Religious War on Science

Some might see this as just some hyperbole. But science is constantly dealing with people and groups trying to rewrite the various science books. Not with research, analysis, or evidence. No, just faith and gumption. Geology, astronomy, physics, biology, archaeology, down the line.

So now to a story that has been making the rounds for months now. RichardDawkins.net has an article on the continued struggle with zealots, who just don't appreciate reality, especially when it is let out of the locked closet, in the out of order bathroom, in the basement, passed the missing stairs, and the locked door.

In Nairobi, Kenya, we find a continued struggle between Kenya's national museum and Bishop Boniface Adoyo, leader of Kenya's numerous evangelical denominations (He counts his followers around 10 million).

His demand:

He's calling on his flock to boycott the exhibition and has demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room -- along with some kind of notice saying evolution is not a fact but merely one of a number of theories.

So he wants archaeological finds and relics hidden, because they don't agree with his religion and unfounded opinions. No doubt if some item called into question Buddhism, Islam, or Judaism, he would be leading the fight against it.

"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo..."These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."

So facts, are hurting religion. Sort of like when faith healing doesn't heal someone, it is the fault of the sick and infirmed.

More than 10,000 years of humanity, billions of years of planetary existence. How can this be allowed to stand against...Oh yeah, because it just is. If you don't like the results you can't trade them in, like the results of a medical tests. NO BARGAINING.

Now enters a hero, though I want to give accolades to all the other scientist, curators, researchers, etc hard at work in Kenya, one Richard Leakey. The same Leakey that set up and led the expedition that discovered Turkana Boy, along Lake Turkana.

Among the 160,000 fossils due to go on display is an imprint of a lizard left in sedimentary rock, dating back 200 million years, at a time when the Earth's continents were only beginning to separate.

Dinosaur fossils and a bone from an early human ancestor, dating back 7 million years, will also be on show along with the bones of short-necked giraffes and elephants whose tusks protrude from their lower jaws.

Followers of creationism believe in the literal truth of the Genesis account in the Bible that God created the world in six days. Bishop Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, with man appearing 6,000 years later. He says each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years.

So you have Genesis, and the reading of it, or evidence and research, replicated, validated, and repeatedly reviewed. Hmm...tough one.

Leakey fears the ideological spat may provoke an attack on the priceless collection, one largely found during the 1920s by his paleontologist parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, who passed their fossil-hunting traditions on to him.
...
Turkana Boy will be displayed in a private room, with limited access and behind a glass screen with 24-hour closed-circuit TV. Security guards will be at the entrance.

"There are issues about the security," said Dr. Emma Mbua, the head of paleontology at the museum. "These fossils are irreplaceable and we wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

Fear looms, as thoughts of Christ-like actions come to mind.


But on the the positive side of the books.

Adoyo's evangelical coalition is the only religious group voicing concern about the exhibition.

Mbua, a Protestant, is a little taken aback at the controversy but has no problems reconciling her own faith to the scientific evidence.

"Evolution is a fact," adds Mbua, who has run the department for the last five years.

"Turkana Boy is our jewel," she said. "For the first time, we will be taking him out of the strong room and showing our heritage to the world."

Religion doesn't default to madness and nuttery. Great, but that is the great thing about a secular society.

And, yeah, Adoyo's group is alone, but it is, in effect, the whole of the evangelicals, some 10 million strong.

The trouble is that people like Adoyo don't want this type of open secular society to rise or survive. It is a danger and concern we need to be all aware of and ready to argue against.

Be aware. Be active.