Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back
The New York Times ^ | 9/20/2005 | CORNELIA DEAN

Posted on 09/20/2005 7:02:45 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Colorado; US: Nebraska; US: New York; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: creationuts; crevolist; crevorepublic; enoughalready; evobots; evonuts; museum
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 1,261-1,272 next last
To: Owl_Eagle
They're all just a bunch of crazy Bible thumping fundamentalists who want to take us back to the 1700's, right?

Pretty much. You seem to be on the road yourself.

It's not like his finches have hybridized from 14 to 6, right?

Huh? 14 what to 6 what?

Well, at least we have fosil evidence that traces man back to apes. We don't?

We do.

Well, at least there's evidence of one species evolving from another and that by logical extention- oh, we don't have that either?

We do.

21 posted on 09/20/2005 7:17:42 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Professor
How to deal with mobbing behavior by creationists. And a big bump for my University of Nebraska colleague Judy Diamond, who is helping train museum staff to deal with the behavior.

Pretty funny, we usually only see this kind of behavior from evolutionist. Looks like the creationist are joining in the fun. Of course, this kind of behavior never solves anything, whether discussing science or sports.

22 posted on 09/20/2005 7:17:48 AM PDT by D Rider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thulldud
But I thought that science should not be taught as dogma.

It shouldn't. But mobbing a docent of a museum is on par with the anti-American thugs who mob Friends of the Border gatherings.

This crap is just idiotic grandstanding. If these people were really interested in questioning these scientific concepts, they should attend classes at the local college and discuss it with an instructor.

...but I guess that wouldn't get any press, now would it?

23 posted on 09/20/2005 7:18:42 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Aracelis
Geez! Too much caffeine this morning, Doc? I'm on your side!

Yikes sorry...well at least I agreed!

24 posted on 09/20/2005 7:18:56 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Owl_Eagle

Is the Platypus evidence of a beaver evolving into a duck, or a duck evolving into a beaver?


25 posted on 09/20/2005 7:19:13 AM PDT by shekkian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: thulldud
s/settled precepts of science/dogma/ig;

You've lifted a phrase without respect to its context. The "settled precepts of science" include the Scientific Method...a self-correcting discipline of research. The phrase does not mean that the book is closed by any means on the theories of our origins. As we accumulate more data, hypotheses and theories are refined, redefined, or discarded as needed.

26 posted on 09/20/2005 7:19:28 AM PDT by Aracelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: D Rider

Excuse me, when havee evolutionist ever mobbed a church Sunday school class that teaches creationism, or a Bible college, or anything? Name ONE incident.


27 posted on 09/20/2005 7:19:38 AM PDT by DGray (http://nicanfhilidh.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: D Rider
Pretty funny, we usually only see this kind of behavior from evolutionist.

Yeah, I sure remember the last time I was in church and an evolutionist crashed the service by challenging the book of Genesis.

Waitaminute...that was just a figment of imagination. Just like your claim.

28 posted on 09/20/2005 7:19:48 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Professor

29 posted on 09/20/2005 7:20:09 AM PDT by JohnnyZ (I'm marrying a woman before they make gay marriage mandatory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr

Evolutionists have no idea why inert molecules should ever feel "compelled" to reproduce at all. Why bother consuming energy to create copies of a string of molecules? What is the force that 'forces" this to happen?

Elaborate and intricate processes that require the storage and release of energy in order to reproduce themselves require a motive force.

Once started, why continue? There is a motive force behind life.

"Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man." -- Albert Einstein


30 posted on 09/20/2005 7:20:13 AM PDT by Mark Felton (Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Aracelis

"Religion is taught as dogma. Science relies on observation, evidence, and testing of hypotheses. A very clear distinction."

Well except for the whole Global Warming business.
And teaching of Nazi scientists regarding lesser races.
And phrenology.
And doctors who study "harms" of silcone breast implants, mold, dairy products or whatever the liberal boogeyman of the day is.

Note I am not saying evolution is junk science by any stretch --- just pointing out that scientist are people and they have their dogmas and boogeymen, too.

Ask the president (former president?) of Harvard.


31 posted on 09/20/2005 7:20:58 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (A good friend helps you move. A great friend helps you move a body.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: shekkian
Is the Platypus evidence of a beaver evolving into a duck, or a duck evolving into a beaver?

Neither. God had some extra parts left over, so He stuck 'em on a variety of animals "Down Under". ;)

32 posted on 09/20/2005 7:22:36 AM PDT by Aracelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Professor
Museum of the Earth

That must be one huge building.

33 posted on 09/20/2005 7:22:36 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Professor
The more these people engage in these antics, the less appealing the concept of "Intelligent Design" becomes to the average American.

Thank God.

34 posted on 09/20/2005 7:23:09 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido
Museum of the Earth

That must be one huge building.

It's almost as big as my seashell collection. Y'seen it? I keep it at the shore.

35 posted on 09/20/2005 7:23:52 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: MeanWestTexan
Ask the president (former president?) of Harvard.

Actually, I think a majority of scientists at Harvard supported him. Steven Pinker, bête noire of the IDers around here, backed Summers strongly.

36 posted on 09/20/2005 7:23:59 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor (Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory - John Marburger, science advisor to George W. Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: shekkian

"Is the Platypus evidence of a beaver evolving into a duck, or a duck evolving into a beaver?"




Odd that you'd mention the platypus, one of the very unusual animals on the planet. The monotremes are one of the very groups of animals which make a very good case for evolution.

You don't know much about monotremes, it appears.


37 posted on 09/20/2005 7:24:20 AM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: DGray
"Excuse me, when havee evolutionist ever mobbed a church Sunday school class that teaches creationism, or a Bible college, or anything? Name ONE incident."


The evolution doctrine gets the ideology and buildings all paid for by the tax payer 5 days of the week. Public school is the house of worship for the evolutionists.
38 posted on 09/20/2005 7:24:46 AM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: MeanWestTexan

"scientist are people and they have their dogmas and boogeymen, too."


Good point. That's why I get so irritated with junk science even when I agree with a theory, it tends to obscure good science.


39 posted on 09/20/2005 7:25:17 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: MeanWestTexan
just pointing out that scientist are people and they have their dogmas and boogeymen, too.

Quite true, but ethical scientists strive to eliminate bias. Most clergy I have encountered are completely closed to notions or concepts other than what they learned in seminary.

40 posted on 09/20/2005 7:26:14 AM PDT by Aracelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 1,261-1,272 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson