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Author Topic: Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back
Snuckles
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2764

posted 20 September 2005 02:29 AM      Profile for Snuckles   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: September 20, 2005

ITHACA, N.Y. - Lenore Durkee, a retired biology professor, was volunteering as a docent at the Museum of the Earth here when she was confronted by a group of seven or eight people, creationists eager to challenge the museum exhibitions on evolution.

They peppered Dr. Durkee with questions about everything from techniques for dating fossils to the second law of thermodynamics, their queries coming so thick and fast that she found it hard to reply.

After about 45 minutes, "I told them I needed to take a break," she recalled. "My mouth was dry."

That encounter and others like it provided the impetus for a training session here in August. Dr. Durkee and scores of other volunteers and staff members from the museum and elsewhere crowded into a meeting room to hear advice from the museum director, Warren D. Allmon, on ways to deal with visitors who reject settled precepts of science on religious grounds.


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From: Hell | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Hephaestion
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4795

posted 20 September 2005 06:28 AM      Profile for Hephaestion   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Didn't some of these nut-cases also recently complain about a sign at a zoo that featured a picture and mention of the Hindu elephant-headed god on a display outside the elephant enclosure? IIRC, they demanded "equal representation" for Xtian dogma, and some babbler wag suggested a good spot for their creation myth would be outside the monkey house...
From: goodbye... :-( | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Raos
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5702

posted 20 September 2005 06:58 AM      Profile for Raos     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm surprised they didn't demand that it be removed.
From: Sweet home Alaberta | Registered: May 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 20 September 2005 09:03 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Dr. Allmon, who directs the Paleontological Research Institution, an affiliate of Cornell University, began the training session here in September with statistics from Gallup Polls: 54 percent of Americans do not believe that human beings evolved from earlier species, and although almost half believe that Darwin has been proved right, slightly more disagree.

Holy crap. Slightly over half of Americans are idiots.

I guess this explains the 2004 election results.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Américain Égalitaire
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7911

posted 20 September 2005 09:21 AM      Profile for Américain Égalitaire   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:

Holy crap. Slightly over half of Americans are idiots.

I guess this explains the 2004 election results.


Um, yeah.

I hate this:

quote:
"It's your job," she told docents, "not to slam the door in the face of a believer."

Oh I would. In fact I would say: "Here you have two doors. Behind one is science based on empirical data collection, observation and experimentation. It is the door of a hopeful future, where we can understand who we are and our place in this world.

Behind this second door is ignorance and magical thinking based on slavish, literal adherence to a book. It is a world of closed thinking, limited intelligence and an arrogant assumption of accuracy that the whole world should be bound to believe upon pain of everlasting torture.

Ladies and gentlemen, I prefer to walk through the first door. You may make your own choice."


From: Chardon, Ohio USA | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594

posted 20 September 2005 09:22 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

Ya, nobody here 'cept us chickens.

And if we're not alone, then why don't they come and drink beers with us eh ?.

[ 20 September 2005: Message edited by: Fidel ]


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
anne cameron
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8045

posted 20 September 2005 11:53 AM      Profile for anne cameron     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
coming soon to a school near you............
From: tahsis, british columbia | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged

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