Upcoming Observatory Lecture: "Humans Riding on the Backs of Dinosaurs: A Walk Through the Creation Museum..." Monday October 26th, 7:30 PM

Next Monday, October 26th at 7:30 PM, former Observatory speaker and Death Reference Desk blogger John Troyer will be taking us on a virtual tour of the incredible Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, which I previously described in this recent MA post. There will also be artifacts from the museum available for your perusal. Hope to see you there!

Humans riding on the backs of Dinosaurs: A walk through the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky USA.
by John Erik Troyer, Ph.D., Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
Date: Monday October 26th
Time: 7:30 PM (doors at 7:00 PM)
Admission: $5.00

In May 2007, the twenty-seven million dollar Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, Kentucky. The museum is dedicated to representing a “young earth,” Christian explanation of the planet, which makes the known universe roughly 6-10,000 years old. Within the museum, visitors can view a large-scale Garden of Eden diorama, a fully loaded planetarium, and animatronic dinosaurs. Since opening, well over 835,000 people have visited the museum. The Creation Museum is a key player in what Troyer calls the American Science War and is part of an ongoing battle between advocates of Evolutionary Biology, Intelligent Design, and Creationism.

This presentation closely (and humorously) examines the relationships between Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Evolution in America by giving a pictorial tour of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. There will also be artifacts from the museum for your perusal.

Biography: Dr. John Troyer is the Death and Dying Practices Associate and RCUK Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society in May 2006. From 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University teaching the cultural studies of science and technology. Within the field of Death Studies, he analyzes the global history of science and technology and its effects on the dead body. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and his first book, Technologies of the Human Corpse, will appear in late 2010.

Click here for directions to the event. Click here here to find out more about Troyer's former Observatory lecture, "'Bodies Embalmed by Us NEVER TURN BLACK!' A Brief History of the Hyperstimulated Human Corpse." You can find out more about the Centre for Death and Dying at the University of Bath--with which Troyer is affiliated--by clicking here. Click here to visit his blog, "Death Reference Desk", and here to find out more about the Creation Museum.