But while the Creation Museum undoubtedly reflects these recent trends, moralistic distrust of city life has a rich history in America. When, in 1925, John Scopes was tried for teaching Darwinism to a high school science class in violation of Tennessee law, the case against him was argued by William Jennings Bryan, a luminary of the young fundamentalist movement and a staunch agrarian. In Bryan’s view, urban industrial capitalism was inextricable from the social Darwinist credo of survival of the fittest and the cultural ills to which it gave rise. Before Bryan, Thomas Jefferson argued against Alexander Hamilton that the cold rationality of economic development would lead to social waywardness unless held in check by a thriving agrarian culture: “Corruption of morals...is the mark set upon those, who, not looking up to heaven, to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on casualties and caprice of customers.” Jefferson’s proposed design for the Great Seal of the United States depicted the nation of Israel journeying through the wilderness in search of the Promised Land.There is a lot more to this article than this little attack on Jefferson, but still. Read the whole thing, and comment on Clarke's view of Jefferson, or the article or Creation Museum in general.
[You can also comment on the more elaborate version of this post on my main blog.]
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3 comments:
Frightening is the definitely the right word to describe this “museum”. It’s simply amazing to witness seemingly rational human beings completely deny proven scientific fact and logic. The lengths at which the creators of such a museum go to in order to justify and explain the completely illogical is astounding.
One part that I found particularly startling: “At one point, we peer through windows into the life of a wayward modern-day family and see a boy looking at Internet porn while, in the next room, his sister consults on the phone with Planned Parenthood.” This might say more about my morals and my idea of “wayward”, but I’d much rather see that modern-day family as they’re depicted there, than one who visits this “museum” and nods, saying “Amen” to the exhibit of the dinosaurs and humans existing side-by-side. It’s amazing to me that dinosaurs and humans’ coexistence is something we even still have to argue about.
The author gives a surprisingly apt description of their tactics: “Instead of making an evidence-based case for creationism, the multisensory spectacle of video simulations, diagrams, and animated displays creates an aura of knowledge while at the same time deterring close reading. The result is an intellectual fog, a pseudoscience resembling the worst caricatures of postmodern thought.”
Unfortunately he doesn’t give the same kind of thought when citing Jefferson though. It’s interesting that he quotes that particular passage of Jefferson’s. Like you mentioned in the main post, he blithely ignores Jefferson’s religious views, assumedly to justify his claim that a “moralistic distrust of city life has a rich history in America.”
If nothing else, you have to admire the “museum” creators’ dedication to ignorance.
It really is funny how people will always try to link a famous person in history to their cause as to draw in more of the pubic to something like a "creation" museum which Jefferson would have so fully protested. It is even more humorous that He ignores Jefferon's views on religion and Jefferson's basic deist approach. Why would Jefferson even approve of such a monstorous excuse for a building?
Every generation tries to claim Thomas Jefferson for their cause. Jefferson's writings throughout his life were sometimes contradictory and people can therefore pick and choose what they see as the real Thomas Jefferson. It is pretty clear that Jefferson would oppose this type of intrusion. Although some people will believe what they want to believe. I remember reading one time someone's compliment of how historians have revised Jefferson into a secular progressive. Some in the religious world view him as a strong Christian.
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