Ken Ham visited an aquarium and was dismayed at the sinfulness on display there.
Visited the Sydney Aquarium (Australia) today – was surprised and saddened at how it’s changed with an incredible emphasis on sharks almost all the way through – it almost seemed like a worship center for sharks and the environment and as well as a church of evolution – makes me burdened even more to get the truth of God’s Word beginning in Genesis out to the culture
That’s right. Ken Ham went to the Sydney Aquarium and was saddened that they had displays featuring fish. What did he expect, Bibles floating in the tanks?
This could be a whole series. Ham visits a park, is surprised at the emphasis on trees and grass. Ham goes to a ball game, is horrified that the people are running and throwing and cheering rather than praying. Ham steps outside his house, notices the unrelenting blueness of the sky, runs back inside to recover his equanimity by watching the Trinity Broadcast Network.
I’d rather see a sea full of sharks than one more bit of idiocy from Answers in Genesis.
dannicoy says
Hmmm Ken Ham in Australia near sharks and nobody told me….
Snoof says
I was at Sydney Aquarium last year, and they really do focus on the sharks a lot (and penguins). It’s not surprising, since sharks are a whole lot more charismatic than, say, flounder, and thus attract the important 8-to-14-year-old demographic.
It’s also strange that Ham is surprised at the lack of overtly religious propaganda in an aquarium. He’s originally from Australia, he knows we don’t go for splashy piety in public spaces[1], and yet he’s acting surprised. Maybe it’s an act, a way of attempting to drum up attention, or maybe he’s sunk so far into his own little world that anything that isn’t obnoxiously labeled with crosses and Jesus-fish and Bible quotes seems strange and foreign.
[1] Compared to many places in the US, at any rate.
irisvanderpluym says
I’d pay good money to follow him around the Museum of Sex.
lordshipmayhem says
I think Ham sees sharks as being a competing predator for the sheep he considers HIS natural prey.
Louis says
Ken Ham + Sharks + Australia?
Look, for fuck’s sake Australian and oceanic fauna, I liked Steve Irwin and you did for him, is it really so much to ask that Hammy gets a stingray right in the useful bits?
Too soon?
Louis
jamessweet says
It’s the Ken Ham filter. A reasonable observation like:
“Gee, they sure do talk a lot about sharks… there are other marine animals, you know. I guess they just don’t sell tickets as well.”
..becomes…
“ZOMG THEY ARE WORSHIPING A PAGAN SHARK GOD!”
woggler says
An aquarium with fish? Why, that’s crazy. It’s almost as crazy as dinosaur exhibits at a religious theme park. Or building a boat that won’t float on water.
rq says
There were just too many sharks. The biblical number of sharks is two, as everyone knows. Anything more than that is just plain sinful.
And how they devour all the lesser little fishes! Someone should speak to the sharks about murder and the other ten commandments. This one looks pretty receptive to
some Hamgod’s message.zenlike says
Now it’s personal.
garydargan says
Hambone is from Queensland, Australia’s Deep North where they love God and Guns and the size of your hat is no measure of your intelligence. Most Australians are to smart for his bullshit. Thats why he moved to America. When he did the average IQ of both countries rose.
Louis says
I’m not American, nor do I play one on television, but…
Ouch!
Louis
Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says
Not to worry. Sharks will eat ham. Or Ham.
Lofty says
None of the shark tanks carried biblical quotes on the information plaques. For some reason, this upset the Hamster. I’ll keep an eye on the local news and see if he gets reported for scribbling on the notices with marker pens.
Rich Woods says
Maybe he was disappointed by the lack of a model ark in each tank.
U Frood says
Worship center for the environment? Shouldn’t Ham appreciate the beauty of the environment God gave man?
Snoof says
No, that would suggest that we shouldn’t be tearing it apart looking for sweet, sweet oil.
Johnny Pez says
Sounds like Ham could use a shark sandwich.
marcus says
irisvanderpluym @ 3 Thanks for the link, but I went over there and there seemed to be an inordinate amount of attention given to sex. I was saddened that there were no displays about biblical marriage and the proper place for women in society. Is was mostly focused on physical relations. I feel burdened to get my anti-equality, woman-hating, anachronistic and idiotic truth of God’s Word beginning in Genesis out to the culture.
tfkreference says
I thought creationists liked sharks, since they haven’t changed in millions of…oh, I see why Ham doesn’t.
steve oberski says
Whatever happened to professional courtesy ?
