AP - "Zoo to feature creationism display"

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Zoo to feature creationism display
Thursday, June 9, 2005 Posted: 0114 GMT (0914 HKT)
TULSA, Oklahoma (AP) -- The Tulsa Zoo will add a display featuring the biblical account of creation following complaints to a city board about other displays with religious significance, including a Hindu elephant statue.
The Tulsa Park and Recreation Board voted 3-1 on Tuesday in favor of a display depicting God's creation of the world in six days and his rest on the seventh, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
The vote came after more than two hours of public comment from a standing-room-only crowd.
Zoo employees, religious leaders and others spoke in opposition, saying religion shouldn't be part of the taxpayer-funded scientific institution.
But those who favored the creationist exhibit, including Mayor Bill LaFortune, argued that the zoo already displayed religious items, including the statue of the Hindu god, Ganesh, outside the elephant exhibit and a marble globe inscribed with an American Indian saying: "The earth is our mother. The sky is our father."
"I see this as a big victory," said Dan Hicks, the Tulsa resident who approached the zoo with the idea. "It's a matter of fairness. To not include the creationist view would be discrimination."
Hundreds of people signed a petition supporting the exhibit.
The new display will include a disclaimer that says it represents one view. City attorneys also advised it be placed alongside other cultures' views of creation.
Tulsa Zoo exhibit curator Kathleen Buck-Miser estimated it would take about six months to research and organize the exhibit. She expressed qualms about the zoo delving into theological debate.
"I'm afraid we are going in the wrong direction," she said.
Board member Dale McNamara, who voted against the proposal, agreed.
"I do not like the idea of scripture at the zoo," she said.
Zoo officials had argued that the zoo does not advocate religion and that displays like the elephant statue are meant to show the animal's image among cultures. The same exhibit includes the Republican Party's elephant symbol.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

In other news, Christian Right Lobbies To Overturn Second Law Of Thermodynamics.

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Thursday, 9 June 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

Yes, i know that's an old Onion bit...

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Thursday, 9 June 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

still, the line:

"This is America," said Duane Collins, a Gatlinburg, TN, distillery operator and father of five. "And in this country, we have the God-given right to change laws we don't think are Christian. We are united in our demands that [this law] be repealed, and our voice will be heard no matter what. That's just a plain fact, and nothing anybody says can ever change it."

sounds like others we've heard recently.

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Thursday, 9 June 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

In March I listened to a fellow student in my Constitutional Law class say just about the exact same thing, and a heard a couple assent loudly. I about shit myself, but these people are out there and they mean business.

― Hunter (Hunter), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

As a pacifist, I have to say there comes a point where you need to start shooting people. In the head.

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:18 (twenty years ago)

note that the book held up in the Onion article is the same book used for Physics I & II for engineering students at the University of Michigan.

just thought you should know.

still, the article reminds me of a problem i've seen. if ID gets a foothold, what's to stop them from trying to force their way into explaining ANY scientific phenomena? For example, the bit in the Bible about the smallest thing ever being a mustard seed vs sub-quark particles.

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:23 (twenty years ago)

speaking of which:

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aiia/mustardseed.html

And it's absolutely true that the black mustard seed (Brassica nigra = Sinapis nigra) was the smallest seed ever sown by a first-century farmer in that part of the world.

it's nice to have Biblical contextual analysis once in a while.

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

When they say "absolutely true" do they mean "we've just made this shit up off the top of our heads"?

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:27 (twenty years ago)

take yer pick

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

In March I listened to a fellow student in my Constitutional Law class say just about the exact same thing, and a heard a couple assent loudly.

i certainly hope that this wasn't a Con Law class in a law school.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to Tulsa to demand equal time for my theory of Unintelligent Design, which holds that the universe was created by a dumbass.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

http://www.geocities.com/emurphy23/giantbanana.txt

― yay for humanity!, Friday, 10 June 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

Actually, from a storytelling POV if they really do have a Ganesh and some native american dsplays then why not have a bible one too? Hows it any different from xmas mangers in shopping malls or whatever?

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 10 June 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

What I mean is, if you think of say the noahs ark thing or whaever purely from an old tale/legend point of view, then cool, stick it in, along with some Dreamtime stories and so on. Have a bit of all of it as how man put animals into history or whatever. I dont see why people need to get all upset and "OMG TEH ZOO IS LEARNING US CREATIONISM" from that...

