From The Telegraph: 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.
Evangelicals:
“The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that (Dr. Richard) Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact…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.”
Leakey:
“…the most outrageous comments I have ever heard”.
Museum PR director:
“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…but things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists or researchers on the other, saying the opposite.”
One of the saddest commentaries I’ve seen on the dangers of religious fundamentalism: the fanatic’s pathological committment to a shameless editing of history and repudiation of science brings to mind the words of Aristotle: “There is only one good: Knowledge. And there is only one evil: ignorance.”
Bill Courson