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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: MineralMan
It is only the charmed quarks that are liberals...

Strange post; I read it both up and down, and though I started at the top, I can't get to the bottom of it.

521 posted on 09/20/2005 1:49:52 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: Right Wing Professor

And on the eight day God said, Let there be open mindedness.


522 posted on 09/20/2005 1:52:05 PM PDT by wolfcreek
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Creationists, liberals, etc. ara just parts of the same mob.

Collectively known as, "people whom Doctor Stochastic doesn't like, for whatever reason".

523 posted on 09/20/2005 1:52:40 PM PDT by inquest (FTAA delenda est)
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To: Junior

"Strange post; I read it both up and down, and though I started at the top, I can't get to the bottom of it."

I guess I should have put a different spin on it, then.


524 posted on 09/20/2005 1:54:31 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: RightWingAtheist

I have a difficult time dealing with people who can't accept ambiguity and uncertainty in life.

I never worry about things like whether Israel should be able to defend itself. I worry about what is the best policy in the long run. For me the long run is 500 years or so. I think about the war on terror as a 70 year operation, or longer. I'm pretty sure Bush does also.


525 posted on 09/20/2005 1:54:39 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: VadeRetro

Could be. It's an older photo, probably from the late 80's. Maybe it was badly scanned.


526 posted on 09/20/2005 1:55:29 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: MineralMan

Well then, that's a horse of a different color. 'Course, this whole exchange has left an odd flavor in my mouth.


527 posted on 09/20/2005 1:57:01 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: antiRepublicrat
I understand that after a long time of repeatedly fielding nonsense and thoroughly debunked arguments, people can finally hit their breaking point and go off.

And I understand that after having people repeatedly 'go off' on a person, that person might get to the point of 'going off' themselves.

528 posted on 09/20/2005 1:57:54 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: Alkhin

don't take this the wrong way... i'm just playing the antagonist

why did the hominids die?


529 posted on 09/20/2005 1:58:31 PM PDT by kpp_kpp
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To: Junior

Well, since I can't be in two places at the same time, I must leave my computer for happy hour. It's uncertain, however. I could be here. I could be there. A guy just never knows.


530 posted on 09/20/2005 1:58:50 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: MineralMan

She looks like a heterosexual Janet Reno.


531 posted on 09/20/2005 1:59:12 PM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Bring back Modernman!)
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To: kpp_kpp
why did the hominids die?

Some got ate, some had accidents, and some passed away in their sleep.

532 posted on 09/20/2005 2:00:52 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: Prime Choice

no.

Hillary.

'nuff sed.


533 posted on 09/20/2005 2:02:23 PM PDT by King Prout (19sep05 - I want at least 2 Saiga-12 shotguns. If you have leads, let me know)
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To: MineralMan

Heavy, man... heavy...


534 posted on 09/20/2005 2:02:33 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: DK Zimmerman
Movies, books, and TV shows don't bother me as much as schools do. Coming out of Shakespeare in Love or JFK with a twisted and biased view of history is one thing, coming out of your K-12 education with a twisted and biased view of history is another.
535 posted on 09/20/2005 2:03:06 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: kpp_kpp

"why did the hominids die?"

Well, Fred had a sudden heart attack, and Ethel died suddenly of an aneurism in her brain.

The darned Homos slaughtered Fred and Ethel's children in a battle over a gemsbok, if I remember correctly.

And that was the end of the line for the Hominid family. The family name is now gone, lost forever in history.

The Sapiens family, however, did well enough. The grandparents got a condo in Florida. Dad and Mom are getting ready to retire from their family business, and Junior is taking it over. Sue married a dentist, and is living in Brooklyn.

The only disappointment was with little Jack. Last anyone heard, he was smoking a lot of crack and was living somewhere in the Bowery.

Sad thing about those Hominids.


536 posted on 09/20/2005 2:03:29 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: MineralMan
...and Junior is taking it over.

You know it, bubba.

537 posted on 09/20/2005 2:06:34 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: antiRepublicrat
I've always thought that any scientific subject should be taught with an "according to be best knowledge of current science" context. Of course, that context is implied if they first teach the students what science is.

It's the same for religion in the public classroom. What's the problem with teaching the Bible (or any other religion) under the context of "Christians believe that..."? Then you're not indoctrinating, you're teaching religion.

I agree with the sentiment here but I don't think the context is as implied as you think it is. *cough*Global Warming*cough* On the other hand, I know they have to walk a narrow line between giving students a healthy level of skepticism without making them think science doesn't offer any answers.

538 posted on 09/20/2005 2:11:15 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: MineralMan
Maybe it was badly scanned.

I notice that more and more on the web. Makes me think the old eyes are going, except everything else still looks OK.

539 posted on 09/20/2005 2:13:43 PM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: thulldud
they look for explanations that can be tested by experiment and observation in the material world,
LOL! Kind of throws evolution out the window by their own rules. --- Oh that's right, they just redifine terms like tested, observation, and material world.
540 posted on 09/20/2005 2:17:12 PM PDT by GrandEagle
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