Monday, September 04, 2006
About Face!
Pat Hayes at Red State Rabble has a pointer to an article (interestingly from Aljazeera) where a bishop of a Christian sect is displaying exactly the wrong reaction by theology to science (damn ... I've got to get away from this subject). As I previously noted, Bishop Boniface Adoyo, the head of Christ is the Answer Ministries, the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, is leading a campaign to have the National Museum either remove its Origins of Man exhibition, largely the result of the work of Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey, or have it moved to a "less prominent" location."When museums put it out there that man evolved from apes, theologically they are affecting many people who are Christians, who believe God created us,"
"It's creating a big weapon against Christians that's killing our faith," he said, calling the evolution theory an "insult" and dangerous to youths.
"When children go to museums they'll start believing we evolved from these apes.
"This is not the truth," said Adoyo, pastor of Nairobi's "Christ is the Answer Ministries" and chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, which says it represents churches of 35 denominations with nine million members.
"I can't stand it, neither can other Christians," he said.
Worse, however, is that the government is being less than adamant in protecting this treasure of not merely national, but universal, importance:
Farah Iddle, NMK director general, said that the museum "strives to accommodate divergent views and ideas."
"However, it also has the responsibility of ensuring that the integral research findings that have been developed over time are preserved," he said.
"This includes the fossil collection that's the scientific evidence that shows the relationship between apes' fossils dated millions of years back and the modern man."The exact display plans for the exhibitition when the 75-year-old museum re-opens in June 2007 are still being discussed, but officials said they hoped to keep it in a position of prominence among three new re-designed galleries.
But speaking of "out front," here is a measure of how far evolutionary theory has to go in order to penetrate even the museums of the world:
What will probably not change, they say, is the placement of a huge bronze sculpture outside the museum's main gate, which depicts a series of figures from ape to humans gradually becoming more erect as they walk.
The next news I expect from Kenya is that the torch wielding Christians have burnt the museum to the ground...
sigh,
Bruce
: 12:56 PM << Home
