Jurassic Eden

My first thought was that it's things like this that provide the "smarter-than-thee" rhetorical ammunition for the ideological opponents of conservatism.

Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away....

For here at the $27 million Creation Museum...this pastoral scene is a glimpse of the world just after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in which dinosaurs are still apparently as herbivorous as humans, and all are enjoying a little calm in the days after the fall. {ed.-link to museum added.}

I understand that it is a common rhetorical tactic to take an "extreme" example and portray it--whether overtly or not--as a normal characteristic of those with whom you disagree. In that sense, the Creation Museum is yet one more possible polemical dagger that can be aimed at the conservative heart. But that isn't such a big deal as is the degree to which such an entity will contribute to a lack of--or more generously, an improperly focused--scientific or philosophical sophistication amongst a goodly portion of religious Americans. If that seems condescending, I apologize. But if you aren't willing to accept that the earth is over 6,000 years old, then you'll find it hard getting people to take seriously whatever else you may believe, no matter how correct you are.