?!?!?!? Creationists, pentecostals attack Leakey fossils in Kenya museum

[bobbieinok]

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/640

Christians attack hominids in Kenya museum
Saturday, 9 September 2006by Lillian Omariba
Agençe France-Presse


NAIROBI, Kenya, 9 September 2006: The debate between scientists and conservative Christians over evolution has hit Kenya, where an exhibit of one of the world's finest collections of early hominid fossils is under threat.

As the famed National Museum of Kenya prepares to re-open in 2007 after massive European Union-funded renovations, local evangelicals are demanding the display be removed or at least shunted to a less prominent location.

The Origins of Man exhibit, comprised of prehistoric finds from around Africa's Great Rift Valley considered by many to be the cradle of humanity, is offensive as it promotes Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, they say.

"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," said Bishop Boniface Adoyo, who is leading a campaign against the exhibit. "It's creating a big weapon against Christians that's killing our faith," he added, calling evolution theory an "insult" and dangerous to youths.

....

Many of the fossils were discovered by legendary paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey in east Africa whose pre-historic finds around the Olduvai Gorge, Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana are seen by many as proof of Darwin's theory.

Their son, Richard, himself a noted anthropologist and conservationist, is particularly disturbed by the furore and is speaking out against what he says is a misguided attempt to reject sound science.

....

Officials at the museum, which houses priceless items including remains of hominid species dating back 1.7 million to 1.2 million years, are loath to get involved in the fractious debate but defend the exhibition.

"The fossils have confirmed Kenya's position as the cradle of mankind and have drawn large numbers of visitors," the museum said in a statement released shortly after Adoyo launched his campaign.

more....

[htuttle]

1. Any religion that feels threatened by old bones...

...is pretty pathetic indeed.

[lvx35]

4. well said. nt

[Roland99]

2. Willful ignorance should be a capital crime. We did NOT evolve from apes

and I don't know of anyone that says that.

Apes and mankind may have evolved from a common ancestor way before us but apes and humans are two distinct species on two separate evolutionary paths.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Right. We ARE apes.

Or rather, we're both primates.

And there's no "May" about it. Apes and Humans DID evolve from a common ancestor. So did humans and cats. So did humans and goldfish. It just depends on how far back you want to go for the common ancestor.

But, again, those are the FACTS of evolution--- which is, again, a FACT.

Let me say that again. That we, along with apes and all other life on this planet, evolved from common ancestors over the 4.5 billion year history of this planet- that is a FACT.

To state otherwise is, yes, willful ignorance- the kind that feels the need to deny clear evidence which threatens its two dimensional, single digit IQ level, dogmatic worldview.

[and-justice-for-all]

10. We could not have evolved from INCEST....thats for sure.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. Not really.

Contemporary research suggests that the divergence between the chimpanzee and human lineages happened relatively recently in evolutionary history, and sometime after the divergence between the chimp/human lineages and the orangutan and gorilla lineages.

We are, in effect, a species of ape. Chimps are more closely related to us than they are to gorillas. Our last common ancestor was certainly an ape, by just about any definition.

[eleny]

3. At first I thought they physically "attacked" the fossils

What a relief that this was not the case.

[bobbieinok]

6. I think some, there and here, would if they thought they could get away

with it

[anitar1]

5. Their "leaders" must be foaming at the mouth

on Sundays. Ramping up the hatred.

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. At first I thought it was the Onion

Honest to God, these people are nuts! Like destroying a few bones changes the way nature works.

[and-justice-for-all]

9. The only thing threating I see is FUNDAMENTAL THEOCRATS

[alfredo]

11. I was there many years ago. Also on exhibit was the

paintings by Joy Adamson. She travelled around Kenya painting the people.





http://www.peoplesofkenya.freeuk.com/

Still the stars of the museum was the human ancestors on display. I'd hate to see their great work hidden away because the world is slipping back into fear and superstition.

[OregonDem]

12. These facts are making us look stupid!--Bishop Boniface Adoyo

The devil put those fossils in the ground to make us question the primitive stories in the buybull.

[Jcrowley]

15. That's good

"Do you believe the BUYBULL?" I'm gonna make a placard.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. Why aren't creationists attacking the MISSING LINK

we've got in the whitehouse?