Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back

The New York Times ^ | 9/20/2005 | CORNELIA DEAN

[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.

[King Prout]

dang!
bet the conversation over wine by candle-light would be... arcane.

[MineralMan]

She's a lot prettier when she smiles:

[King Prout]

theif!

[Thatcherite]

Cosomology is in utter disarray. All the popular theories of the past 30 years have been killed.

I eagerly await your explanation of the Cosmic Microwave Background... Oh wait, that had already been predicted before it was observed, by standard Big Bang theory. It is even isotropic to exactly the extent predicted.

[PatrickHenry]

She's a lot prettier when she smiles

Am I overdosed on Fox News, or does John Roberts look like he could be Lisa Randall's brother? Maybe it's the eyes.

[RightWingAtheist]

I think Lisa is just darling, period!

[MineralMan]

"Am I overdosed on Fox News, or does John Roberts look like he could be Lisa Randall's brother? Maybe it's the eyes."

Hah! Actually, she's kinda cute. Too young for me, though, and I'm sure I couldn't keep up with the conversation if it went toward her specialty. Ah, well...

[js1138]

I think if Nobel Prizes were awarded or denied on the basis of personality, the list of winners would be different. The biography of Feynman indicates he was as obnoxious at lectures as the question askers were at the museum.

The difference is, that when he was shut down by a lecturer, he was intelligent enough to notice.

[Thatcherite]

Apparently before Newton discovered gravity things just floated about; and they steadily got slower if they were moving, until they stopped.

[Thatcherite]

The biography of Feynman indicates he was as obnoxious at lectures as the question askers were at the museum.

But boy could he tell some great stories; I just love "Adventures of a Curious Character" or whatever it is called.

[MineralMan]

"Apparently before Newton discovered gravity things just floated about; and they steadily got slower if they were moving, until they stopped."

Well, actually, you're mistaken. Before the Laws of Gravity were laid out by Newton, every 347th apple that came of the tree rose up into the air and disappeared into space. Other apples fell at varying speeds, while the occasional one floated motionless.

Once Newton laid down the Law, such activity ceased and all apples fell to earth with uniform acceleration. Things were much more interesting when the occasional apple could violate the law, IMO.

[Thatcherite]

Now I'm waiting for the "You Feynmann lovers are just commies" ad hominem. I'm fairly certain that he was somewhat left of centre, so I guess that we've got to reject quarks as liberal.

[MineralMan]

Actually quarks are well-known as libertarians. It is only the charmed quarks that are liberals, but you're never sure which ones they are or where they might be at any given moment.

Uncertainty is everything.

[webstersII]

"The professoriate, left to its own devices, will never ever agree to a Texas-style core curriculum."

It's amazing that people can't see the wisdom in a system like they have in Texas. I suppose it somehow steps on their personal agenda.

[MineralMan]

Here's a photo of Lenore Durkee, the docent who was the subject of this piece. Looks like a nice lady:

[webstersII]

"And too many of them are now back in school, teaching!!!"

Oh, man, you should hear some of his comments about teachers. . . .

" As far as "too much curriculum,"

That sounds familiar. My father went to school in a one-room schoolhouse in a very poor rural area, and he still had a much better K-12 education than I ever did. He spent fewer hours in school every day, too. Of course, they didn't have all sorts of PC socialism junk to deal with and all the discipline problems and petty stuff that goes on today so they could actually teach a broad range of subjects.

[Prime Choice]

It does not seem that this has affected the Democrats; so why should it Conservatives?

The Democrats have sympathizers and cheerleaders in the "mainstream" (sic) media. Conservatives, by and large, do not.

[RightWingAtheist]

A lot of bright people have strange quirks (as opposed to Murray Gell-Man, who only has strange quarks), which such committees are often willing to overlook. For instance, Brian Josephson was already deep into parapsychology and other quackery when he received the Nobel for his work on quantum tunnelling (coincidentaly or not, he's also the only living Nobel Prize winner who doesn't have a biography page on the official website). Samuel Ting and Steve Weinberg are two people who are also allegedly difficult to deal with. A friend of mine was once interviewing Weinberg for a historical paper dealing with the SSC fiasco, and she found it very trying when she presented him with all the carefully documented evidence she had found which contradicted his position; once he has made up his mind on anything, he absolutely refuses to budge. It was that same stubborness which led him to the electroweak model which so many others had given upon before him, but it also explains why holds the seemingly contradictory position of both opposing any attempt by America at defending itself, but supports Israel's right to do so. Most people either support or oppose a strong system of defense for both nation, but Weinberg continues to cling to the same opinion for nearly forty years, after both Vietnam and the Six-Days War shifted the definitions of the "left" and "right" positions for everyone else.

[Prime Choice]

She's a lot prettier when she smiles...

Aren't they all?   ;o)

[VadeRetro]

Am I going blind or did someone miss the exposure on that shot badly?