Friday, February 09, 2007

visit to the museum, anyone?

The American Museum of Natural History opens the newly redesigned Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins exhibition hall tomorrow. From the museum website:

The innovative Spitzer Hall, the successor to the Museum's popular Hall of Human Biology and Evolution, combines for the first time anywhere the most up-to-date discoveries in the fossil record with the latest in genomic science to explore the most profound mysteries of humankind: who we are, where we came from, and what is in store for the future of our species.

The 10,000-square-foot Spitzer Hall of Human Origins offers the most comprehensive evidence of human evolution ever assembled, with over 200 casts of the rarest hominid fossils and artifacts documenting how modern humans evolved over millions of years from earlier species and showing how new DNA evidence reveals how closely related we are to each other and to our primate ancestors.


I’m asking for trouble, but I’ll throw out the question anyway – assuming you are a museum goer (I am!), do you visit something like this (esp. with kids) or not? Is human origins something that you explore only through reading the first chapter of Genesis, or should it also be explored in a setting like this, whatever you make of the evidence in light of your views on Biblical creationsim?

(Update: Just noticed the NY Times has a review of the exhibit here with a token paragraph on the evolution/creationism debate.)

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:26 PM

    This latest dog and pony show will not change anyone's convictions.

    ReplyDelete