I have to go vote again today…

  • We’re taking our kids to the Kennedy space center in April. When are we taking them to the Creation Museum? Never.

  • Jennifer

    MOAR ATHIEST PR0N!!!!!1!!!

  • Jennifer

    I would like to thank Ken Ham for the early morning comedy.    And for giving Hemant a reason to remind us to go back and vote again.    

  • Jett Perrobone

    You can’t spell “For atheists, there really is no basis for their ethics” without “Horseshit”.Twice.

  • Jennifer

    My favorite part:

    atheists (who have no interest in this travel website at all except to attack the Creation Museum) 

    Because athiests never go on vacation?  

  • Matto the Hun

    “Haven’t made the links active…”

    ummm, doesn’t that make them not-links?

    Typical religious, I’ll tell you that something is horrible and bad, make claims as to why it’s horrible and bad, then suggest you should not see for yourself and take my word for it… and just in case you don’t I will forbid it anyhow.

    How much like his god does Ken Ham behave.

  • It’s expensive! I went last summer due to raging curiosity (I had volunteered to work there on a “mission trip” one summer in middle school, years before the museum opened). Adult admission costs are comparable to other big museums, but there’s a LOT less content – I felt like we read every plaque and turned over ever plastic rock and leaf, and still managed to finish the museum tour in 2 hours.

    Ripoff!

  • Michael

    By his standards I think that Hemant’s boyish good looks at the top of every page probably counts as hardcore erotica.

  • I just noticed that Camp Inquiry and Camp Quest (MI and OH) are also nominated. They’re very far down and won’t make the list, but as long as we’re voting anyway they’re worth showing some support.

  • Volunteer

    Yosemite needs 200 more votes to knock the Creation Abomination to 5th place. Vote again!

  • they’re still links, just not hyperlinks. They’re plain text URLs.

  • They’re still 4th as of now. They were all the way down to #5 last I checked. At that point I voted for anything that sounded halfway decent and had a four-digit vote total to see if we could kick them out of the top 5. No such luck.  This time I voted for Yosemite National Park in California just because it was next in line behind them. After all,  pretty much anything on the list would be more constructive for young minds than creationist propaganda.

  • Marguerite

    “Why don’t they trust that god wanted the poll crashed to test believers?”

    Because anything done by atheists (that they don’t like) is clearly the work of Satan. Why Satan can accomplish so much on Earth when god is supposed to be omnipotent is a whole ‘nother can of worms, theologically speaking:-).

  • Thanks for the heads up.

  • Kevin S.

    Funny, Ken, it has been my experience that people often use their deities to justify actions that would be considered socially unacceptable. Atheists don’t have the “god told me” excuse, making them completely accountable to society for their actions.

  • “These are the same people who are largely behind efforts to stop
    students even hearing evidence against evolution in the classroom or
    being allowed to hear the Bible’s account of history.”

    Why can’t you do your indoctrination of them while they’re sitting in your church pews? Oh, what’s that? You say you are having a helluva time getting their butts in there on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening? Shouldn’t that tell you something?

    Yes, it tells them to impose their religion on the masses, regardless of legality or even the fact that many of the masses may not believe YOUR particular flavour of Xianity…

  • O2bthin2

    He’s pissed because it’s now in third place!! I was hoping we could knock it off the list all together!

  • Of course not. Persecuting Christians is a very demanding career.

  • Anonymous

    For atheists, there really is no basis for their ethics, therefore they believe they can do whatever they want if they can get away with it. What is “right” or “wrong” to such people is all relative. So, to them, their tactics aren’t “unethical,” and their actions… are just what atheists are inclined to do because they are so intolerant of Christians.
     
    There is one tactic certain Christians employ that I am thoroughly intolerant of: claiming over and over, no matter how many times secular morality is explained to them, that “there really is no basis for [atheists’] ethics” and “[atheists] believe they can do whatever they want if they can get away with it.”
     
    I was under the impression that bearing false witness was a big no-no in Ham’s own ethical system. Oh well, I guess it’s all relative.

  • Ubi Dubium

    Remember that the travel website is showing the top 5 on their vote page, but they are collecting the top 15.  So we need to keep voting for actual education until we have knocked the creationist rubbish all the way off the list.

  • It’s in 4th soon to be 5th

  • Yosemite is so close to knocking ken ham’s place down to 5th … keep voting.

