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More Cartoons: Grand Canyon Edition

Submitted by jersu on January 16, 2007 - 2:33am
The cartoons keep on coming here at Park Remark! Looks like Gary Trudeau picked up on that PEER news release about the age of the Grand Canyon. The Doonesbury comic from January 13th.

Doonsebury - January 13, 2007


The PEER release really wanted to highlight that the creationist book is still on sale in the Grand Canyon book store, three years after it was ordered to go on sale there. Time to review that decision, says PEER. How do I feel about it? The book shouldn't be there. I'm not talking about banning books. I'm talking about getting THAT book out of the bookstore run by the natural history association. You wouldn't expect the park to sell a book that claims the world is flat, or that the earth is the center of the universe. And yet, all those claims hold as much truth as the book that claims the Grand Canyon is only 6000 years old. Am I wrong? Without using the scientific method, prove to me that the moon is not made of cheese. Of course, the longer the Creationists book remains on the shelf, the higher the likelihood that it will become part of Grand Canyon lore, and remain on the shelf forever.

Comments

Submitted by Ranger X (not verified) on January 16, 2007 - 6:48pm.
What about books that claim that people came out of a hole in the Grand Canyon and dispursed from there to populate the continent? Grand Canyon Association, a private non-profit association, sells books containing these American Indian myths, too. And to Native Americans, these aren't myths.

Clearly Trudeau, like many Internet bloggers, didn't treat PEER's claims with skepticism and decided to spread this misinformation.
Submitted by jersu on January 17, 2007 - 4:54am.
There is a big difference between the Native American tradition in the Southwest and the Anglo interpretation of Noah's Flood as it applies to the Grand Canyon. The cultural resource of the area is the Native American story, while the creationist story is an add on that was developed specifically to discount the answers achieved through the scientific method. One story will forever be tied to the land and its people, the other will forever be tied to politics.