An open letter to Ken Ham

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, the creation museum and all-around nutter. Anyone who has come across Answers in Genesis will attest to what I'm talking about. The ministry itself is a joke, they actually believe that the world is 6,000 years old, that Adam and Eve walked with dinosaurs and that a global flood caused fossils! Now I'm one to think he can believe whatever he wants, but when he fills the heads of little innocent precious children with that garbage, then I start to have a problem. It's sad that thousands of children are going to walk through the doors of his "museum" and now think that science backs their faith. It'll be very disappointing in 20 years time when these children will be parents telling their kids of the flood as if it actually happened. That dinosaurs walked the earth with humans despite there not being a shred of evidence to support it. That science is something that should be shunned, despite all it gives up simply because it doesn't support the bible. And we'll have another generation, possibly in greater numbers than we have now.

Recently Mr Ham was asked to lead prayer at the pentagon. Now he's batshit insane so he can't see how maybe having fundamentalists Christians who preach the rapture in the building where the largest military on earth operates may be a little disconcerting to non-religious folk? Personally I feel very uneasy with the idea of those who believe in the 2nd coming and the apocalypse having their fingers on the button to launch global annihilation. It would be very nice if those folk would say as far away as possible from any position of military dominance, but because of fucks like Ken Ham indoctrinating children it has become not only the norm but a requirement for leaders of the "free world" to believe that nonsense themselves. We saw Bush get elected twice on the back of this notion of working for God. Now as a non-believer my opinions on the parameters of a deity are automatically invalid because I don't believe and therefore I'm wrong (according to anyone who ever has debated with me) but surely an omnipotent and omniscience entity should have no trouble at all doing things for itself. Working through humans? It's almost challenging us to say it's a load of crap. But when we do, it's faith. (again according to anyone who has ever debated me)

It came as a surprise that Ken Ham not only read PZ Myers blog on the topic, but found it apt to respond. Of course he missed the point entirely, and it's odd that he took such issue with wackaloon when there are many more nasty (yet accurate) terms to use. From this is where my letter stems:

Dear Mr Ham,

you are a despicable excuse for a human being that your accent fills me with shame that my country could have produced something as horrible as you. You have absolutely no clue about, well, anything at all. Your lack of scientific knowledge should be a sin on it's own, and your evangelising of biblical scripture as science should worry you as it breaks the 9th commandment.

But Mr Ham. As you know, you are already saved. So you can lie and lie away for Jesus without a ping of guilt. But back in the real world where what we say matters being dishonest is morally wrong, no matter the circumstances. So if I were to state that humans lived with dinosaurs, I'd be a liar. Because it's not a point of view, it's science. And in science we go with the evidence. Using a bible as evidence shows
1) your ignorance of the scientific process
and
2) your gullibility

Sorry Mr Ham, but in all due respect you aren't due any at all. You make a living out of lying and hoping that others are deceived by your lies. You push bronze aged myth as being more scientifically accurate than the last 400 years of empirical research where the only currency is being truthful; not trying to control others. It's sad that you think it's okay to brainwash children, that it's okay to lie about science in order to fuel your agenda. What you say contradicts every little thing we know about human history and the history of the world. You couldn't be more wrong if you tried.

Maybe if you actually decided to do some research, say, on the very land the museum is built on, maybe you could learn about fossils and inform yourself. Or go to a real museum and ask the guides how certain processes work. Ask about how the grand canyon was formed by expert geologists instead of thinking you know better. Ask about what empiricism means in science. Ask about the historicity of the bible, about how it was written, about what the archaeology and geology say about it. Being all bronze-age about it may win you support and it will definitely bring in the tithes, but all it does is highlight your ignorance.

So the word wackaloon is getting off lightly... if all you can do is claim intolerance, then your position is flawed. Maybe it would have been best to do some scientific research before opening a museum that has as much scientific truth as this months copy of The Watchtower. Maybe all those suckers who paid you to reinforce their delusions deserve a refund, or at least a disclaimer "warning the following is fiction, and any resemblance to anything living or dead is purely coincidental". That way you can still have your museum, you can still take the money of gullible fools, but at least they won't walk away with your crackpot idea that it's science. Wackaloon? 9th commandment-breaking child abuser is a much more accurate way to say it. You got off lightly Mr Ham. Very lightly.

From an Aussie who is trying his best to undo the damage you have done to this country's reputation,
Kel

There, it's somewhat cathartic to get that off my chest. In no way is this blog as popular as Pharyngula, I'd be surprised if anyone read this at all; let alone Ken Ham. It is important that those of sound mind actually speak out when lunacy abounds. It's not intolerance, it's damage control. I honestly don't care what he believes, just what he preaches. Just as I don't care about what the catholic church believes, just the ramifications for those beliefs. Same goes for Islam, neopaganism, new-ageism FSMism and anything in between. They are the problem, not the belief itself. Beliefs are only a danger when they are put into practice. Like speaking out on honour-killings and female circumcision is not being intolerant of Islam, speaking out on fundies is not intolerance. They are a threat to the sanity of children. They destroy the credibility that science has taken so long to build. They push a point of view on the world that is obsessed with death and an afterlife. To sit back and take it is not tolerance, it's submission.