Ken Ham’s organization, Answers in Genesis, tells the sad story of a case of child abuse at his group’s Creation Museum in Kentucky.
I don’t get the idea that Ham is sad about it, though, do you?
Destroying a child’s natural curiosity about science and the world around them damages them for life. In the U.S., we are fighting trends that show kids in 4th grade are as scientifically adept as the other best students in the world; by 8th grade their affinity for science has begun to fade, and by 12th grade, U.S. students rank far below many other industrialized nations in science achievement. Ken Ham’s story is one reason why that happens.
Isn’t crushing a child’s intelligence a form of child abuse?
Is this story funny, or tragic?
Update: At Digital Cuttlefish, a story from the other side. (Thanks, George.)
Another update: Even more from Digital Cuttlefish, The Rest of the Story.
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You may do well to see what Digital Cuttlefish has to say about this affair, specifically:
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2011/03/rest-of-story.html
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You take the point entirely too seriously for the humor intended.
My expertise is confined to the legal area, where serious child abuse is always prefaced by such falsehoods and the insistence that the child must grant sway to authority rather than reason. In other words, I overstated the case in the headline. I made a humorous response to a post. But now that you mention it, yes, telling lies to children about science and reality is often the gateway to later abuse of the child. It’s not a 100% pathology causal link, just as not 100% of beer drinkers progress to alcoholism.
But, you’re right, it’s a valid observation of the pathology, and if you spend a few months looking at child abuse cases, you’ll see the pathology in action.
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Jinx, some people argue that telling falsehoods to children is acceptable in a few cases, such as continuing a Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy myth.
Is that the category in which you put telling falsehoods to children about evolution and science?
At what point do you tell your kids there is no Santa Claus? Does that come before, or after, you tell them there is no creationism?
What do you think about the Creation Museum’s insistence that
Santa Claus is still valid historycreationism is still valid science? At what point do we tell adults it’s not okay to keep telling falsehoods to children?At what point does telling the falsehood become abuse?
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Oh look..an evangelical Protestant “preacher” calling for the execution of all homosexuals.
Now what was that term again….
Ah yes….genocide.
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Or there is “Preacher” Bradlee Dean, a favorite of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and several other Minnesota Republicans including former GOP nominee for Minnesota’s governorship. Mr. Dean had this to say recently:
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit ministry that brings its hard rock gospel into public schools, has been deepening its long-running ties to the Republican Party of Minnesota. Long a cause célèbre for Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has twice lent her name to the group’s fundraising efforts, You Can Run (YCR) had a booth at the GOP convention in April, and the group’s frontman, Bradlee Dean, reports that gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer recently accepted an invitation to visit with him at Dean’s home. But recent controversial statements by Dean — that Muslim countries calling for the execution of gays and lesbians are “more moral than even the American Christians” — have drawn the ire of some both within and outside the party.
“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,” Dean said on YCR’s May 15 radio show on AM 1280 the Patriot. “This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”
“If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that,” Dean continued. “That is what you are seeing in America.”
“The bottom line is this… they [homosexuals] play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator,” Dean said, before going on to make a claim that has no basis in fact: “On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?”
The ministry has become increasingly cozy with Minnesota Republicans. During the past few months, You Can Run has attended two Republican Party of Minnesota events and garnered the support of top Republican officials: The group participated in Bachmann’s campaign kickoff and fundraiser with Sarah Palin on April 7, where it set up a booth. YCR also had a booth at the Republican Party of Minnesota State Convention in late April — using space donated by the party, Dean says — where it greeted the party’s endorsed candidate for governor, Rep. Tom Emmer. Emmer attended the You Can Run fundraiser in late 2009. Dean says Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton invited the ministry to attend.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/58393/gop-linked-punk-rock-ministry-says-executing-gays-is-moral
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Jinx you want the name of the preacher?
Pat Robertson. Jerry Falwell. Billy Graham’s son. The jackasses that wrote the “Left Behind” series.
What you claim doesn’t happen is the standard belief of most evangelical right wing Protestants.
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Hi Jinx!
Oh…hijinks…heh…very nice!
Corroborate? You honestly believe there are no churches that teach this sort of thing?
Why on earth would I lie? I’m a Christian and I have no desire for any of my brothers and sisters to reflect poorly on the Savior. Unfortunately, a great many do.
