Bad IMAX

[Wolverine]

Several Imax cinemas in the US have refused to show films referring to the theory of evolution for fear of a religious backlash, it is reported.

Viewers at a US test screening judged films which contradicted religious descriptions of man's origins as "blasphemous", the New York Times said.

As a result science films were denied screenings in approximately 12 large-screen Imax cinemas.

Link.

:roll:

[SciFi Chick]

Why aren't they worried about a scientific backlash?

[Moose]

Why aren't they worried about a scientific backlash?

We have more dignity than that?

[The Supreme Canuck]

Nobody listens to science anymore?

[beskeptical]

Nobody listens to science anymore?

We don't market our message as well. :wink:

[R.A.F.]

Welcome to the Dark Ages...

[The Supreme Canuck]

Question: what is "ID"?

[Wolverine]

Nobody listens to science anymore?

We don't market our message as well. :wink:

Others are sure marketing theirs. Note the ad at the bottom:

SPECIAL DARWIN WEEKEND OFFER: Until 10 p.m. Pacific tonight, get "The Case Against Darwin" by James Perloff, the book that has answered countless requests for a concise, reader-friendly yet authoritative survey of the very latest scientific evidence against evolution – FREE!

And then there's their poll...

[Wolverine]

Question: what is "ID"?

"Intelligent Design"

[The Supreme Canuck]

Ah, thank you! I kept thinking Nietzsche's id. Confused me more than you'd think.

[beskeptical]

marketing theirs. Note the ad at the bottom:

SPECIAL DARWIN WEEKEND OFFER: Until 10 p.m. Pacific tonight, get "The Case Against Darwin" by James Perloff, the book that has answered countless requests for a concise, reader-friendly yet authoritative survey of the very latest scientific evidence against evolution – FREE!

...

I bet the 'very latest' claim conveniently ignores any evolution science. "Only bogus science spoken here." :roll:

[um3k]

How about we move all the scientific people to Antarctica and pump CO2 into the atmosphere until it's a tropical paradise and everything up north is a burned out wasteland. Then, once only the scientific people are left on Earth, they can pump the CO2 back out of the atmosphere. Once it cools down, they can claim the world.

[Grendl]

Question: what is "ID"?

Idiotic delusions.

[Grendl]

Assuming this person was not misquoted:

Carol Murray, spokeswoman for Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, said the museum's Imax cinema decided not to screen the Volcanoes movie after showing it to a sample audience.

In their written comments the audience made statements such as "I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact", and "I don't agree with their presentation of human existence".

"If it's not going to draw a crowd and it is going to create controversy, from a marketing standpoint I cannot make a recommendation [to show it]," Ms Murray said.

That is NOT someone who deserves Supreme Canuck's Scientific Integrity Award. See thread:
http://badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewto...2419d3287fd72a

[Grendl]

Ok, this issue is really bugging me. I have a problem with the way science museums have become so corporate-like and privatized. I know for a fact that the Houston Museum of Natural Science's IMAX theater is not bringing in the bucks for them and I'm afraid these sort of crowd reactions will further cause them to decide on showing certain movies or not. In a way I can't blame them--they have to financially survive and they don't want to close down their IMAX theater, but it bugs the scata out of me, because there have been some really eye-opening IMAX films (the space ones are great, btw). I'm sure volcanoes would be cool to see, too, and anything having to do with the Galapagos Islands is a marvel to see.

Don't people know how to watch a movie and pick out what they like or don't like? No matter what an IMAX movie says, the special thing about it is how its filmed with 70mm film. Plug your ears!

I want to know what 12 theaters didn't show these.

[Jim]

Question: what is "ID"?

"Intelligent Design"

Ah, thank you! I kept thinking Nietzsche's id. Confused me more than you'd think.

Don't know about Nietzsche, but ID and Freud's id seem closely related.

"According to Freud, we are born with our Id. ... Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation. … The id doesn't care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction. ... When the id wants something, nothing else is important."

[pghnative]

How about we move all the scientific people to Antarctica and pump CO2 into the atmosphere until it's a tropical paradise

But what if the atmospheric models are incorrect? We'd all freeze our &%$@# off.

[Spacewriter]

Let me just say that this sort of "precensorship" is really just "political correctness" in another form -- which I find ironic, since one of the rallying cries from a subset of people in the U.S. is that they don't want "political correctness."

It's shameful that the theaters are using the fear of religious-based opposition to shut down films. Especially so since IMAX theaters are money pits anyway...

