Ken Ham’s new exhibit portrays Creationists as idiots

Attendance at Ken Ham’s Creation “Museum” has been down for some time – intelligent people wouldn’t get caught within a mile of the place, and even the gullible flock it caters to grow weary of seeing the same gimmicky animatronics every visit, I suppose. Ham plans to remedy this with renovations – not to add new information, since there hasn’t been a novel Creationist argument in years. He just wants to add a few more shiny toys and flashy displays, since substance and actual evidence aren’t exactly his thing.

On the other hand, perhaps we should encourage this, because one of those planned exhibits would cement the fact that Creationists are incompetent clods:

That may look familiar to anyone who’s suffered through Ham’s talks, because it’s based on an illustration that he uses all the time. Here’s a clearer version:

At first, it may just look like your typical nonsensical and non-sequitur-packed Creationist graphic, but it’s worth taking a gander at what exactly’s going on there.

It’s two castles firing cannonballs at one another. The left-hand castle is built upon a foundation that reads “AUTONOMOUS HUMAN REASONING” and flies a flag labeled “HUMANISM”, whilst the other castle stands upon “REVELATION GOD’S WORD” and their flag reads “CHRISTIANITY”. The Humanist castle has balloons floating over it labeled “Gay Marriage”, “Abortion”, “Euthanasia” and “Moral Relativism”. We’re meant understand those are all Bad Things, I guess. Because it ain’t conservative Christianity if they aren’t railing against people living by moral codes that differ from the Bible’s.

Here’s where it gets interesting – and hilarious, and so obviously self-defeating that it’s utterly inexplicable how the same illustration has been in use, in various forms, since the 1980s. Take a look at where those cannons are shooting.

The Humanist side? All shots are pointed squarely at the Creationist castle’s base, which is erupting in cracks under the barrage. So much for “GOD’S WORD” being indestructible.

Meanwhile, on the Creationist side? A grand total of one cannon is pointed anywhere near the other castle’s direction, and it’s popped a balloon with no label, so we don’t even know what humanist value has supposedly been defeated. As for the Christians operating the other cannons: the topmost one is sleeping, another is pointing his cannon at his friend who’s celebrating popping that one balloon, the bottom-right dude is shooting at his own castle, and the bottom-right guy is firing in the wrong direction altogether and crowing in victory over it.

Ken Ham’s own illustration makes the argument that Christians are unfocused nincompoops who damage their own cause, and that his ideological opponents are more coherent and enduring. I have to wonder why rationalists would bother trying to make Creationists look like fools if his own materials make that same point.

Creationists: If they didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them just for the amusement they provide.

(via Friendly Atheist)