Chicago Field Museum Takes a Stand for Science

From Preemptive Karma and Shakespeare's Sister comes great news out of Chicago: the Field Museum's taking on the creationists:

On Friday, Chicago's renowned Field Museum will become the latest institution to combat creationism with a new permanent exhibit detailing the process of evolution.

At a preview of the exhibit earlier this week, the Field's president said museums need to lead the defense of evolution because they don't face the same level of "intimidation" as schools.

John McCarter also warned that the United States is in danger of losing its position as a technological leader because efforts to add the religiously-based theory of intelligent design to school curriculums is undermining the culture of scientific inquiry....

Unlike some museums which directly challenge intelligent design, the Field's Evolving Planet exhibit simply leaves God out of the equation.

"There may be places to debate the conflict between evolution and intelligent design but that's in a philosophy class, not in a scientific institution," Lance Grande, head of collections and research at the Field told AFP.

Rest assured that once the word gets out among the ID/creationism crowd, the Field probably will face intimidation tactics -- I'm sure foundations that fund the museum will be feeling some heat. Congrats to the museum, though, for taking this stand.

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