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Creationists for whatever reason have a belief system that's not taking into account "evidence," we all do to some more or less extent. It's not bad, it's part of being human. It's not about the science, people that accept creation believes are doing so for other reasons unrelated to science and evidence based reasoning.
I agree that ridiculing them isn't the way to go––I was just being cheeky.
The best thing to do is to tell an interesting story of discovery, an adventure, with apprehensible practical benefits, be they social, economic or medical. Ideally, it's not movies, easily manipulated computer games, and authority-speak, but something inviting that's self-evident, and can be seen and experienced viscerally. That's typically hard to do. Ultimately, people will make their choices.
There is no argument or prepared statement that's going to settle the matter. You can engage believers on the topic directly but that will not change them. It's about something else. You can agree to disagree.
Now having written this, it seems to me like the Creationist Museum is the perfect place to study unscientific belief systems in the face of rationality and evidence. It could be a test bed for many, many evaluation studies.
Just for clarification,
Charlie
On Nov 19, 2009, at 6:08 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> My experience suggests that there is no common ground for discussion with most creationists. We are taking a position that we are a science museum and present scientically verified or verifiable information about the natural world in words to that effect. We do not encourage debate as there cannot be a debate due a lack of common understanding. That being said I personally have engaged in heated discussions, no arguments with hard core creationists to great emotional pleasure but significantly lower intellectual pleasure. But not with museum visitors. Because of the absence of common ground many scientists have disengaged from debate with creationists.
>
> Martin
>
> Sent from my iPhone while hurtling on the Number
> 7 IRT train . . .
>
> On Nov 18, 2009, at 10:24 PM, Greg Lester <[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.
>> *****************************************************************************
>>
>>
>> Today, the National Center for Science Education tweeted this link from Skeptic magazine. It is a PDF, sorry, but it is good guide for answering common creationist claims: http://bit.ly/xJ123?r=td
>>
>> As its subtitle promises, it contains:
>> 25 Answers To Classic Creationist Arguments
>> 10 Answers To Intelligent Design Creationist Arguments
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Greg Lester
>>
>>
>>
>>
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Charles Carlson
Senior Scientist
exploratorium
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
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Tel: 415-561-0319
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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