By NORTHAMPTON CHRONOCLE
Added: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to daniel for the link.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Museum-in-censorship-row-over.4434982.jp?af746e90

Museum in censorship row over Darwin sign

Censorship of an exhibition on evolution at a Northampton museum has led to claims organisers are pandering to Christian fundamentalist sensibilities.

An information sign, which is part of Abington Park Museum's display about Charles Darwin and fossils, was covered up after a visitor's complaint.

Two parts of the sign, concerning 'Changing Attitudes to Evolution', are obscured with black paper, but only four lines of text are actually covered over.

It details how Charles Darwin used the study of fossils to help formulate his theory of evolution, set out in On the Origin of Species, which angered fundamental Christians and Creationists.

But following a complaint to the museum, part of the sign was covered over to avoid giving offence and to conceal the poor prose.

The Chronicle & Echo was contacted by the Chapman family after a bank holiday visit to the museum, run by Northampton Borough Council.
Andy Chapman, of Ecton Brook, said: "The text was obscured without any explanation as to why.

"Our suspicions were confirmed by staff, who told us that following a complaint from a single religious fundamentalist, the museum had been instructed to cover up the offending statement.

"By this action the council would appear to be endorsing the views of a religious minority, and denying the right of the rest of us to see the results of rational and scientific thought.

"Evolution is not an extreme view not to be mentioned in respectable
ociety, it is part of mainstream science.

"It's particularly sad that in the 21st century we appear to have a council with 19th-century attitudes.

"I'd be interested to hear how the council justifies this censorship, and who ordered the cover up.

"Preferably, they should reinstate the complete panel immediately.

If they haven't got the courage to do this they should at least put up a statement telling all that they have a policy of allowing censorship by religious minorities."

A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said the sign was covered up due to the original complaint and also because of its poor syntax.

"Our museum team covered part of a display board following a complaint about a small section of the wording.

"The team agreed the wording was poorly worded and could cause offence. We took the decision to obscure part of it rather than spend tax payers' money on a replacement."

Third paragraph that is causing all the fuss

It is the third paragraph which Northampton Borough Council says could cause offence, and so it was covered over.

'In early Victorian times, most geologists still accepted the biblical view of evolution. They saw the different layers of fossil-rich rocks as telling the story of successive waves of creation, each one being obliterated by a deluge.

'The young scientist Charles Darwin (right) was already beginning to question this view, but it was another 30 years before he had painstakingly put together the vast assemblage of facts and observations that enabled him to write On the Origin of Species.

'He used the same layers of fossils that had supported the Genesis view of evolution to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to the rigours of it's (sic) environment — the struggle for survival through natural selection leading to the survival of the fittest.

TAGGED: ACCOMMODATIONISM, EVOLUTION, RELIGION