Sleazy PZ's attack on the Cincinnati Zoo
Sleazy PZ Myers moans on his blog "Pharyngula,"
Sleazy PZ has done everything but explain how the missions of the zoo and the Creation Museum are inconsistent or incompatible. Some of the commenters on PZ's blog have even raised the so-called "separation-of-church-and-state" issue! However, the courts have ruled that infringement upon church-state separation may be excused for a secular purpose that is not a sham, and helping to provide revenue, visitors, and publicity for the zoo is such a secular purpose.
Also, the combo-ticket deal is not permanent but is just a one-time promotion that is good through Jan. 4. The apparent reason for the combo-ticket deal is that both the Zoo and the Museum have special holiday-season events.
The Creation Museum is a $25 million facility and attracts a lot of visitors. Selling the combo-tickets to visitors to the Creation Museum -- who otherwise might not be interested in visiting the zoo -- generates a lot of revenue, visitors, and publicity for the zoo. I myself was not aware of the importance of the Cincinnati zoo -- I only knew it was the home of the last known passenger pigeon, "Martha," who died there in 1914. The Cincinnati area does not have a lot of big tourist attractions, so I don't see what is wrong with two big tourist attractions in the area teaming up. The zoo would be cutting off its nose to spite its face by canceling the combo-ticket deal. PZ and his narrow-minded followers show that they don't care about hurting the zoo's conservation and wildlife preservation efforts.
Also, the zoo and the museum are a good match -- the museum has a petting zoo and a lot of displays of prehistoric animals. The displays of prehistoric animals are certainly educational, regardless of any disputes over the ages of the fossils.
Sleazy PZ also posted his attack on Panda's Thumb.
Info on how to contact the zoo is here. I intend to contact the zoo to counter PZ's campaign against the combo-ticket deal. I urge others to do the same.
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and the Creation Museum have made a joint marketing agreement and are selling "combo tickets" to get into both attractions for one price.
The Cincinnati Zoo is promoting an anti-science, anti-education con job run by ignorant creationists.
Sleazy PZ has done everything but explain how the missions of the zoo and the Creation Museum are inconsistent or incompatible. Some of the commenters on PZ's blog have even raised the so-called "separation-of-church-and-state" issue! However, the courts have ruled that infringement upon church-state separation may be excused for a secular purpose that is not a sham, and helping to provide revenue, visitors, and publicity for the zoo is such a secular purpose.
Also, the combo-ticket deal is not permanent but is just a one-time promotion that is good through Jan. 4. The apparent reason for the combo-ticket deal is that both the Zoo and the Museum have special holiday-season events.
The Creation Museum is a $25 million facility and attracts a lot of visitors. Selling the combo-tickets to visitors to the Creation Museum -- who otherwise might not be interested in visiting the zoo -- generates a lot of revenue, visitors, and publicity for the zoo. I myself was not aware of the importance of the Cincinnati zoo -- I only knew it was the home of the last known passenger pigeon, "Martha," who died there in 1914. The Cincinnati area does not have a lot of big tourist attractions, so I don't see what is wrong with two big tourist attractions in the area teaming up. The zoo would be cutting off its nose to spite its face by canceling the combo-ticket deal. PZ and his narrow-minded followers show that they don't care about hurting the zoo's conservation and wildlife preservation efforts.
Also, the zoo and the museum are a good match -- the museum has a petting zoo and a lot of displays of prehistoric animals. The displays of prehistoric animals are certainly educational, regardless of any disputes over the ages of the fossils.
Sleazy PZ also posted his attack on Panda's Thumb.
Info on how to contact the zoo is here. I intend to contact the zoo to counter PZ's campaign against the combo-ticket deal. I urge others to do the same.
Labels: PZ Myers
posted by Larry Fafarman | 12/01/2008 12:38:00 AM
13 Comments:
I found these two gems in the comment thread on Sleazy PZ's blog --
Posted by: Steve | December 1, 2008 4:33 AM
I sent in my email. Looks like some idiot has started a competing email campaign.
http://im-from-missouri.blogspot.com/2008/12/sleazy-pzs-attack-on-cincinnati-zoo.html
Posted by: RickrOll | December 1, 2008 4:48 AM
it's time like this Steve, that i really wish i had hacker friends... seriously. These people should be e-bombed. totally erased from the internets. With any luck, people like this would be unable to even get thier (sic) internet up and running. "If 'if' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, we all would have a merry Christmas."
"I'm always kicking their butts -- that's why they don't like me."
-- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
So Sleazy PZ and his bigoted followers are threatening to boycott the Cincinnati Zoo because of this combo-ticket idea. So what? They are probably greatly outnumbered by people who think that the combo ticket is a great idea.
