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Growing up in Texas, I spent many wonderful hot summer days wading and swimming in the dinosaur tracks along the Paluxy River. I always enjoyed the Somervelle County Museum on the town square in Glen Rose and learned a lot about dinosaurs there. While they never even thought to ask how dinosaurs might be related to birds, they were very clear that humans came long after the dinosaurs who made the tracks.
That was in the good old days before creationism came to central Texas, back when folks in the bible belt worried about how to get folks to attend the unairconditioned local church rather than the age of dinosaurs. Nowdays, my parents own a ranch near the Glen Rose tracks and Dinosaur Valley State Park so I find talk of creationist museums and visits to the Paluxy more interesting than ever. The following website has links to all sorts of articles and information for those who want more.
http://paleo.cc/paluxy/paluxy.htm
Whatever the controversy, I agree with John that its fun to take a dip in the river to explore the tracks - and it's dang hot there in the summer.
Kit Klein
Researcher, Evaluator, Independent Consultant and Texan
---- John Kelton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
=============
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
We went to Dinosaur State Park in July. Gol-dang it was hot! If you go, take
a pair of swim trunks and a pair of swim shoes. The camping is good too.
{Beware of raccoons.]
There is nothing like sticking your hands into a fossilized foot print and
feeling all the way down to the tip of the claw. Very, very cool.
John Kelton
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> This weekend, I had the pleasure of taking my two sons to Dinosaur
> State Park, southwest of Ft. Worth, Texas. It is a place I highly
> recommend - there are dinosaur footprints visible in the riverbed.
> In the summer, one can wade and swim in the shallow pools. The most
> spectacular are two sets side by side - one showing a carnivore, the
> other a herbivore. While there is no way to know if the hunter was
> stalking its prey, it certainly fires the imagination.
>
> But this is really about the issue of pseudo museums. As I was
> watching my boys on the other side of the river, skipping stones, of
> course, two twenty-something men came down to the bank. After
> exchanging pleasantries, how cold is the water, etc. they asked a
> question which stunned me: "Do you know where the set of tracks are
> showing the human footprints right next to the dinosaurs'?" Of
> course I said no. To which they replied, "We stopped at the Museum
> on the way in and they have a picture of them (the side-by-side
> tracks). They're supposed to be near here. Boy, that's something
> I'd really like to see."
>
> They had been to the Creation Evidence Museum. I'm sorry the boys
> and I didn't have time to visit, it would have been fascinating.
> Perhaps I should say it would have been illuminating. If you have
> time, and the inclination, I recommend perusing their website:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2rnao9
>
> It is a wonderful example of obfuscation through scientific language.
>
> Recently there was a nice piece on the news about how a creationist/
> intelligent design organization uses the Denver Museum to take tours
> of home schoolers to show how they, the intelligent designers, are
> right and the rest of us are wrong. If someone has the link to that,
> I would love to see it shared.
>
> Frankly, I don't know why I feel compelled to share the story of this
> encounter. I have no desire to make fun of these two young men.
> They are as interested in the pursuit of truth and meaning as anyone
> else. Nor did I feel any compunction to engage them in a
> conversation about the flaws in what they had seen at the 'museum.'
> I'm not on the front line of the war, or skirmish, or whatever it
> should be called, between intelligent design proponents and those who
> work hard to try and keep pseudo science in its appropriate place -
> outside of science.
>
> If I gained anything from the experience, it is a deeper admiration
> for those who do wage the war. If I learned anything from the
> experience, looking at their website, it brings home our collective
> willingness to defer to those who offer themselves as experts.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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