  • Indeed.  I just voted US Space, Smithsonian museums, Yosemite and Kennedy

  • Christ

    Hemant, remember to remind folks that they can visit the site and vote again the very next day until the poll closes.

  • Anonymous

    He keeps calling the skeptical position the “atheist religion” on his page.  I’ll put that down to ignorance, or failure to understand the meaning of a-theism, meaning “without.”
    But his assertion that the professor “attempted to rally his “religious atheist” devotees” makes it seem the professor thinks it is possible to be a religious atheist, and that is downright deceptive, if not an outright lie.

  • Ms. Crazy Pants

    How is voting for the better options unethical?  I voted for places I thought were worthwhile.  But then, smashing my toe with a hammer is more worthwhile than going to the creation museum.

  • Dan Dorfman

    The alternate names for the creation museum are hilarious. “creeayshun museum, creatard museum, and crustacean museum” are some of my favorites.

  • Uly

    Fucking hypocrite. If there’s one thing I know about that Jesus guy, he really doesn’t like hypocrisy.

    Which I guess makes it doubly hypocritical. 

  • Anonymous

    Wait, so it’s unethical for people to democratically vote for what they want? Oh, I see. Only if they’re atheists or vote against the interests of certain Christians. Fuck you, mister Ham. I intend to vote exactly as I would regardless of any call to order. I voted for what I would liked to have seen when I was young–when I, too, was Christian. That’s me, exercising my rights to make my own decisions, to exercise my freedoms, and make a recommendation that people broaden their horizons by taking in a “miracle of nature,” as it were. If you oppose this, then you oppose anyone who doesn’t agree with you exercising their basic rights, and that makes you a horrible person. Fuck. You.

  • T-Rex

    I don’t believe in Ken Ham either.

  • Michael

    Unfortunately I suspect they may be encouraging people to vote for it who otherwise wouldn’t notice it was there.

  • Michael

    Now 29

  • Uly

     Don’t forget that you can vote for multiple entries. Yes, we should all vote for Yosemite, but don’t we want to crush ’em so bad they can’t crawl back up to 5th place ever?

  • Uly

     Not on a budget with kids!

    First, because we hate kids and don’t have any (or at most, only one or two, whom we spoil because we can, even though we hate kids), and second because by not having kids, we aren’t on a strict budget.

  • Uly

     They aren’t really. They disclaimed it themselves, saying that if they find a cool place on their own or if they think the results aren’t sufficiently spread through the nation or just don’t like the choices, they’ll disregard the list.

    It’s a guide, not a binding contract.

  • SteveS

     Maybe, until you realize Jesus was a hypocrite too. I’ll chalk that one down to him being a legend.

  • Uly

    Incidentally, does anybody have an updated list of the current top 16? (16 because, of course, we want to push the creation museum off the list entirely.)

  • Alice

     Yes, that doesn’t even make sense. Deriving your morality from a sense of empathy and justice is inferior to getting it from a fear of punishment/hope of reward…how?

  • Mairianna

    I’ll vote for THOSE places over the creation museum anytime!  LMFAO! 

  • Michael

    According to posts on the creationists’ facebook page, those other entries’ votes are getting combined with the creation museum’s votes so please don’t vote for any of them.

  • Matto the Hun

    Thanks Larry, I should have thought of that.

  • Jennifer

    Now in 5th Place.   Let’s try to knock it off the list altogether.

  • ReginaldJooald

    They had multiple Creation Museum entries, which meant that everyone could vote more than once per day. These were all merged into the one main entry. They cheated.

  • Johnk

    Actually, it does make sense, but admittedly, not if you believe in a purely accidental universe. To discount it outright is intellectually lazy. There are many “atheists” who do not believe in any type of personal or human- like God , but do however believe that there may be some kind of order to the universe, maybe some reason for things that we can’t possibly grasp. I understand their reasoning for believing that there is a sense of right and wrong.

    But if one believes that this universe we live in is purely the result of accidental combinations of elements randomly creating humanity, there is no basis for an ultimate right and wrong. Everything we feel is no more than a chemical reaction, so everything is ultimately subjective – including ideas like empathy and justice. Sure, one can say that right and wrong comes from doing what’s best for the majority of people, but our internal sense of what is fair, and right, goes much deeper than that.

  • Anonymous

    Hemant’s a fine-lookin’ atheist, that’s fo’ sho’.  I know some pretty straight dudes who’d go gay for that.

    (Uh-oh, look!  I said the word “gay”!  Better cover your eyes and ears, little Christian soldiers!)

  • There is a difference between the claim that morality is a transcendent imposition on us, that it is “God’s divine law written on our hearts” and the frequent allusions by theists that good and bad actions are done with an eye to the “prize” i.e. heaven or the avoidance of hell.

    The idea of ultimate right and wrong as presented through a theistic lens seems initially appealing to many because it allows them to project their personal morality on to the universe. It loses its luster when you have several factions arguing which of their moral systems is the ultimate one, the one closest to god and that the rest are objectively wrong. Strangely, deepness of feeling isn’t affected by different people believing mutually exclusive moral precepts with equal ardor.

    But I also have a problem with the claim of
    divine moral command / nature equals objective moral standard. This is pretty much taken to true axiomatically / by definition. The best argument given is that if we don’t assume it, there can be no objective moral standard. Since the theist feels as if there is an objective moral standard, that can’t be right. Not very convincing.

  • Remember that we can vote once per day. Also, if you have an Ipad or phone with a browser, you can use that to vote as well.

    I made that page my additional home page for the duration of the contest so I can vote everyday and not forget.

  • Here’s the current top 20…

    U.S. Space and Rocket Center, AL – 5270
    Smithsonian Museum of American History, DC – 4786
    Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, DC – 3548
    Yosemite National Park, CA – 3496
    Creation Museum, KY – 3409
    Kennedy Space Center, FL – 2960
    American Museum of Natural History, NY – 2605
    Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, IL – 1839
    The Statue of Liberty, NY – 1790
    Boston, MA – 1509
    Niagra falls, NY – 1216
    NASA – Johnson Space Center – Houston, TX – 1107
    Mount Rushmore, SD – 1028
    Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield, PA – 993
    USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, AL – 967
    The Mall and monuments in DC, DC – 929
    Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM – 883
    White house, DC – 872
    National Air and Space Museum, DC – 802
    Acadia National Park, ME – 757

  • Remember you can vote for EACH ONE once a day…not one vote total per day…so vote for everything that currently has less then the Creation theme park.

  • Jesse

    Here’s the current list:

    5300: U.S. Space and Rocket Center, AL
    4817: Smithsonian Museum of American History, DC
    3573: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, DC
    3527: Yosemite National Park, CA
    3431: Creation Museum, KY
    3011: Kennedy Space Center, FL
    2645: American Museum of Natural History, NY
    1870: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, IL
    1805: The Statue of Liberty, NY
    1526: Boston (Freedom Trail, Harbor, Navy Shipyard, Commons, Beacon Hill, etc.), MA
    1230: Niagra falls, NY
    1128: NASA – Johnson Space Center – Houston, TX
    1046: Mount Rushmore, SD
    1010: Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield, PA
    973: USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, AL <- This is NUMBER 15! ***
    939: The Mall and monuments in DC, DC
    891: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
    878: White house, DC
    811: National Air and Space Museum, DC
    764: Acadia National Park, ME
    716: Mammoth Caves National Park, KY
    565: Great Smokey Mountains National Park, TN
    550: Disneyland, CA
    534: Musuem of Natural History, NY
    514: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, HI

    and here's javascript code that can be run to generate it:

    function getN(a) {return a.getElementsByTagName("em")[0].innerHTML;}; function getName(a) {var b=a.getElementsByTagName("a");for(var x=0;x<b.length;x++) {if (b[x].href) {return b[x].textContent}}}; function sortF(a,b) {return (getN(b)-getN(a));}; var a=document.getElementById("cst-nominees-list").getElementsByTagName("li");var z=[];for(x=0;x<a.length;x++)
    {z.push(a[x])}; z.sort(sortF); for (x=0;x<25;x++) {
    print(getN(z[x])+": "+getName(z[x])+(x===14 ? " <- This is NUMBER 15!
    ***" : "" )) }

  • Uly

     Gettysburg is a previous winner, and so will probably be disqualified in the same way that Yellowstone was. Best for us reading not to count it at all and to assume number 16 (remember, we want the creation museum off the list entirely!) is Carlsbad.

  • Thank you! I think.