Or are you the sort of Christian, Jinx, who believes only Muslims and Buddhists and Atheists abuse children and teach hate?
We Christians have a LOT of good history. There is much we can point to that Christians have done, holding our heads up with honor and dignity. But we’re brainwashed fools if we believe Christians are incapable of racism, hate, murderous violence or child abuse.
Jim
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Nice appeal to authority there Jinx, that’s always a winner in argumentation.
I would propose that chaining children to bronze age beliefs borders on abuse, but does not meet the proper definition standards. Now, the outright fraud that accompanies such belief is abusive in that it steals from their intellectual wealth or denies it. It is telling that the christian churches feed on those recently graduated from military boot camps. The population is quite malleable from a psychology point of view. It would take me a while to find that cite, but it has been noted by academic investigation.
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“Creationism is the gateway abuse to other forms of abuse.”
That’s odd. I can’t say I’ve ever heard any experts on child abuse make any such claim. Are you an expert? You must be to make such a claim. Is your claim backed by evidence and studies?
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“When I was a little older than that, I prayed to receive Jesus Christ as my “personal Lord and Savior”. Making that “decision” (and I use the term decision very loosely) did me no harm. The harm came when my mother taught me that God loves good little boys but damns bad little boys to Hell. The harm was done when I was beaten with blunt objects for saying, “Dammit”. The damage was done when I was taught that blacks were lazy, only conservative Christian Republicans love Jesus and America and that we should hate those who are different from us. And the harm was done when I was raised in a church that taught me I could lose my salvation…that God hated…that white, conservative, Christian, Protestant fundamentalists were superior.”
Can’t say that I was ever taught any such things or had any of that done to me. Care to corroborate your story? I’d love to know the name of the church and the preacher who taught such things.
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Creationism is the gateway abuse to other forms of abuse.
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Unless I am missing something, it seems like calling this “abuse” is pretty extreme hyperbole. I do consider the presentation of creation as “scientific fact” to be a serious case of educational neglect. But abuse and neglect are different things. And there are differing levels of neglect.
What should concern us far more than the fact that a little child was coaxed or induced into “making a decision for Christ” is that fact that so many of the children who are raised in these extreme fundamentalist homes are brutally beaten…to say nothing of the educational neglect they suffer when their parents or teachers teach fable as fact (about science, history AND sociology).
When I was a little older than that, I prayed to receive Jesus Christ as my “personal Lord and Savior”. Making that “decision” (and I use the term decision very loosely) did me no harm. The harm came when my mother taught me that God loves good little boys but damns bad little boys to Hell. The harm was done when I was beaten with blunt objects for saying, “Dammit”. The damage was done when I was taught that blacks were lazy, only conservative Christian Republicans love Jesus and America and that we should hate those who are different from us. And the harm was done when I was raised in a church that taught me I could lose my salvation…that God hated…that white, conservative, Christian, Protestant fundamentalists were superior.
That’s abuse. Not when a little child signs a card with the permission of his parents.
Perhaps I missed something? Do note that I agree the Creation Museum is nothing more than a crapload of baloney and hokum.
Jim
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So Jim, saying that humans lived alongside the dinosaurs despite absolutely no evidence supports that isn’t a lie?
Preaching that lie and using it to dumb down our kids and weaken the light of truth and knowledge isn’t a form of child abuse?
Making the United States a dumber place just so you can promulgate a bullshit religious belief isn’t stupid, abuse and downright treasonous?
The so called “Creation Museum” is a disgrace to true Christianity, it’s a disgrace to God and Jesus. It calls them sociopathic liars.
And any parent who preaches that creationism bullshit to their kids needs to have their heads examined.
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http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2011/03/rest-of-story.html
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That’s a pretty serious charge.
Prove it’s “child abuse.”
Prove that the child’s “natural curiosity about science and the world” has been “destroyed.”
Prove that the child’s intelligence has been “crushed.”
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Ouch – that was just painful to read. And right after I read Cuttlefish’s I’m so proud of my students!
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The child was six years old. The story is stupid, but then, we are talking about Hambo, here. It is frightening to think that these people might someday become so powerful that knowledge is forbidden and science will go back to the days of leeches and trepanning.
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Hopefully with the severe overreach the right is engaging in right now will see that they lose their hold on power for a couple generations.
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