Christian fundamentalists want to remove an exhibition on early man from a Kenyan museum to avoid parishoners realising that there are other ideas in the world.

The battle between evolution and creation raises it ugly head regularly in any intelligent society, and as the US have been able to prove recently, even in an unintelligent ones (See my trackback to an entry by Oz).

Africa, the cradle of humanity and evolution is a pretty religious region. Most of the notable world faiths originated on the continent of Africa mainly in the Middle East. To make sure they are ALL “God Fearing”, white colonists continue to import and impose their own Anglicised brands of Christianity in exchange for monetary aid for famine and other catastrophes.

Think of the paradox. Humans evolved on the continent of Africa and spread across the planet. Humans invented the comforting fiction of religion on the very same continent and it spread out across the planet too. As a couple of particularly nature & science -phobic religions emerged as front runners and evolved into essentially a series of metaphors on how to live your life, the ability of many followers and purveyors of these religions to think freely disappeared.

We now have situations where people can accept that only religion or only science can be the accepted doctrine dictating our view on the world, and the battle between the two goes on.

In Nairobi, right in the heartland of where the first “person” broke away from her “animal” cousins, a furious evolution debate is being waged over an exhibition of early Hominid fossils in a Kenyan Museum.

Essentially, conservative Christians want the exhibits removed or given less prominence as it is likely to confuse Christians. Good! If they weren’t confused by the inconsistencies of the Bible, then a more in-depth think about things is required anyway.

Unfortunately right-wing Christians are taking over the world, so the exhibition could be doomed, but at least we still have people like Richard Leaky, whose parents found the remains in the proposed exhibition. Leaky who continues his parents work in Kenya, is astonished by the idea that the Church would close the exhibition.

“The church leaders are out of step. They should concentrate on their faith and leave scientists to concentrate on their historical work and defend it.” – Richard Leaky

All in all, it is true that Evolution is a theory, but it is the sort of theory you could easily stand and defend with a world of empirical and tangible evidence which has been examined, refuted and defended by the best of the best.

But, let’s not forget that religions are also theory, particularly the Judeo Christian ones. There are written records dating back to the alleged times of Christ, Mohammed and a number of their prophets, writers, early teachers etc., yet none of the official historical data supports the fiction of the religions shoved down the vulnerable and uneducated throats of the downtrodden and easily influenced.

I think that having faith in something is great, but  Faith + Ignorance x Naiveté is dangerous, and it is why the world is in the situation it is today.