  • Once per day per attraction…you can vote for all of them once each day if you want…  At least vote for the ones immediately above and below the creation museum.

  • Anonymous

    OK, couple hundred more votes for the Kennedy Space Center, and the Creation Museum will be off the front page.

  • Anonymous

    We need to vote the natural history museum up now.

  • Sinfanti

     Already 5th.    Hopefully sliding into 6th.

  • They’re 5th now with Kennedy Space Center, FL right behind.

  • How about 5th, hopefully sliding into 16th? 🙂

  • Aaron Scoggin

    The Creation “Museum” is now completely off the top 5. Great work, everyone!

  • Anonymous

    Crustacean Museum?  Sounds like a restaraunt…  Do they serve  lobster and crab?

  • Wasn’t Hemant described in a christwire post as a “Mexi-gay” once? too steamy for Ken to look at without a fap!

  • Rebecca Sparks

    I thought this was the most hilarious/interesting? part of his blog post.

  • Uly

     There’s ten days left, so no slacking yet!

  • Uly

     I’ve been following a policy of voting up anything with over 400 votes, and also anything (like the Bronx Zoo, which I added there) that I particularly like.

  • I added Kent Hovind’s prison and got 153 likes in just a few hours…before they removed all the fake places. (But I posted Kent’s real mailing address that a) I got from his site, and b) is a real place!) Oh well.

  • Rebecca Sparks

    Oops–can’t delete my mistaken comment.

  • Michael

    Naah, it’s the provocatively loosened collar that does it. Hemant, you tease!

  • I’m really curious to see how Budget Travel will treat the Creation Museum if it remains in the top 15.  I doubt they expected all the hoo-haw, and I don’t see that they’re under any obligation to accept the public opinion.    In the end, the editors will pick 15 that make sense…and then we can see Ham getting mad again. Maybe he’ll even preach a sermon against Budget Travel.

  • Chak 47

    Hemant, you should post a reminder every day – people can vote once a day.

  • Uly

     My bet is they’ll ignore it and claim, as their disclaimer already states, that they rejected it for “geographical diversity” or because they found something much better on their own.

  • Ellentann

    I’m voting daily for one of the places immediately below the creation museum. There’s usually a hundred or so points separating them & hope that strategy will move the CM farther down the list.

  • Uly

     Why just one? Every day, you can vote for as many attractions as you like.

  • Indeed. Ideally, 16 choices would be best to keep the CM off the final list.

    It’s worth pointing out that the CM was back in the top 5 today.

  • Indeed. Ideally, 16 choices would be best to keep the CM off the final list.

    It’s worth pointing out that the CM was back in the top 5 today.

  • Jesse

    Current rankings:

    Note that they’ve extended the contest to the 28th.

    6271: U.S. Space and Rocket Center, AL
    5826: Smithsonian Museum of American History, DC
    5195: Creation Museum, KY
    5114: Yosemite National Park, CA
    4892: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, DC
    4447: Kennedy Space Center, FL
    3659: American Museum of Natural History, NY
    2596: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, IL
    2430: The Statue of Liberty, NY
    2133: Boston (Freedom Trail, Harbor, Navy Shipyard, Commons, Beacon Hill, etc.), MA
    1762: Niagra falls, NY
    1684: NASA – Johnson Space Center – Houston, TX
    1564: Mount Rushmore, SD
    1512: Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield, PA
    1359: The Mall and monuments in DC, DC <- This is NUMBER 15! ***
    1313: USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, AL
    1264: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
    1263: White house, DC
    1215: National Air and Space Museum, DC
    1043: Acadia National Park, ME
    945: Mammoth Caves National Park, KY
    881: Corning Museum of Glass, NY
    769: Great Smokey Mountains National Park, TN
    732: Disneyland, CA
    702: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, HI
     

  • Thoreau8

    Pictures from the Creationist “Museum” look like something out of an Onion article, and the whole thing looks unintentionally hilarious. As much as I hate to say it, I may have to go visit that Fun House of Horrors! I imagine walking behind a tour group, saying, “Nope. Nope. Never happened” (if it’s their job to set me straight about God, maybe it’s my job to set them straight about Science). At the same time, I can show my 3-year old what Stupid is all about… Hey, turns out it IS educational!

  • Parse

    And you’d find yourself kicked out of the museum within five minutes.  It’d still be educational, but not in the way you were initially planning.