[Central Scrutiniser]

The (intelligent) people have spoken.

[Central Scrutiniser]

ping

[cripplecreek]

I'd like to check it out.

[M203M4]

Re: the Gallup poll. Those were the only options? Sheesh. I guess they didn't care to poll Catholics.

[AnnoyedOne]

Maybe they just wanted a last look at somethng which is about to disappear. :D

[highball]

I'm glad they've extended the exhibit. Little Highball Junior has made it difficult to get out to as many museums as I'd like (although we have been to the Met and MoMA already).

I'll definitely get to see it this summer.

[phantomworker]

In a Gallup poll released last October, 53 percent of American adults agreed with the statement that God created humans in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it.

Thirty-one percent stood by the "intelligent design" stance, while only 12 percent said humans have evolved from other forms of life and "God has no part."

Are these statistics correct? !!!!

[southernnorthcarolina]

Well, I'll be a monkey's -- ummm -- great-great-great...great-nephew.

[CobaltBlue]

Thirty-one percent stood by the "intelligent design" stance, while only 12 percent said humans have evolved from other forms of life and "God has no part."

They left the most intelligent choice off the list.

God created the Universe, and everything in it, and then stood back and let evolution happen over time.

[Revolting cat!]

I bet if they gave a "monumental exhibition" in Noo Yoke celebrating the other two 19th century secular gods (now mostly discredited, thank God. Charlie, you're next!) Marx and Fraud, even more fools would rush in.

[JCEccles]

Charles Darwin is atheism's Moses.

So the faithful come out to worship him. It's likely the same group that thought Brokeback Mountain was fine art.

[Sick of Lefties]

The following is an op-ed (my wife's) that will run shortly in the Ann Arbor News:

Fundamentalist Progressivism:

I have no axe to grind about evolution. I’m not a fundamentalist. If I were, of course, I wouldn’t dare suspect that Darwin’s account of material reality was true.

But did you know that no self-respecting progressive is allowed to suspect that it might be false? You might call it an epidemic of progressivist fundamentalism. At least, that’s my amateur diagnosis after following recent evolution court cases in the news.

There was that school board in Georgia that placed stickers reading “Evolution is a theory, not a fact…[and] should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered” on textbooks. (Teachers, please note, were then free to teach Darwin for the rest of the year.) This set off a lawsuit. The plaintiffs, like heretic-hunters of old, objected strongly to anything that smacked of questioning authority—Darwin’s, at least.

In Kansas, the state’s Board of Education adopted a set of science curriculum standards that call for students—in the standards’ own words—“to learn about the best evidence for modern evolutionary theory, but also to learn about areas where scientists are raising scientific criticisms of the theory…the Standards do not include Intelligent Design...” Op-ed pages around the country reported this modest aspiration as if the Flat Earth Society had taken over the state of Kansas.

Then, in Dover, Pa., the school board wanted teachers to read a single paragraph intimating that a controversy exists, and giving students the option of checking a single pro-intelligent-design book out of the school library—before proceeding with instruction in Darwinian biology. This provoked another lawsuit. The plaintiff refused to tolerate the free expression of the idea that some scientists (not preachers, scientists) question evolution, and was apparently—this was kind of charming—expecting students to rush off to the library to indulge in optional research.

People who’ve been devoting only sporadic attention to the evolution wars can certainly be forgiven for thinking that somebody out there is trying to rid the country of Darwinism, or maybe of science itself. But the careful reader will note certain traits common to all these cases: None proposes to ban the teaching of evolution. None requires teaching intelligent design instead of it or even alongside it. And none, one Ann Arbor News cartoon to the contrary, proposes to replace science textbooks with the book of Genesis. All they seek is to subject a mainstream scientific view to a token amount of scientific scrutiny.

Certainly you can argue, as plenty of judges and journalists have, that that’s not what ID advocates really want—that they’re out to replace science with their own theology, just feigning interest in the findings of molecular biologists. But speculations about their deep, dark theocratic intentions don’t count as a refutation of their points.

It’s all very confusing: the journalistic template to dust off for an evolution story is supposed to be “Irrational Fundamentalists Feel Threatened by Academic Freedom.” In this corner, fighting for Reason, is the fearless scientist, disposed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead; in this corner, representing Faith, we have some poor, well-intentioned guy who believes what he believes for no particular reason.

Intelligent design is accused of not constituting “real” science because it clearly has religious implications. The trouble, of course, is that Darwinism, most especially the way it’s taught in school textbooks, also has implications about religion.

Intelligent design is also accused of being unpopular among scientists. And criticism of Darwinism is clearly outside the current mainstream—but then, so was Ignaz Semmelweis, who introduced the inconvenient and wildly unpopular idea of doctors washing their hands between conducting autopsies and delivering babies. So was Copernicus. The history of science is crammed with people who were ostracized for unpopular ideas that turned out to be correct.

And the unpopularity in this case is not all that ubiquitous—Princeton, Harvard and Cambridge (and U of M) have produced scientists who question Darwinism. It will no longer fly to sneer, as Richard Dawkins did back in 1989, that “if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane….” These days you look, well, fundamentalist, if you give the impression that that’s your idea of a refutation.

So whatever your theological convictions, or lack thereof, please don’t be a fundamentalist progressive. Don’t protest when someone suggests that your favorite ideas “be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

[AnnoyedOne]

"The (intelligent) people have spoken."

Actually, the opposite is true. The large crowds are generally drawn to things which require very little intellect. Events and places which are more.. cerebral.. generally do not appeal to large numbers. Professional wrestling has a larger regular crowd than the public library.

The fact that a thing draws large numbers of people makes the real intellectual value of it highly suspect.

[Blzbba]

"In a Gallup poll released last October, 53 percent of American adults agreed with the statement that God created humans in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it. "



In other news, exit polls show John Kerry winning the Presidency...

[connectthedots]

Nearly 200,000 people in three months, in NYC? That's only about 2,200 per day.

A Billy Graham crusade would do that in just four days.

[jalisco555]

I visited this exhibit a couple of weeks ago. It's terrific. Highly recommended.

[Chiapet]

The Field Museum of Natural History here in my very own adopted city of Chicago has opened a new permanent exhibit called the Evolving Planet. I'm planning on going soon. They've got some great stuff online though too, here's the link:

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/evolvingplanet/

[eleni121]

Darwinism belongs in museums...an interesting archane exhibit.

[DoctorMichael]

"......The (intelligent) people have spoken........"

Pay no attention to this article that attempts to show public support for GODLESS EVOLUTION!!!!

Go here!!!!!!!!!!!!!...............

http://www.echoesofenoch.com/hollowearth.htm

The Earth is hollow!!!!!!!!!!!

I read it on the Internet therefore it must be true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bible says so too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........

Isa 40:22 "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in."

.......and we all know that the Bible is the literal Word of God!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets all get together and get this into our Godless Public School System as a viable alternative to what the Godless Geologists profess!!!!!!!!

Who's with me?

And now a word from the illustrious founder of the Hollow Earth Society:

[patriot_wes]

"This is really for the schoolchildren of America. This is the evidence of evolution," said the exhibit's curator, Niles Eldridge.

Adolph Hitler said….”Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth it’s own education and it’s own upbringing. Your child belongs to us already….what are you?”

[IamConservative]

Couldn't help but initially think they were taking applicaitons for Darwin Awards and had to extend because of the high numnber of potential winners in NYC. :)