Evangelicals urge museum to hide man's ancestors

[EmperorNorton]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526...ancestors.html

Evangelicals urge museum to hide man's ancestors


Dr Richard Leakey's finds are housed in a museum near Nairobi

By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi 12:01AM BST 12 Aug 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."

Pay no attention to those fossils behind the green curtain.

[Angel_Mapper]

I swear to god I'm going to beat these people over the head with a dictionary until they look up the word "theory".

[Crazy_Ivan80]

"But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."

things don't get tricky there at all. You ignore the religious nonsense and go with science as that is what museums are supposed to do.

[Dreadnaught]

I wonder how the evangelical vote plays a factor in Kenya.

[EyeKhan]

"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."

He says "just one" like there's a ton of other theories out there. I know of two others, that of divine creation (one way or another) and that of some other creation, but not supernatural. What else is there?

[Ominous Gamer]

Its been a while, but I remember there were more then a few that came up during my philosophy classes. Like the concept that we instantly appeared into being this very second, with our memories and history; but I guess you could write that off as some level of divine.

[Timbuk2]

What else is there?

Another one is that we are extraterrestrial re-incarnates, as per Scientology's Thetans.

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.

Easy. Have a sign outside the door pointing in two directions, one inwards toward the museum and the other toward the Pentecostal church down the road.

[rumrunner]

I thought museums were supposed to be places of learning and exhibition. Why are they pandering to a group that wants only their beliefs to be represented. Religion is a very real part of history, but not the entirety. These fossils are also a part of history that we can look at and learn from right now. They could easily just argue that god did not create us as we are now. Too simple?

[Ominous Gamer]

Easy. Have a sign outside the door pointing in two directions, one inwards toward the museum and the other toward the Pentecostal church down the road.

Your post was better before you censored yourself

[rumrunner]

do you mean censored? I'm sure he didn't censure himself, but then, maybe he's into self-flagellation too.

[Timbuk2]

I thought museums were supposed to be places of learning and exhibition. Why are they pandering to a group that wants only their beliefs to be represented. Religion is a very real part of history, but not the entirety. These fossils are also a part of history that we can look at and learn from right now. They could easily just argue that god did not create us as we are now. Too simple?

Christian evangelicals hold a lot of sway in parts of Africa. Just look at the schism caused in the Anglican church by the UK introducing women priests; Nigeria very nearly split the church down the middle over that little debacle.

The Rift Valley and all it has revealed flies directly in the face of all that these evangelicals hold dear - the holy word of God as spoken through the old testament. I'm not surprised they're throwing their weight around.

Can't see it going far though - Leakey's work is globally renowned, and as the article states the Rift Valley is one of the few if not the only thing that has put Kenya on the world map.

Your post was better before you censored yourself

do you mean censored? I'm sure he didn't censure himself, but then, maybe he's into self-flagellation too.

No self-flagellation here.

Censored. I made reference to religious freakbags and insinuated what they could do with their insanity.

[Omega]

What are they gonna do? Lobby the government or send some interest group to influence certain key policies? Did they not understand that no prayer in school meant religion is gonna take a backseat to education.

[Nessus]

I wonder how the evangelical vote plays a factor in Kenya.

One of the professors I work with has spent a lot of time there, it's apparently a very science-friendly place with the natives helping with the work and so on, I doubt I can finagle my way into going there myself but you never know. Point is, the locals are extremely proud of their work in uncovering the history of our species and the scientists there do important and fascinating work, all the while helping the local economy woo woo (sorry), and this kind of ding-batted Christian horse-shit mumbo is hindering that. A lot of the money for this venture does come from the US, currently.