[farmerjumperdon]

A ray of hope. The IMAX in St. Paul MN is doing a sort of best of celebration, featuring a half dozen films running simultaneously (well not all at once, but one after another). In the group is Volcanoes.

Yes it is painful to live through a mini Dark Ages. The proud-to-be-ignorant crowd is more repugnant than I thought humans could ever be. I am optimistic that it will pass - just hope I'm around for The Enlightenment.

[Nicolas]

Don't panic too much. Around here I know very little people acting like that.

[um3k]

How about we move all the scientific people to Antarctica and pump CO2 into the atmosphere until it's a tropical paradise

But what if the atmospheric models are incorrect? We'd all freeze our &%$@# off.

Preposterous!

[Grendl]

This is still bugging me. A different version of the story:

People who follow trends at commercial and institutional IMAX theaters say that in recent years religious controversy has adversely affected the distribution of a number of films, including Cosmic Voyage, which depicts the universe in dimensions running from the scale of subatomic particles to clusters of galaxies; Galapagos, about the islands where Charles Darwin theorized about evolution; and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, an underwater epic about the bizarre creatures that flourish in the hot, sulfurous emanations from vents in the ocean floor.

Volcanoes, released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South, said Richard Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.

snip

Hyman Field, who as a National Science Foundation official had a role in the financing of the film, said he understood that theaters must be responsive to their audiences. But he said he was "furious" that a science museum would decide not to show a scientifically accurate documentary such as Volcanoes because it mentioned evolution. "It's very alarming," he said, "all of this pressure being put on a lot of the public institutions by the fundamentalists."

Full article: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/11179970.htm

[TimH]

Something I am going to send to email to imax folks

any comments/recomended changes?

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the IMAX corporation. While I understand that the IMAX corporation is a business and must sometimes do things necessary to appease their customers; the decisions made concerning the "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," film are very disturbing to me.

While I could make an effort to explain the validity of evolution and the foolishness of creation or intelligent design they are not relevant here becuse your decisions were made based on 'the bottom line,' so I will instead use an argument that goes to your bottom line. Until this decision is reversed, I will never again patronize any IMAX cinema. You may have sold one more ticket in South Carolina, but believe me when I say, you have lost many future ticket sales from a (formerly) very happy customer in Michigan. While I am sure losing a single ticket sale will not have serious affects on your income it is my sincere hope that many others feel as I do and will not tolerate the foolish suppression of science from the fear of offending those that are too unreasonable to handle anything that challenges their narrow view of the world.

Sound ok?

[Spacewriter]

IMAX itself was not cited as making the decisions to drop the movies -- the individual theaters are.

[Swift]

Sorry for being late to the party, I thought this thread was a review of some bad IMAX movie. #-o

This stuff just burns me up. It is bad enough that school districts are falling to this kind of nonsense, but these are SCIENCE MUSEUMS! If they are not going to teach about science, then the US is doomed to be a bunch of scientific illiterates. I suppose the next move by the religous right will be to have the Smithsonian take down any displays about dinosaurs, or plate tectonics, or the fact that the Earth isn't the center of the Universe.

And we wonder why the rest of the world is taking the lead in science and technology.

\stomp stomp stomp stomp\

Thanks for letting me rant. ops:

[TimH]

IMAX itself was not cited as making the decisions to drop the movies -- the individual theaters are.

I guess that makes my letter moot.

[Swift]

IMAX itself was not cited as making the decisions to drop the movies -- the individual theaters are.

I guess that makes my letter moot.

However. letters from BABBers in the corresponding cities or regions of the various museums might be a good idea.

[Sam5]

IMAX itself was not cited as making the decisions to drop the movies -- the individual theaters are.

I guess that makes my letter moot.

I suppose you could send a letter to the Ft. Worth museum, telling them what you folks in Michigan want them to show at their museum in Ft. Worth.

[R.A.F.]

I suppose you could send a letter to the Ft. Worth museum, telling them what you folks in Michigan want them to show at their museum in Ft. Worth.

Sam, you have made that same argument over on the FWIS board...and it was pointed out to you there that that is not what the discussion is about.

It wasn't reasonable there...what makes you think that it will be reasonable here.

[Swift]

IMAX itself was not cited as making the decisions to drop the movies -- the individual theaters are.

I guess that makes my letter moot.

However. letters from BABBers in the corresponding cities or regions of the various museums might be a good idea.

From the CNN.com story

IMAX theaters in Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas have declined to show the film, said Pietro Serapiglia, who handles distribution for Stephen Low, the film's Montreal-based director and producer.

Ok, BABBers in those three states, crank up those pens and keyboards and lets win one for Darwin!