Zoo scraps relationship with creationists

One can't help but be baffled that a modern zoo would team up with any organization built on openly rejecting science. In today's world, zoos purport to be educational and scientific institutions.

In 2005, the city of Tulsa's park board voted to add an exhibit at the Tulsa Zoo promoting creationism. This was done to pacify religious extremists who complained that a giant marble globe near the zoo's entrance promoted Earth worship. They claimed failing to use a taxpayer-funded zoo to promote creationism was "discrimination." Seriously, they said that.

The city dropped the proposal because there were so many complaints, and the mayor who supported the creationist display later got defeated for reelection. (Dropping the idea prompted lawsuit threats from creationists.) Apparently, however, the Cincinnati Zoo didn't learn a damn thing from what happened in Tulsa.

Recently the Cincinnati Zoo entered a promotional deal with the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. The Creation Museum is a much-ridiculed facility that promotes young Earth creationism and is funded by the Answers in Genesis cult. This so-called museum is known for its ridiculous stance that dinosaurs lived alongside humans.

The fact that a zoo that claims to have a scientific mission would team up with a cult that that builds a museum based on its 'Land Of The Lost' fetish was disheartening.

But now the zoo has scrapped this promotion, after countless negative calls and e-mails about how incredibly preposterous it was.

When I saw that the zoo was teaming up with the Creation Museum, suspension of disbelief almost kicked in. The Creation Museum has always sounded to me like a clownish endeavor that elicits only laughs at its expense. One has to question the judgment of whoever it was at the Cincinnati Zoo who thought it would be a good idea to enter a promotional deal with the Creation Museum.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20081201/NEWS01/312010040)