It's just a zoo -- it's not a Darwinism-promoting outfit.
It's sad that you lack critical thinking skills and are unable to shed centuries of dogma and understand why an educational institution like the Cincinnati Zoo matching up with an organization that promotes ignorance is a problem.
It has nothing to do with critical thinking skills, dunghill.
And I saw your following comment on Sleazy PZ's blog, where I am banned:
Posted by: Craig | December 1, 2008 9:13 AM
Me again...sorry for the extra post but I just saw the site mentioned by #64.
I added a comment, but it is held pending approval of the blog owner. Any bets as to whether or not it will be published?
The museum has educational displays? Are you perhaps referring to the display of humans and dinosaurs living alongside each other? What possibly educational point does that make, exactly?
Or maybe you were referring to the Garden of Eden display. You know, the one showing a man with a lamb at his left arm, reaching out with his right arm to pet a mountain lion. Now that's some good education!
>>>>> The museum has educational displays? Are you perhaps referring to the display of humans and dinosaurs living alongside each other? What possibly educational point does that make, exactly? <<<<<<
What possibly educational point does that stupid purple dinosaur Barney T. Rex -- who showed up at the Texas board of education's hearing on the proposed new state science standards -- make, exactly?
The zoo's mission is to display, study, and help preserve different species of animals. The zoo could not care less how those species originated.
This ticket combo is just a one-month holiday promotion. You Darwinists are blowing this way out of proportion.
Thank you for publishing my comments. I give you full credit for that!
I regret that you called me "dunghill", but my comments were critical of you so it's natural that you would be on the defensive. It's one of the wonderful evolutionary traits that successful species have that has ensured their survival over the millennia.
The zoo's mission is to display, study, and help preserve different species of animals. The zoo could not care less how those species originated.
Wrong. Evolution is essential to our understanding of biology, from cellular biology to ecology to habitat and species restoration and conservation. With a mission to study, educate, and conserve, evolution, it is not compatible to implicitly or explicitly endorse the Creation Musuem, which asserts evolution did not happen.
It does matter how those species arrived. It matters because the zoo educates people on how species are related (through evolution). It matters because species are threatened, and understanding that it took millions of years or longer for them to arrive in the first place adds impetus to conservation. If you wish to preserve them, yes, you do need to know from where they come.
It's very simple. A zoo's purpose is to educate, not to promote ignorance.
Larry-
You said-
The zoo's mission is to display, study, and help preserve different species of animals. The zoo could not care less how those species originated.
You forgot to include (or intentionally didn't mention)another key element of the zoo's mission.
EDUCATION
It is the aspect of educating the community either with rational science, or irrational religious beliefs, that make the cross promotion absurd.
The zoo most assuredly does care how those species originated. And, further, it should care if a marketing partner presents the antithesis to the zoo's educational mission.
Hmm - if you are from Missouri that presumably means that you condone the throwing of bottles and the like at the KU Band when it visited your state. Nice.
Why would a museum run by a crazy Australian without a clue on science be associated with "a zoo". Perhaps you need to visit one and check on the ape and monkey section to see how your antics are common among your close relatives.
Johnny said,
>>>>>> It does matter how those species arrived. It matters because the zoo educates people on how species are related (through evolution). <<<<<<<<<
I have been to some big famous zoos -- the San Diego zoo, the Los Angeles zoo, and the Bronx zoo -- and none of the exhibits said anything about evolution.
>>>>>> It matters because species are threatened, and understanding that it took millions of years or longer for them to arrive in the first place adds impetus to conservation. If you wish to preserve them, yes, you do need to know from where they come. <<<<<<<
A knowledge of evolution did not save the Cincinnati Zoo's most famous extinct species, the passenger pigeon. The problem was that people did not realize that the passenger pigeon was a gregarious bird that could survive only in large numbers.
It's like Aesop's fable about the man, the boy, and the donkey. They could not satisfy everyone -- no matter what arrangement they tried, people always criticized it: all three walking, the donkey carrying the man, the donkey carrying the boy, and the donkey carrying both the man and the boy. Finally the man and the boy tried carrying the donkey tied to a pole, but when they crossed a bridge, the donkey fell into the river and drowned. The zoo can't please everybody. There are certainly many people who are very happy with the combo ticket deal -- the zoo can't satisfy both them and you Darwinist extremists. And the combo ticket deal provides publicity and extra visitors for the zoo and may increase the zoo's revenues in the long run. You Darwinists are hurting the Cincinnati Zoo's efforts to display, study, and help preserve different species of animals.
> I have been to some big famous zoos -- the San Diego zoo, the Los Angeles zoo, and the Bronx zoo <
Had you been from Missouri, you might have mentioned the evolution boards placed at several locations in the St. Louis zoo.
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