N. Ireland politician asks museum to promote creationism

6 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2010-05-26 12:15

Snuckles

Quote:
Northern Ireland's born-again Christian culture minister has called on the Ulster Museum to put on exhibits reflecting the view that the world was made by God only several thousand years ago.

Nelson McCausland, who believes that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Israel, has written to the museum's board of trustees urging them to reflect creationist and intelligent design theories of the universe's origins.

The Democratic Unionist minister said the inclusion of anti-Darwinian theories in the museum was "a human rights issue".

McCausland defended a letter he wrote to the trustees calling for anti-evolution exhibitions at the museum. He claimed that around one third of Northern Ireland's population believed either in intelligent design or the creationist view that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago.

Read it [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/26/northern-ireland-ulster-museum-....

Thu, 2010-05-27 20:10

Pants-of-dog

They should do it too, with an explanation as to why the Creationist belief does not count as a scientific theory. It would be a great opportunity to teach th epublic about what makes a good scientific theory such as testability and falsifiability, its predictive value, etc. Creationism would be a great example of a claim that appears scientific but really is not as it doesn't actually have any of these things.

Thu, 2010-05-27 20:40

Catchfire

A museum is the only place for Creationism.

Thu, 2010-05-27 20:52

Boom Boom

Good one!

Fri, 2010-05-28 10:30

Caissa

Sounds like his an adherent of Briths Israelism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism

Sat, 2010-05-29 00:00

Ken Burch

What this also illustrates is how weird the Democratic Unionists are and how disturbingly deep their political and religious connections with parts of the U.S. "religious right" are as well.

Ian Paisley, Sr, the founder of both the DUP and its "spiritual" base, the Free Presbyterian Church, was given an honorary degree by the segregationist Bob Jones University of South Carolina(the "university" that, until recently, banned all interracial dating and most interracial contact of any sort among its students, and the place that, even worse, has become a "must do" campaign visit for anyone hoping to win the Republican presidential nomination.)

Paisley also had connections to the World Anti-Communist League, a group that included neo-fascists, defenders of South African apartheid, and officials of murderous regimes like the former military junta in Guatemala that was once led by Paisley's fellow "evangelical" Christian, Efrain Rios Montt.

The DUP was the only party in the Northern Irish Assembly to vote against antidiscrimination legislation for LGBT people.

It gained strength at the expense of the Official Unionists by promising to take a harder line on the question of power-sharing with Sinn Fein, the main party of Catholic voters in Northern Ireland, then continued power-sharing with Sinn Fein nonetheless.

Hopefully, statements like those of Mr. McCausland will help to persuade saner Unionist voters to start moving away from the party.