TV's Dan Mead says
Quick, someone tell Ken Ham about shark parthenogenesis. He’ll burst.
Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says
steve:
That’s lawyers, not evangelical liars.
gardengnome says
So the Sydney Aquarium uses sharks to get the kids interested – while Hambone’s Creation ‘Museum’ uses…fire-breathing dragons?
He’s got a point though – there’s nothing in his babble (as far as I know) about sharks, therefore the Aquarium has no business featuring them.
U Frood says
Since the flood only wiped out all the evil on land, the sharks (undisturbed by the flood) are still overwhelmed by evil.
twas brillig (stevem) says
Ham :-( Sharks ??
I was sure that Hamster would be a big fan of “Sharknado”; as truth of God’s wrath at all the gay marriage in Murrica. What better place to show the reality of the Sharknado than in an aquarium stocked with many Sharks; to show how ravenous, and out to getcha they are? er, Ham is just angry that they are usurping his purpose in life, that he is the one to show use how deadly sharks are, that his homeboys are too sweet and pure to harbor such terrible creatures.
But Ham, we just pretend to worship sharks; to keep them happy. We are so afraid that God will strike us with shark attacks. Don’t be angry, we’re just doin our best to keep from gitten ett. We not Gay, my best friend is gay, I even let xim use my bathroom. Don’t sic sharks on me, … I’ll give you my friends address…
/satire
Artor says
Louis @5
Ken ham has NO useful bits to get stung in.
Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says
Hmm.
Shark.
shark.Ark.
Think it means anything?
Trebuchet says
Ham’s in Australia? Quick, get him on the no-fly list so he can’t come back!
ManOutOfTime says
Ken Ham walks into a Taliban public execution and says “Finally! Some people who get it!”
Giliell, professional cynic -Ilk- says
After my kids saw the sharks at the Aquarium in La Rochelle they made a song about the different species. They’re smart kids, they are.
tsig says
Ham has jumped the shark.
Graculus says
Sharks aren’t fish
/cladistics
chigau (違う) says
tsig #31
You win.
Kristof says
Reminds me an old joke from Soviet era.
Diary:
Day 1. I open my newspaper – all articles are about communism.
Day 2. I turn on my radio – all broadcasts are about communism.
Day 3. I talk to my neighbours – they all talk about communism.
Day 4. I’m afraid to open my fride…
aziraphale says
Sharks are predators. Predators are more interesting than prey. That’s why we like lions, wolves and eagles. That’s why Aslan was a lion, not a sheep.
Though Ham probably thinks Lewis was a heretic anyway.
w00dview says
What is it with idiots who think that recognising the importance of something and trying to preserve it for future generations = crazy pagan religion worshipping false gods?
I mean do people like Ham think charities like Save the Children and the RSPCC are spooky cults because they are concerned with protecting children? Do they think they literally worship toddlers and are advocates of killing the adult population*? Do these gobshites not realise how idiotic they sound?
*You know, kinda like how being an environmentalist means you automatically hate humans? This zero sum, black and white thinking pisses me off to no end.
Marcus Ranum says
Ham probably expected amusement-park style fiberglass fish, like he would have if it was his “museum”
irisvanderpluym says
marcus: Perhaps you might be more interested in Iceland’s Phallological Museum. (http://www.phallus.is/en/). Its focus is more aligned with biblical priorities.
Enopoletus Harding says
So
is somehow anti-shark and anti-environmentalist. Got it.
Even for Ken Ham’s typical fake Biblical literalism, this takes the cake. Where does Ham get this stuff?
Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says
God tells him. Via the hair dryer.
Daz: Experiencing A Slight Gravitas Shortfall says
Did Ham’s god not create sharks then?
twas brillig (stevem) says
Yes, ff course not, the answer is SATAN!!11!!!11
Juliana Ewing says
God created Noah and Ark, not Noah and Shark!
Naked Bunny with a Whip says
Ham went on to complain about the extensive nudity, the unclothed beasts flagrantly displaying their shame in front of the crowd, triggering demonic urges in his loins. …Their loins. The loins of the other, ungodly visitors. Yes.
Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says
Naked Bunny:
Which brings a whole new level of weirdness to tsig’s ‘jump the shark’ comment. I think I need to bleach my brain.
UnknownEric the Apostate says
He was once invited on the same weekend to appear on a radio show hosted by Jim Rye and to visit the Mayo clinic. He decided on Ham on Rye, hold the Mayo.
/groooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooan
graham says
“a church of evolution”. Sounds great. I’ll have me some of that.
Much better than a Church of Irrelevant Fantasy.
Tony! The Fucking Queer Shoop! says
Ham says:
You poor thing. That is such a heavy burden. I bet you’ll be working just as hard as the 1%.
Tony! The Fucking Queer Shoop! says
aziraphale @35:
A bit of a generalization I think.
markd555 says
In Ham’s world, every animal was a herbivore before the “fall”.
He’s just sad that there was no info detailing how Sharks used their sharp teeth to slice seaweed – before that darn woman ate a magic apple and screwed everything up.
markr1957 says
Look, you pay lots of money both in Ham’s churches and at the aquarium, and both places have people who tell you what to believe (in the Hamster’s mind). At church people pay to worship god. At an aquarium people pay to worship sharks! What more proof do you need? /snark.
patterson says
Perhaps he was hoping or a flood themed aquarium, a few dead bodies floating around, a drowned village.
Dyami Hayes says
Hilarious!
To be clear, the shark display is only upsetting because (i) it gives no thanks to Noah, who saved their entire Natural Kind from God’s (omni-benevolent) WRATH, and (ii) it treats them and their Kind as ends in themselves, when all Shark-talk must include and depend on their Creator.
gjpetch says
For some added context: in Western Australia sharks are currently being killed in large numbers, essentially for superstitious reasons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG8pN3L4TXg
theignored says
Comment #51 by
markr1957
So, Mark has just given us some shark snark.
ashley says
Ken Ham is a moronic ideologue and zealot. A rabble rouser who cannot speak any sense or show any respect for the opinions of others.
chigau (違う) says
Wait
Ken Ham considers Doing God’s Work to be a “burden”?
Does God know about this?
kittehserf says
::snort:: Ham should have visited WA. He’d love it there, what with their “culling” sharks.
Francisco Bacopa says
I have learned to love and trust sharks. I went for a January swim in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago and got bumped twice by a large shark. I couldn’t tell what kind she was but she was big enough to be a large lemon shark or a medium bull shark. She went on her way and I continued to bob in the breaking surf. You are pretty safe in a shark encounter away from San Luis Pass. That’s where the water is murky and a strong current washes out the laguna at low tide. Lots of sharks and dolphins, and the occasional pygmy sperm whale, hunt in the current. But while this is the most common place for shark attacks, such attacks are still rare. Drowning is much more common at San Luis as fishermen try to catch the fish that come into the shallows as the tide recedes.
woozy says
From Ken Ham’s facebook comments:
“The fascination with sharks is just part of the culture of death evolution is creating in people’s minds. Its the same thing with the fascination with zombies.”
” I’ve wondered for quite some time why there is such a fascination for sharks. I know that in our fallen world they have a role to play, but humans have elevated and ‘romanced’ the killer part to that of a strange kind of idol.”
“We love sharks, wolves, vampires…the weird list goes on and on.”
… must get dizzy in those people’s little minds.
I mean, seriously, would any of you have predicted that stuff like that goes on in creationists’ pointy little heads.
Snoof says
woozy @ 60
And here we see Ham’s problem. He still thinks of sharks as the aquatic equivalent of serial killers, rather than just animals. I wonder if he thinks peoples’ fascination with eagles and lions to be “part of the culture of death”. After all, they’re top-level predators too.
In any case, he’s got no room to talk. He’s constantly harping on about a guy getting tortured to death. How’s that not a culture of death?
marcus says
irisvanderpluym @ 38 Now you’re talkin’!
Ingdigo Jump says
Ham’s cry is an old one of his ilk. Let me translate
“People are having fun and I won’t take that sitting down!”
borax says
I used to love sharks then that damn landshark ate my brother. I told him not to open the door for a candygram.
woozy says
Snoof @61
Minor, but for the sake of fairness, correction: Those comments weren’t by Ken Ham but by other people commenting on Ken Ham’s facebook page.
