Creationism in National Parks (from my DoD email)

[HawkerHurricane]

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December 22, 2003 | Back Issues « previous |
Bush Administration's "Faith-Based Parks"

In a series of recent decisions, the National Park Service has approved the display of religious symbols and Bible verses, as well as the sale of creationist books about the origins of natural wonders in national parks, according to documents to be released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“The Bush Administration appears to be sponsoring a program of faith-based parks,” said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.

In July, NPS Deputy Director Donald Murphy ordered the Grand Canyon National Park to return three bronze plaques bearing biblical verses to public viewing areas on the Canyon’s South Rim. Murphy overruled the park superintendent, who had authorized the removal based on legal advice from the Interior Department that the religious displays violated the First Amendment.

On its website, the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, which put up the plaques, says the Bible verses were allowed in the national park after “God touched the hearts of officials to give permission.”

This fall, the Park Service approved a creationist text, “Grand Canyon: A Different View,” for sale in park bookstores and museums. The book claims that the Grand Canyon is only a few thousand years old and developed on a biblical, rather than an evolutionary, time scale. At the same time, Park Service leadership has blocked publication of guidance for park rangers and other interpretative staff that labeled creationism as lacking any scientific basis, PEER found.

The actions would appear to be in conflict with President Bush’s stated support for policies based on “sound science.”

Last month, the Park Service announced it would alter an 8-minute video shown at the Lincoln Memorial visitor center of past demonstrations and events at the memorial. Conservative groups had asked for the removal of footage of gay rights, pro-choice and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations because it implies that “Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion ‘rights’ as well as feminism.” The Park Service has promised to develop a “more balanced” version that includes rallies of Christian groups and pro-war demonstrations, PEER said.

The Park Service is also engaged in a legal battle to continue displaying an 8-foot-tall cross atop a 30-foot-high rock outcropping in the Mojave National Preserve in California. The suit is pending before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

###
SOURCES:
<1> PEER press release, Dec. 22
<2> Donald Murphy letter, July 18, 2003
<3> Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary website
<4> Canyon Ministries website

[tom_paine]

1. Ah, the madness in the descent of a Free Nation into Orwellian Empire!

Wow, and all the Busheviks have to do is shake a fist and the cowards bow down before them.

Yeah, Lincoln would have hated the Federal Government, too. We all know how he hated the Federal Government, right?

More and more the Old American Republic is wiped away in ways both large and small. The Lincoln issue and the Censoring of the Ronnie Raygun Story were death rattles of a bygone age.

Can we save Liberty? Is it still possible, given the current Amerikan seeming preference for Tyranny? Or is it just that they haven't yet tasted enough of it because it hasn't yet "trickled down".

I don't know anymore, but Imperial Fiat is now almost as powerful as Legislative Law, and I think the power of Law is waning in the entreme, first as Imperial Interests are clearly no longer bound by even a shred of law, eventually as the meaningless law, which is really tyranny, is used as a bludgeon to destroy the last Free Americans.

[nosmokes]

2. oh, brother

science by political belief. this is so ludicrous.

[JHB]

3. The Soviet Administration

I thought all the neocons and free marketeers in this administration hated the Soviet Union! Turns out their only problem with it was that they weren't running it. They're certainly doing their best to emulate its style of government!

Time to start adding "Comrade" to these guys' names. Sheesh!

[HawkerHurricane]

6. The Soviets hated Darwin too...

Also on religious grounds (Communism being a religion).
Lysenko, where are you now?

[tom_paine]

18. Heh Heh...Lysenko

You know, I think the Busheviks have exhumed and re-animated the corpse in the White House basement in Ollie North's old office.

They are going to need a Minister of Re-Education for the Western Gulags in a couple decades. A good apparatchik like Lysenko is a hard find, and the Busheviks will value his scientific skills...

[RobinA]

4. Remind Me

to read up on the Dark Ages during my Christmas break. Just want to know what to expect.

[Lars39]

5. Well, if the Grand Canyon is only a few thousand years old

the creationist yahoos won't bounce as far, will they? :grr:

[oldcoot]

7. Tell me this a joke!

This cannot be real. The National Park Service might be able to justify keeping the cross if it has historical value. However, I have major issues with posting religious signs (unless of course, they are willing to give all religions equal time) and providing "alternate" books about the origins of the Grand Canyon.

[yolatengo]

8. no, but THIS is...

I'm kind of digging the whole thing.

