It may seem that the American Museum of Natural History is
cruising for controversy in presenting Darwin, the most comprehensive exhibition any museum has offered on the naturalist's life and theories. It is a time, after all, when the theory of evolution by natural selection seems as newsworthy as it was back in the days of the Scopes trial 80 years ago.
According to a CBS News poll last month, 51 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, saying that God created humans in their present form. And reflecting a long-standing sentiment, 38 percent of Americans believe that
creationism should be taught instead of evolution, according to an August poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington.
A continuing federal trial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, may determine whether a local school board can compel teachers to inform students about the theory of intelligent design -- the idea that life on earth is too complex to have arisen through evolution alone. And though there is no credible scientific
support for this position,
President George W. Bush, when asked in August about evolution and intelligent design, said that "both sides ought to be properly taught." However, said Ellen Futter, president of the museum, the US$3 million exhibition, which opens to the public on Nov. 19, was conceived three years ago, and "is not a riposte, but a celebration of Darwin's life and his ideas, which are the cornerstone of modern biology."
The exhibition will consist of more than 400 artifacts, specimens and documents, including at least 100 manuscripts on loan and other objects, 159 models fabricated by the museum's workshops, 74 specimens from the museum's
collections and nine live animals.
Referring to the museum's curatorial, research and academic faculty of 200 scientists, "the work of most of them is essentially based on Darwin's work," Novacek said. None of the staff members believe in intelligent design "or at least they haven't declared it," he said. "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." He added, "Some of the current reactions to Darwin's work are the same as they were when Origin was first published."
The exhibition mentions intelligent design not as science, or as a theory to be debated, but as a form of creationism, which offers the biblical view that God created the earth and its creatures fully formed within the last 10,000 years. In 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that creationism is a religious belief that cannot be taught in public schools. Novacek said that "we are welcoming everyone to the show," adding that "we will be prepared to respond to questions."
The show is the next in the museum's series on thinkers, explorers and scientists, following its exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. The Darwin exhibition has been assembled not only from the museum's collections but also from those of Cambridge University, the Darwin family and Down House, where the naturalist spent the last 40 years of his life.
The exhibition "has the crown jewels," Novacek said, referring to Darwin's original specimens, manuscripts and notes. "Many of these haven't been together since they were on the HMS Beagle," he said, referring to the 27m ship that carried Darwin on a voyage from 1831 to 1836 to South America and the Galapagos.
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