PZ quoted the facebook page in its entirety. Anything else is from the page’s comments section.
I honestly am not sure what Ken Ham’s point is. He thinks that aquariums have taken on an “evolutionist” framework and propaganda. That’s kind of fair. Modern aquariums have. And that’s as it should be. He thinks aquariums have taken on a simple environmentalism/recycle/vegitarianism/earth good/people bad/granola and chrystals attitude which I guess he’s entitled to be annoyed by. I get annoyed by the simplicity of the average museum’s “shopping for a better world for kiddies” messages but I prefer that we teach appreciation for the environment and concern over environmental damage rather than any rape and pillage attitude. He thinks aquariums don’t worship god enough which is a bit off the deep-end as it’s a fucking aquarium for the public and not an effin’ church but at least I know what he’s saying, the bat-shit lunatic. But the “emphasis on sharks”???? Huh? what’s wrong with sharks?
Menyambal says
See, when God tried to drown all the evil people in the Flood, the sharks ate them before they could drown. So the sharks not only thwarted God’s plan, they consumed all the evil. That sin and that evil is inherited by modern sharks.
rorschach says
Is Ham coming to Melbs, anyone know? I’d sooo love to get a look at the guy.
What’s Ham’s problem with sharks, I wonder? Seeing that
Russell CroweNoah had none on the ark presumably, and god’s wet wrath would have left the sea creatures pretty unfussed anyway.marcus says
rorschach @ 67 “…god’s wet wrath would have left the sea creatures pretty unfussed anyway.”
OMG! Sharks are God’s chosen people! It’s sharks! Sharks!
I believe that an infusion of that much fresh water, plus the incidental debris, siltation, and change of global currents, would have devastated the oceans as well. It is hard to imagine that the marine environment would have recovered in a mere 4000-6000 years.
Al Dente says
You’re wrong. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “The cockroaches shall inherit the earth.”
rinn says
Perhaps he just expected to see more cephalopods? Kiddng.
abutsimehc says
Imagine the righteous gasket he will burst when he sees this:
Your Inner Fish
A new 3-part series about how the human body evolved to be the quirky, amazing machine it is today.
Premieres April 9, 2014 10pm ET on PBS.
Classroom resources: biointeractive.org/yif
Flyer from HHMI pictures a model of Tiktaalik roseae … one of those missing links Ham, et.al., keep on about not existing. Move over Yahveh … your gap is full!
Google shows other sources of resources.
abutsimehc says
Here’s a PBS press release on the Inner Fish series:
http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2013/pbs-announces-your-inner-fish/
notyet says
@69 AlDente
You are confused, cockroaches were part of the “vermin on the mount” parable.
Gerard Farell says
He is so dumb, he was disappointed the aquarium did not display Jesus-fish.
anuran says
I remember a story from OMNI many years ago. It seems that Christ came not for the Jews or the Gentiles but for the mitochondria. The world ends, at least for most animals, when he comes back and exhorts his followers to “rise up and shake off the dust of your feet”. And the last thing the narrator hears as the formerly-resident energy factories get raptured away and he descends into cellular death is “In my Father’s house there are many mansions”
chigau (違う) says
Omni was fucking awesome.
ajbjasus says
Its projection. Ham’s only use for dinosaurs is to catch the attention of children, so he assumes that the evilutionists are using those exciting sharks’ only purpose in the aquarium is to snare the attention of visitors and indoctrinate them.
As an aside, will people like Ham and is acolytes ever have a thought, or do anything without banging on about the Bible? Do they ever do anything normal ?
Thumper: Token Breeder says
Having finally stopped laughing, I find myself a little confused. What would he preferr? Does he have a particular fondness for jellyfish, that he feels the aquarium is not fulfilling? *
Or maybe (ZOMG!) cephalopods?!
*I now have an excellent image of Ham and a horde of jellyfish protesting outside the aquarium; “They took er jerbs!”.
davidchapman says
I do believe a classic Jesus & Mo cartoon is in order. From Halloween, 2012…..
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2012/10/31/year/
Rey Fox says
What a sad, small, and boring world that must be.