Think about it; if everyone younger than us is taught this ignorant,
flat-earth nonsense, it means more for us! Perpetual employment!
Who would hire a flat-earther when they can have an educated person?

When push comes to shove, the Bushevik greedheads want COMPETENCE.
If you're competing for a job, say at NASA, and your 'competetor' thinks
the universe is 6000 yrs old and rain is God's tears, who do you think
they're gonna hire? If you're 45 and worried some 22 yr old will take your
job, never fear! Will your company hire someone who doesn't believe in
atoms to take your job at Intel?

We can be a light in the darkness! :think:

Raising a generation of fearful ignorati is the best thing to keep me
perpetually employed I can think of! I don't even have to keep my
skills set up when I know the younger generation and a majority of
knuckledragging Red Staters not only believe the earth is flat and
dinosaurs walked the earth with Noah but that learning ANYTHING
is ultimately heresy!

Just gotta hope they don't storm my castle and burn me at the stake...

Bigby

[HawkerHurricane]

11. They don't dare...

give all religions 'equal time'. It would fill the entire wall of the Grand Canyon with plaques, and it still wouldn't give them all equal time...

[noonwitch]

9. Did the angel Moroni create Grand Canyon?

Or was it Jesus when he came to preach to the lost tribe of the Mormons?

Evolution is scientific theory.
Creationism is a psuedo science created to justify religious belief.

I consider W to be a piece of evidence in support of evolution-his line just doesn't have much distance between the human and the monkey.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. Can I go ahead...

and tear the freedom of religion out of the Bill of Rights now? We rail against theocracies in other lands, but we lovingly coddle our own.

[maxsolomon]

13. freedom FROM religion

i'm sick of crucifixes in my face.

'jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine' - patti smith

[HawkerHurricane]

14. Jesus died for our sins...

Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing any?

[maggrwaggr]

17. ah, but your goodness is like dirty rags to God

so sayeth the bible. Doesn't matter how great you are, you are still filth in the eyes of God.

Until you repent, that is.

[Jacobin]

12. What's next? A faith based geology department at a college?

"Okay, this sedimentary layer is 2000 feet deep and was deposited by god when he created earth 10,000 years ago.".....I mean, what the fuck will they do for oil and gas geologists?

[karlschneider]

15. Oil & gas were created on July 23, 4004 BC. At 3.25 pm. Not sure what

time zone, though.

You'll have to ask Bishop Ussher. Oops, he's dead. Never mind.
:eyes:

[Jacobin]

16. We really are descending back into the Dark Ages

I'm just amazed every time I read another idiotic thing these dingbats do.

It's just beyond belief, really.

[tom_paine]

19. That's ARCH-Bishop Ussher to you!

The new Bushevik head of the Ministry of Science.

[HawkerHurricane]

20. And remember...

ArchBishop Ussher was a good Anglican, not a dirty Papist.

[cmd]

21. Nothing new here, Hawker

Old Faithful has been around a long, long time.

Merry Christmas, HH, to you and your family. I'm so glad you will be able to share the holidays with them this year. cmd

[WillyT]

22. Anybody Find A Link To This ???

My Mom who works with Americans United would like to see the actual article, or something like it.

:shrug:

[snippy]

24. Is this the link you want?

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000017.php

[kcwayne]

23. No Creation "Science" found at Mammoth Caves

I just visited Mammoth Caves National Park (Kentucky) this weekend, and did not see any creationist nonsense there. The geologic presentation of how the caves were formed repeatedly mentions processess that are millions of years old as the causal agents for the formation of the caverns, as well the evolution of life forms specifically adapted to living in total darkness.

The people that have studied the caves, which include the National Forestry Service, have developed a comprehensive model based on evidence and logic to describe how, over the course of a hundred million years, water can dissolve limestone to create the vertical tubes and horizontal shafts that make up 300 miles of inter-connected caves in this area of Kentucky (the largest cave system in the world).

I don't know what they think about creationism, but if I were part of the team that had used replicatable scientific experiments, reasoning, logic, and alot of hard, painstaking work to try to understand the forces that could create this magnificent geologic structure, I would be very vocal about not allowing the park to present something as ignorant as a creationist explanation to be offered as an "alternate theory".

Creation science is no more relevent to understanding anything about the nature of this planet or universe, than grinding up chicken feet and sprinking them with magic dust created from the blood of tree frogs and sheep dung is to curing brain tumors.