What's your opinion?

NAIROBI, Kenya - Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm _ one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism _ once largely confined to the United States _ has arrived in a country known as the cradle of mankind.

"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. "These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."

He's calling on his flock to boycott the exhibition and has demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room _ along with some kind of notice saying evolution is not a fact but merely one of a number of theories.

Against him is one of the planet's best-known fossil hunters, Richard Leakey, whose team unearthed the bones at Nariokotome in West Turkana, in the desolate, far northern reaches of Kenya in 1984.

"Whether the bishop likes it or not, Turkana Boy is a distant relation of his," Leakey, who founded the museum's prehistory department, told The Associated Press. "The bishop is descended from the apes and these fossils tell how he evolved."

Among the 160,000 fossils due to go on display is an imprint of a lizard left in sedimentary rock, dating back 200 million years, at a time when the Earth's continents were only beginning to separate.

Dinosaur fossils and a bone from an early human ancestor, dating back 7 million years, will also be on show along with the bones of short-necked giraffes and elephants whose tusks protrude from their lower jaws.

They provide the clearest and unrivaled record yet of evolution and the origins of man, say scientists.

But the highlight will be the 5-foot-3 Turkana Boy, who died at age 12 and whose skeleton had been preserved in marshland before its discovery.

It will form the center stage of the exhibition to be launched in July following a $10.5 million renovation of the National Museums of Kenya, financed by the European Union. The EU says it has no concerns over the displays and that the museum was free to exhibit what it wished.

Followers of creationism believe in the literal truth of the Genesis account in the Bible that God created the world in six days. Bishop Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, with man appearing 6,000 years later. He says each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years.

Adoyo's evangelical coalition is the only religious group voicing concern about the exhibition.

Leakey fears the ideological spat may provoke an attack on the priceless collection, one largely found during the 1920s by his paleontologist parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, who passed their fossil-hunting traditions on to him.

The museum, which attracts around 100,000 visitors a year, is taking no chances.

Turkana Boy will be displayed in a private room, with limited access and behind a glass screen with 24-hour closed-circuit TV. Security guards will be at the entrance.

"There are issues about the security," said Dr. Emma Mbua, the head of paleontology at the museum. "These fossils are irreplaceable and we wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

Insurance coverage could run into millions of dollars, she added.

Mbua, a Protestant, is a little taken aback at the controversy but has no problems reconciling her own faith to the scientific evidence.

"Evolution is a fact," adds Mbua, who has run the department for the last five years.

"Turkana Boy is our jewel," she said. "For the first time, we will be taking him out of the strong room and showing our heritage to the world."

Is it possible to believe that some people evolved from apes and others decended from God?

I have a good theory. All God's people landed here on a big old space ship long ago, and some of God's people mated with the apes.

And the direct decendant's of God are more intelligent then the ones with half-ape genes.

That's what I think every time I see a stupid person nowadays. Yeppers. All definitely act like apes. Probably not one God gene in their entire body. lmao...

lol, Shelly , you is cwazy!!!

I do not believe we descended from apes, I believe we were created by God. But that`s my opinion. No school has the right to teach my children EITHER philosophy; that is my job as a parent.

I believe we were created by God. If I had children who came home from school and started talking about this evolutionism they learned at school.. I'd show up at the school and flip.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: The Dude,

Epi, so you don't want creationism taught in schools?? I'm confuzzzed!

i believe we were made from God's hands and schools shouldn't force either belief on the children. just my opinion.

I agree LMFPchick

I believe in evolution, I don't think there is or ever was a God, JMO. Speaking of god, does anyone know if Lisa believes in him? I know she used to wear a cross in the 90's.

I know plenty of people who wear crosses who don't believe in God.Or anything for that matter.

quote:

Originally posted by pen dragon:
I know plenty of people who wear crosses who don't believe in God.Or anything for that matter.

Thats way I asked if she's ever mentioned it

...and I was hoping for some random philosophising on why peeps wear meaningless religiously based talismans, not calling a cross a talisman for those who believe, just wondering why it's 'cool'...I think it's sometimes because people who would like to believe in something try to give the impression that they do, but definitely in their own kind of way and need a universally accepted religious article to point people's thinking in that direction...like, it means more "I have suffered" ..a symbol of people who feel strong beneath their suffering, not just christian's idea of it...and to kind of *******ize the original meaning, makes them rebeltastic in their quest.. "I belong but I don't, but I kept the power to live." I do believe I just fulfilled my own da.mn wish.

Someone who wears a religious symbol, whether it be a cross or Star of David, and does NOT believe...is saying to the world that they are a hypocrite.

If I remember correctly, Lisa has a friend who is a Reverand.

I am a born again Christian but I don`t go around wearing a cross around my neck. I have a cross necklace but I only wear it occasionaly. I don`t need to wear something around my neck to show the world that I believe in God and my salvation. That comes from within.

Hey there ,UD.. thanks for your opinion Hope you're well

I believe there is a God and his son Jesus died on the cross for the sins of man so that we could have eternal life. It is our choice whether we choose salvation or not. That is my belief.