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Monday, December 1, 2008

dear cincinnati zoo

dear cincinnati zoo and botanical garden,

while i maintain fond memories of walking thru your memorable animal habitats, listening to concerts by my musical favorites on your grounds, and walking around your lit up winter wonderland with my family, i will no longer visit your park if you insist on contradicting your own goals by associating with the creationist museum thru a joint-ticket program.

you have been a part of the public school system of cincinnati since 1975, which i think is wonderful. but i also think that with such involvement comes responsibility. you have the responsibility to educate and inform students and the community about the natural world - without any influence from religion of any kind (see: separation of church and state, introduced by thomas jefferson).

if you would like to collaborate with organizations in cincinnati in order to broaden your community outreach, why not contact the well-known cincinnati museum center, whose facilities you already use?!?!

collaborating with the creationist museum contradicts your own vision statement and promotes their false message about the natural ways of the universe. as stated succinctly by theoretical physicist lawrence m. krauss:
There are many and varied ways that modern science has confirmed the history of the Universe, the Solar System, the Earth, and Life on Earth. All of these methods, while independent, are in agreement and they ALL tell us that Life, the Earth, and the Universe are many orders of magnitude older than 6,000 years. There is no scientific room for errors of this many orders of magnitude. It would be like measuring the distance between New York and Los Angeles, and determining it was less than 1 inch. In order to agree with a Young Earth Creationist picture, essentially every facet of modern science - on which we base every aspect of modern technology, our vehicles, our society - would have to be completely incorrect, implying almost everything we base our modern lives on would not work as it does.

please reconsider your recently acquired collaboration, as i would very much enjoy attending your "fesitval of lights" program again one day. not only am i contacting you today, but i'm also writing to the cincinnati enquirer, and city beat magazine, in hopes of raising awareness of this important issue.

a concerned (former) cincinnatian,
amanda


UPDATE: the zoo canceled their partnership with the creationist museum :) as reported by the cincinnati enquirer.

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