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Evangelicals urge museum to hide man's ancestors
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
(Filed: 12/08/2006)
Powerful evangelical churches are pressing Kenya's national museum to sideline its world-famous collection of hominid bones pointing to man's evolution from ape to human.
Leaders of the country's six-million-strong Pentecostal congregation want Dr Richard Leakey's ground-breaking finds relegated to a back room instead of being given their usual prime billing.
The collection includes the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7 million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Dr Leakey's team in 1984 at Nariokotome, near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.
The museum also holds bones from several specimens of Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the first hominid to walk upright, four million years ago. Together the artefacts amount to the clearest record yet discovered of the origins of Homo sapiens.
They have cemented the global reputation of Kenya's Great Rift Valley as the cradle of mankind, and draw in tourists and locals to the museum's sprawling compound on a hill above Nairobi.
Permanent exhibitions cover Kenya's cultural and scientific history from pre-history to independence. A snake park was added in the early 1960s.
As part of an ongoing expansion funded by the EU, the National Museums of Kenya, which manages the country's cultural sites, is conducting a survey to determine what visitors to its Nairobi headquarters most want to see.
Church leaders aim to hijack that process. "The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, the head of Christ is the Answer Ministries, the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya.
"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."
Bishop Adoyo said all the country's churches would unite to force the museum to change its focus when it reopens after 18 months of renovations in June next year.
"We will write to them, we will call them, we will make sure our people know about this and we will see what we can do to make our voice known," he said.
Dr Leakey said the churches' plans were "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard".
He told The Daily Telegraph: "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind.
"The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science."
Calling the Pentecostal church fundamentalists, Dr Leakey added: "Their theories are far, far from the mainstream on this. They cannot be allowed to meddle with what is the world's leading collection of these types of fossils."
The museum said it was in a "tricky situation" as it tried to redesign its exhibition space to accommodate the expectations of all its visitors.
"We have a responsibility to present all our artefacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance," said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya.
"But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."
13 April 2006: 'Stolen' treasures better off in the West, says African curator
Darwin, evolution and the Valley of Bones
David Blair's Africa blog
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
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Actually, someone on here posted an article about some museum that a group of evangelicals wish to open somewhere in the Midwest. The purpose of the museum is to promote creationism and it uses the 6,000 year timeline for Earth's existence. There was a part in the article detailing how they are going to explain the billions of years gaps in their timeline:
"God works in mysterious ways."
Oh, and they also mention that dinosaurs DID exist and they lived at the same time as man - 6,000 years ago....
My opinion? By all means, go ahead and open up that backward, fairy tale museum of yours. You are free to do so and I support it, but only that far. I have no desire nor curiosity to see your absurd display.
I will not protest or object to them opening a silly museum like this, but I expect that you would not protest or object to the opening of a museum that contains real, empirical evidence of scientific and archaelogical theory AND fact. You go ahead and believe your "pie in the sky" view of the world, but let me also peacefully live in a strange place called REALITY....
Actually, someone on here posted an article about some museum that a group of evangelicals wish to open somewhere in the Midwest. The purpose of the museum is to promote creationism and it uses the 6,000 year timeline for Earth's existence.
If they did open such a museum, what in the world are they going to have out as exhibits? A Dorito in the shape of an angel? A pancake that shows a striking resemblence to Jesus?
Maybe if we're lucky, they'll show an exhibit on how you can make your own dinosaur skeleton with chicken bones.
__________________ "Doctor says I wouldn't have so many noise bleeds if I kept my finger outta there" - Ralph Wiggum
Powerful evangelical churches are pressing Kenya's national museum to sideline its world-famous collection of hominid bones pointing to man's evolution from ape to human.
Correct me if I am wrong, but saying man descended from ape is a misconception. Didn't man and ape descend from the same prehuman/preape being? Many creationism junkies might not be able to handle the monkey to ape evolution, but could handle the common ancestor model better.
__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
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"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
Wally, I'd bet that line you mention is just sloppy journalism....
totally agree with that take, but most people , even if they don't mean it literally, use that phrase. That leaves people to interpret what they mean as opposed to what they said, but if they mean it literally, then I don't know what to think.
__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
totally agree with that take, but most people , even if they don't mean it literally, use that phrase. That leaves people to interpret what they mean as opposed to what they said, but if they mean it literally, then I don't know what to think.
Anyone who is familiar with rudimentary scientific theory, understands that HUMANS DIDN'T EVOLVE FROM APES. We evolved from COMMON ANCESTORS.
That type of crap pisses me off to no end. That is the dishonesty and flat out unethical behavior that creation "scientists" display on a regular basis. They try to fool the masses by confusing them.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but saying man descended from ape is a misconception. Didn't man and ape descend from the same prehuman/preape being? Many creationism junkies might not be able to handle the monkey to ape evolution, but could handle the common ancestor model better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krangthebrain
Anyone who is familiar with rudimentary scientific theory, understands that HUMANS DIDN'T EVOLVE FROM APES. We evolved from COMMON ANCESTORS.
That's a distinction without a difference. If you were to see the supposed common ancestor, you would most likely call it an ape (simian, monkey, or some other such monicker).
This quote appeared in the article:
"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."
I don't know why that's unreasonable. Unless you are suggesting that evolution is a fact and not a theory? If it is a theory, why is it unreasonable for the churchgoing types you despise to want it to be presented as a theory?
I don't know why that's unreasonable. Unless you are suggesting that evolution is a fact and not a theory? If it is a theory, why is it unreasonable for the churchgoing types you despise to want it to be presented as a theory?
"Churchgoers" present the bible as fact, when it can be presented as a fairy tale (and that's probably more acurate). "Churchgoesrs" present the christian, monotheistic model as the factual story behind teh creation of life, when it can be presented as a theory (and that's probably more accurate).
Point is, I'm not picketing that backwoods creationist museum to prevent it's opening or alter it's format. If you want to believe that and pay the admission to see displays of humans and t-rex's playing in the park together, then go on ahead and do that.
This museum that evangelicals are trying to block is presenting what they accept as fact. Everyone has to chose what they want to accept as fact. If you do not prescribe to that fact, you do not patronize places or people who express that fact. If we left everything u to evangelicals, the sun would still be rotating around a flat piece of ground we call Earth....
This quote appeared in the article:
"Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."
I don't know why that's unreasonable. Unless you are suggesting that evolution is a fact and not a theory? If it is a theory, why is it unreasonable for the churchgoing types you despise to want it to be presented as a theory?
Honestly, if this is your level of understanding in science then you really shouldn't have a voice. You did take science courses in high school, didn't you? Did you stay awake?
Really, to not know the definition of the basic foundations of the sciences is this country is dumbfounding.
You do know that gravity is just a "theory" too, right?
Everyone has to chose what they want to accept as fact.
That may be true, but everyone does not have the right to present to others something as fact that is merely a theory. To do otherwise is a lie.
I'm not a Pentacostal, and I don't defend any attempt to get the museum to hide the displays. But seeing that the article was from the Telegraph, I don't know how much of that assertion is fact, how much is spin, and how much is just invented. There were no quotes of any church officials saying anything about the display being moved to a back room. Here's an example:
Church leaders aim to hijack that process. "The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact..."
Note the use of the word "hijack", a word designed to prejudice. But from the quotes in the article, it appears the church leaders would be happy if the museum simply presents the display whereever it wants, as long as it identifies evolution as a theory and not a fact. That seems both reasonable and scientifically accurate.
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