Ken Ham tried to brainwash me, and now he wants to stiff arm you

Anyone who spends more than a few hours with me learns of my redneck past. That redneck past included a sort of fascist conservatism inspired by backwoods Baptist regime, and sure, I'm a little proud I escaped. In my bootcamp time at a Baptist church in northeastern Kentucky, the youth group (of which I was a rogue, because I listened to devil music like R.E.M. and the Dave Matthews Band, although even the kids who listened to Jars of Clay were given dirty looks as well) showed Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis series.

Ken Ham is an Australian guy with some made up degrees who responds to any and all questions about evolution with "Well, were you there? God was, and you weren't. So there." I can't argue with that logic. Something about the aussie accent makes it just that much more farcical. It feels like maybe this is some foreigner who is totally proud to be taking these bumpkins for a ride with his materials. But unfortunately, that's probably not the case.

To insert myself into this picture, I think this was about the time I was 16, and still a full-court press creationist. I was taking AP Biology, and I wasn't quite convinced that evolution (or macroevolution, as the ID folks like to specifiy) really made sense. I'd learned enough of the internal logic to have an intelligent debate about evolution with other creationist folk. Sadly, there was no one at my church with a substantial science background to have an intelligent debate (Josh Hearne was only 14... so I'll give him a break), so I was roughly left alone, except for the one associate pastor who trained at Liberty University (that's Jerry Falwell's brainwash camp, for the uninitiated). Between Ken Ham's terrible logic, and David whose-last-name-I-can't-remember's complete disregard for the actual definition of the second law of thermodynamics that solidified me as somebody who would be proud to say that Creationism was a whole bunch of bullshit meant to try to get smart kids like me to stop asking all the right questions.

But I digress...

One of the great projects of the AiG folk has been to build a zillion-dollar creationist museum at Big Bone Lick State Park in northern Kentucky, just a skip down from Cincinnati.

I blog this now because Mark at BluegrassReport has a nice little tidbit:

Administrators of Answers in Genesis's Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky. have asked Gov. Ernie Fletcher to grant special police powers to their onsite security force.

Museum officials say they need the gubernatorial action so their 10- to 20-person security team can gain access to better training and equipment to ensure they can handle the crowds and traffic anticipated when the facility opens May 28.

Construction is nearing completion on the $25 million museum, which provides detailed views of the creationist's argument that the earth was created in six days about 6,000 years ago, as opposed to the multibillion year process that evolutionists espouse.

Now, I won't pretend to know why these folks think they need some sort of special privileges. Maybe this is standard procedure, maybe they're afraid that the less-enlightened of the anti-creationists would be interested in vandalism or protest.

But I sorta doubt it. It's creepy, and its certainly consistent with the authoritarian world view Ken Ham and his Army of the Gullible endorse. It's better to run your institution as a police state than to risk someone asking the wrong question.

So remember: Adam and Eve lived with the dinosaurs. And if you don't think so, we'd be happy to show you to the door using only the necessary force for which we are authorized by Governor Fletcher.