We have angered Ken Ham!
In a recent blog post to his Answers in Genesis website, leading creationist Ken Ham laments the supposed power of atheists and the “secularist media,” complaining that they are damaging the reputation of his Ark Encounter, and the economy of the surrounding local businesses, writing:
Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure.
Sadly, they (atheists and the secular media) are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking.
In other words, Ken Ham blames atheists for his trouble. Ham is refusing to take responsibility for his own failure, and refusing to take responsibility for his broken promises to the citizens and business community of Grant County, Kentucky.
Uh-oh. A collision is coming. On one side, a bitter, pissed-off creationist who wants to blame atheists for every failing of his horrible phony theme park.
On the other, a certain atheist who is planning to visit said theme park and to write mocking, sarcastic posts about it (unless, of course, they finally convince me that science is wrong) this weekend. Yeah, that’s me: I’m flying to Cincinnati tomorrow for the 2017 Midwest Zebrafish Meeting, and before that meeting starts I was going to zip out to the Ark Park on Friday morning. Maybe it’ll be a very quick visit if the creationists happen to recognize me.
I should warn them that bad things happen to people who throw me out of creationist events. Better to let me wander about and gather ammo for ridicule.
Why not wear a disguise ,funny glasses and a false ,,,,oh sorry .
The only answer is to shave your beard before going.
Is that a Zebrafish Meeting in the Midwest, or a Meeting of Midwest Zebrafish?
I love it that there is such a thing as a Midwest Zebrafish Meeting. This implies that there are other regional zebrafish meetings, and maybe even a national one. Truly there’s a society—and probably a museum—for just about anything you can think of. One of my favorite such things is the Shad Museum in Connecticut, along with the Kimchi Museum in Seoul.
Infuriating creationists is rewarded with a comfy seat in heaven.
Make sure you pack your Darwin relic and make the proper incantations, appeasing Sagan, Salk, and Herschel. Don’t want to have your fragile faith slip!
@davidnagle #6
Which Herschel, William or Caroline?
Of course there are lots of zebrafish meetings! The European zebrafish meeting is coming up in July, and there’s an International zebrafish meeting next summer — I’m planning to attend that one, since it’s conveniently in Madison, WI.
PZ, you could wear a T-shirt!
https://amorphia-apparel.com/teach/
Subscribing. The system dropped me, somehow.
Can any zebrafish attend these conferences or do they have to be invited? Are there non-zebrafish speakers or are only zebrafish invited to give lectures? Just curious, in case there’s ever a zebrafish meeting near me and I want to attend to learn what zebrash have been researching. I’m always looking to improve my scientific literacy.
wsierichs — The question is how do you accommodate all the zebrafish at these meetings. Have zebrafish achieved extra-aquatic life or must they stay inside tank and bowls? If the later, how do they get around? How do they eat? Do they have special underwater microphones? Are there emergency teams standing by to rescuestranded fish? And, will any of the talks be available on TED?
As for your trip to the Ark Park, PZ, perhaps you could get a personal tour from the Hamster. I’m confident he want to do that because then he gets a chance to proselytize to you, show you the Roman road to redemption, and maybe even pray with you. If he saves your soul, not only does he prevent another soul from burning in Hell for eternity but he wins a special plume in his cap for winning over a Big Name Atheist.
Hey PZ will you by chance see Ken Ham there? You’ve met him before, right?
I mis-parsed that as “I love those infuriating creationists” and I was wondering “which ones?”
I recall that at one point, the creepily thorough surveillance around the Creation “Museum” was demonstrated by the fact that they took a picture of Bill Nye stopping and taking a picture of said “museum”. I can’t find a contemporary post, but this ranting screed from 2012 has a sidebar on the right with the surveillance still, stating that it happened in January 2011.
https://answersingenesis.org/train-up-a-child/bill-nyes-crusade-for-your-kids/
Given Ham’s paranoia and general control-freak behavior, PZ may well find that the ticket-sellers and guards will have a poster with his picture up stating NOTIFY MANAGEMENT IF THIS MAN TRIES TO BUY A TICKET OR ENTER.
They might not refuse him — they did allow the CreoZerg, after all — but they might still watch his every move.
And block him from climbing on any dinosaurs.
@Marcus Ranum #14
I can’t tell if PZ used “infuriating” as a verb or adjective. Either works.
I HATE Midwest Zebrafish. No, wait, that’s Illinois Nazis. Carry on.
robro @12:
Dunno about zebrafish, but I’ve seen a few multi-storey carp arks.
I think ice sea what you did there.
The theory that atheists/secularists caused the Ark Park to fail is a ridiculous theory. Everyone knows it was the gays.
There’s a striking similarity between the diatribe at AiG and the outpourings from the White House: debunked claims of YUUUGE opening day/inauguration crowds; every failure the fault of someone else; and, of course all of the FAKE NEWS in MSM.
Re: robro @ #12…
How do they get around in their tanks? That problem has been solved…https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/robocod/
#12: have you seen zebrafish facilities? You can accommodate a million attendees in a basement.
#13: I’ve never met Ken Ham. The one time I visited the Creation “Museum” he disappointed me by leaving the state.
PZ @ #23 — So then they use underwater microphones to give their talks? Or do they just use telepathy?
whheydt @ #24 — Wow! You guys have thought of everything.
There are a lot of things to get annoyed about in those two paragraphs, but I think I take most personal offense to the way Ken Ham plays the Pronoun Game (“they are influencing business investors”) only to immediately resolve the anaphora (“atheists and the secular media are influencing business investors”) in parentheses, just in case his target audience is too thick to follow his conspiracy theory without assistance. That’s not what pronouns are for, you fucker.
@PZ, ca #23:
No, I haven’t. I trust they cater properly and respectfully to LGBT zebrafish.
Drive just a little further down the interstate to Sadieville and say Hideedo ….we atheists in the Bible-thumping hills have to stick together … though I suspect there are a lot more unbelievers around here than you would think, we have to keep a low profile…
Re: robro @ #24…
Not my project. I just recalled seeing on the Raspberry Pi blog and searched for a link. My Raspberry Pi projects are much more modest (alarm clock, something my grandson can play with and learn to program on, an electronic name badge…). However, if you have a project that needs a moderate amount of computational power and don’t have a lot of money to spend on it, a Raspberry Pi is a good place to start.