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 10 June 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

(though really in that case why the 7 days of creation - it should more be something like jesus turning those dudes into pigs, or some shit)

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 10 June 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

I've been on the Noah's Ark at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Other religions represented include the Roller Ghoster, the Cat and Mouse, and some Doughnut Shops.

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 03:05 (twenty years ago)

yes but they have negelcted to mention that creation is cubic as they are oeasily offended educated stupids

― Cubic Wisdom, Friday, 10 June 2005 03:06 (twenty years ago)

Meanwhile, in Texas...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/09/cancer.battle.ap/index.html

― Jimmy Mod Is Great At Getting Us Into Trouble (ModJ), Friday, 10 June 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

I find it frightening, as a Brit, that we already have our creationist zoo...
http://www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk/index.shtml

― smudger (smudger), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

I think that if they allow a creationist display, they should allow angsty young science students to create the display.

.. And the .."God" said OMGWTF let there be light and he made 700 different kinds of horses because like he just wasn't sure which design was the most "rad". And then who created man and the gorilla was all like "Whatever dude. Thanks for making us number two on the food chain."

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

I think that if they allow a creationist display, they should allow angsty young science students to create the display.

they should also allow a tweeist display -- w/ lots of unicorns and monchchichis and carebears (all wiped out by The Great Flood).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

The problem, Trayce, is that it ISN'T Noah's Ark or, say, doves as a symbol in the New Testament but that the zoo caved on creationism, which has fuck-all to do with the Christian religion I was raised in, is neither theologically nor culturally interesting, and which really has no place in zoos whatsoever.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

Now the Lord said, "I am the light of the world." Now he could've just as easily said, "I am KING SHIT of FUCK MOUNTAIN. WHY WOULD YOU FUCK WITH ME?!"

xpost

― Ian Riese-Moraine. Exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Friday, 10 June 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

Where do Creationists stand on all the wacky, contradictory shit in the Bible? I mean it can't be possible to treat the entire book as (sorry) gospel truth. I assume most of them don't adhere to kosher diets, for example. So why fixate on the most obviously dipshit bit of the whole thang?

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

because God said.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

Reasons Why Christians Don't Have To Obey Torah

― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

huh huh he said "bearshit"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

Hnuh hnuh hnuh I thought it said "beershit".

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, what the German lawyer said - it's one thing to include Ganesh in a display that amounts to, "Some people worship an elephant god," and then dropping in How The World Was Made like it has anything at all to do with a zoo's business. I don't want " ... a display depicting God's creation of the world in six days and his rest on the seventh, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible," next to my damn monkey cage. Actually, maybe I do, if I could squeeze in a mondo-sized display about CHARLES DARWIN next to the damn thing.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Let them have their display, it could only be improved by the chimps flinging shit at it and wanking over it.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

"And on the 6th day, God created the chimps, and He looked on his work, and He saw that it was wanking itself blind."

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"verily i say unto thee, that when thou goest into an outhouse, the most appropriate thing to do is to taketh a shit and hurleth thy shit upon thy creation"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

(though really in that case why the 7 days of creation - it should more be something like jesus turning those dudes into pigs, or some shit)
-- Trayce

Where did this happen Trayce? I should've paid more attention in religious studies.

What I like about the creationist myth is that God did the whole thing in only six days - and still had time for a nap! That was very cocky - almost like a wrestler move or a Bobby Fischer stunt or something.

― moley, Saturday, 11 June 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

it was more like jesus cast the demons out from people and the demons went into some pigs instead. then the pigs jumped of a cliff. uh, i think.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 11 June 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

O yes that was it. Ha, shows you how religious I am (ie not).

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 12 June 2005 09:29 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

a follow up bit

― kingfish (Kingfish), Monday, 27 June 2005 05:57 (twenty years ago)

Peggy Hill, an associate professor of biological science at the University of Tulsa, said the creationism display disturbs her because it incorrectly asserts that faith and scientific method are comparable pursuits of knowledge.

"It's just not science," said Dr. Hill, a devout Catholic and member of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education. "The zoo is supposed to be promoting education. This is clearly promoting religion."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/kinghill03.jpg

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 27 June 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)

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