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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
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To: Windsong

"Maybe someone should have told you that this was a Conservative forum."

This is a conservative political forum. Conservatism says nothing about evolution, which is not a political question. Conservatives are not all Christians, as you may note as you read these threads. Conservatives do not all believe that evolution is an incorrect theory.

You've somehow confabulated conservatism with something it is not.

Now, did you have something to add to the discussion, which involves evolution and whether it is proper to browbeat a museum docent?


1,021 posted on 09/22/2005 12:26:51 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Windsong

Conservative != creationist.


1,022 posted on 09/22/2005 12:32:28 PM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Junior

Conservative placemarker.


1,023 posted on 09/22/2005 12:37:11 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: js1138
A theory that invisible aliens rearrange your room while you sleep and modify your memory so you don't notice is not a theory.

However, it is a testable hypothesis.

1,024 posted on 09/22/2005 12:38:09 PM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Elsie; Right Wing Professor
Control M is merely a RETURN [0001101]

The set of those who know that is rapidly diminishing.

Is the prof feeding you a line (0001010), or lining you a feed (0101000)?

1,025 posted on 09/22/2005 12:39:04 PM PDT by donh (A is </a>)
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To: MineralMan
This is a conservative political forum.

Science appeals to the conservative mind. It's reality based, it sticks with what works, it rejects the debunked, and it produces results.

1,026 posted on 09/22/2005 12:39:24 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Disclaimer -- this information may be legally false in Kansas.)
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To: PatrickHenry

"Science appeals to the conservative mind. It's reality based, it sticks with what works, it rejects the debunked, and it produces results."

Indeed. There are those, however, on this forum, who believe that one must be a KJV-only, born-again, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian to claim conservatism. I find that belief not in keeping with the goals of this forum.

I find it amusing that someone, like myself, who believes that the Theory of Evolution is the best current explanation for speciation is held by the above-described folks to be non-conservative politically.


1,027 posted on 09/22/2005 12:43:41 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Elsie
If gravity were magically turned off, would the moon move away from the earth? No.

YES!! (You did NOT turn off momentum!)

Prove it. See mach's conjecture.

1,028 posted on 09/22/2005 12:45:05 PM PDT by donh (A is </a>)
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To: Elsie

Poor Elsie! You tried, but were thwarted by the vagaries of chance and the imprecise nature of the internet.

It was fun, though, to watch the battle.


1,029 posted on 09/22/2005 12:45:09 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Junior

Not with my aliens. If you found evidence, they would make you forget it. I suppose I should admit that I've been using hiding the fact that they are really invisible pink flamingos. But I get tired of explaining how I know they're pink.


1,030 posted on 09/22/2005 12:45:09 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: PatrickHenry

Ah, you succeeded, and quietly, too. Bravo!


1,031 posted on 09/22/2005 12:46:15 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: js1138

Two words: hidden camera.


1,032 posted on 09/22/2005 12:54:38 PM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Junior

You think my invisible pink flamingos don't know about your camera? They know about that other one, too.


1,033 posted on 09/22/2005 12:56:27 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: js1138
Okay. Experiment #2:

Take photographs of the room on Day 1. Entrust those photographs to a third party to secret in a secure location known only to him.

Take photographs of the room on Day 2. Compare those photographs to the ones in the possession of the third party.

Catch evil invisible pink flamingos in the act!

1,034 posted on 09/22/2005 1:00:59 PM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Junior

That might work if you remembered the camera and film, but you forgot that they modified your memory, didn't you?


1,035 posted on 09/22/2005 1:07:54 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: js1138

What were we talking about? I'm drawing a blank...


1,036 posted on 09/22/2005 1:14:02 PM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Junior

I was just testing whether I could post more spam than the creationists.


1,037 posted on 09/22/2005 1:16:42 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman
I am sure if God has spoken directly to you you can provide us with a recording or at least a decent transcript? What does His voice sound like? Does He smoke a cigar?

Oral Roberts says He's 900 ft tall. Benny Hinn says He walks into his bedroom and rearranges his socks. Jimmy Swaggart says He talks dirty. Jim Bakker says He commanded him into the theme park business.

What a whacky deity!

1,038 posted on 09/22/2005 1:20:19 PM PDT by balrog666 (A myth by any other name is still inane.)
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To: donh
Lot's of things could be science, but aren't, because the fact that a thing is possible is not an adequate reason to consider its investigation a science in the same sense that we consider evolutionary-based biology a science, worthy of being taught as a semester-long high school class.

FYI, I've never personally claimed that a public school should spend an entire semester talking about ID. I've said that I think that public schools should spend a class talking about ID and the limits of the theory of evolution and then teach evolution. And that religion is so important to so many Americans and this issue is so divisive in schools suggests to me that ID is worthy of discussion. Of course my own personal preference is school vouchers, which would also help resolve the problem.

1,039 posted on 09/22/2005 1:45:44 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

"What does His voice sound like? Does He smoke a cigar?"

Of course he smokes a cigar. A Cuban cigar. He's sort of short and balding, and has a gravelly voice.

"Say goodnight, Gracie."


1,040 posted on 09/22/2005 1:51:33 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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