Now back to our regularly scheduled topic...
Sweeney, I have been to the Creation Evidences Museum in Texas a few times - it's hilarious to hear people who are quite serious when they make idiotic claims such as:
Fire-breathing dragons are living dormant at the bottom of the seas, awaiting Armageddon.
Rattlesnake bites used to be beneficial to people "before the Flood".
The Earth was surrounded by a canopy of ice that was superconducting, ferromagnetic, and fiber optic.
Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time, and left footprints in what is now the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas.
Pre-flood humans would easily run 200 miles a day between what is now Glen Rose and what is now the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
Self-proclaimed "Dr." Carl Baugh has built up quite a following at the Creation Evidences Museum, near Texas' Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose. Initially, Baugh's "museum" was in hut, then eventually moved to a mobile home, and the last time I went a few years ago, he had a double-wide trailer. Baugh's alleged science degrees are all bogus, from a series of unaccredited creationist "universities" - what are colloquially known as diploma mills set up by Baugh's friends, including at least 3 which were Churches. In fact, the picture of the "university" on Baugh's website is actually a photo of what was then Burleson Baptist Temple, which has been renamed The Church At Burleson, if I recall correctly (in Burleson, Texas). When I visited to check on Baugh's obviously bogus credentials, the church wasn't open that day - there were no signs indicating that the church was any kind of university from the outside, and nothing visible in the foyer that showed it to be a university. During the week, they did answer the phone with the university name. When pressed for details about the "university", they referred callers to creationist Clifford Wilson's "university" in Missouri, which was the source of their study materials.
The double-wide museum has a collection of fossils and sideshow paraphenalia (such as a suit from someone once billed as the tallest man in the world, if I recall). There's a mural on one side depicting creation as Baugh sees it, and a fish tank with some fish (Pacu?) that are either related to pirhanas or are a species of pirhanas that are larger than usual (maybe some that eat mostly fruit). Baugh has an idea fixee that "pre-Flood" animals grew larger, and apparently some of his followers believe the fish have grown to extraordinary size through some simulation of pre-Flood conditions. Baugh has a medical hyperbaric chamber in the trailer that had two poisonous snakes (the "pre-Flood" atmosphere was supposed to be denser since it was contained within the ice canopy shell surrounding the Earth). Baugh had an oscilloscope attached to it sweeping a trace across for visual effect, apparently, since the test connectors weren't actually connected to anything.
This message has been edited by Ediacaran, 05-27-2004 12:05 AM
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