{"id":23,"date":"2006-08-30T09:11:12","date_gmt":"2006-08-30T16:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=23"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:14:55","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:14:55","slug":"tackling-evolution-challenges-at-museums-and-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=23","title":{"rendered":"Tackling Evolution Challenges at Museums and Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a good story<\/a> that shows the fight to defend science happens in places beside the classroom and politics.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of scientists agree that intelligent design (ID) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the belief that the complexity of life is evidence that something intelligent must have designed it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is not a scientific theory. But the rising popularity of the belief has led museums and national parks to rethink how they present information to visitors. Both groups are working to further educate staff and volunteers, and also to present clear information about why evolution is accepted among most scientists.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The bottom line is that intelligent design is a threat to the credibility of science in our culture,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Kirk Johnson, chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since science ought to be in a museum, we realized that as a museum, we could do a better job of educating people about what science is, and how we know what we know.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n…
\nThe mission of natural history museums is always to explain how science works so that people can understand it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but clearly there are individuals who are tempted to conflate what science is and make it confusing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It makes us more inspired to make it understandable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n…
\n… the new Thomas Condon Paleontology Center is much larger, dedicated to paleontology, and filled with text and graphic displays about the fossil record. At first, Fremd says, he worried that the new displays would be too complex, but he is now pleased by how many people spend hours reading the fine print. Prior to visiting the park\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s center, Fremd says that it is easy for people to think that bones in one layer of a fossil bed could have been the result of Noah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biblical flood. But with the rigorous explanations in the museum, visitors can begin to put the data together and understand the complexity of evolution.
\nPart of the problem, which can lead to nonscientific ideas such as ID, is that some museums, rangers and docents are apologizing for how complex the story is, Fremd says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it is the very complexity that makes it interesting. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t apologize for making it complex.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a good story that shows the fight to defend science happens in places beside the classroom and politics. The vast majority of scientists agree that intelligent design (ID) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the belief that the complexity of life is evidence that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":914,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=914","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":0},"title":"More opinions on Wise","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science supporter Paul Cottle, who is a professor of physics at Florida State University, wrote a nice piece for the Florida Times-Union about state Senator Wise's possible intelligent design creationism bill. Wise's proposal does not represent the viewpoints of all Christians. Last year, Bishop Thomas Wenski of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"ID Creationism\" bills '09"","block_context":{"text":"\"ID Creationism\" bills '09","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=27"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1050,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1050","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":1},"title":"Opposing Faiths Clash over Evolution","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Discovery Institute \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No. The new website appears\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1050#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=10","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":2},"title":"Volusia joins the fray","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit to being shocked over how much intelligent design is cropping up in Florida school board races. I would think candidates would want to avoid that albatross what with all the times intelligent design has gone down in flames lately. Citrus, Escambia ... and now Volusia county\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":936,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=936","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":3},"title":"Hear no science …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a\u00c2\u00a0nice political cartoon published in the Gainesville Sun along with a letter from Florida Citizens for Science board member Mary Bahr's letter. Full text of the letter after the jump. Imagine our society without computer networks, electronics, chemistry and modern medicine. Both our lives and economy would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/hearseespeak.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":4},"title":"Has it hit you where you live yet?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle over evolution continues at a fierce pace, as we discover in the Palm Beach Post today. Three new counties are now added to our watchlist: St Lucie, Palm Beach, and Martin. However, we need to keep our eyes on the ball. The real fight that we must concentrate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=135","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":5},"title":"Staver vs. Ruse","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"(edited: I feel sillly. It was just pointed out to me that this story was published back in 2005. Better late than never, eh?) The Orlando Weekly has dueling interviews up in a story about intelligent design versus evolution. First up from Orlando is the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver. Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}