Kenyan Pentacostals Try To Hide Evidence of Evolution
It isn’t just here in the United States that the Religious Right is trying to keep the evidence for the evolution of species through natural selection hidden. In Kenya, leaders of Pentacostal Christian churches are starting a campaign to pressure the National Museums of Kenya to remove fossils of ancient hominids from public view because the existence of those fossils contradicts the claims about the supernatural origin of life on Earth proposed in the book that forms the basis of Christian religion.
The fossils include not only Homo erectus, a human species that predated Homo sapiens, but Australopithecus anamensis as well. Australopithecines are categorized in a separate genus than humans because they have a combination of traits that seem to be like those of the ancestors we share with chimpanzees and bonobos and those that are distinctive of humanity. One or more of the australopithecine species is likely to be a human ancestor, though australopithecines were not quite human themselves.
Looking at fossils of extinct species like Homo erectus and Australopithecus anamensis, as well as the many other ancient hominid species that have been discovered and can be seen in museums and research institutions around the world, one phrase comes easily to mind: “Missing link”. That phrase comes to mind, but it isn’t exactly accurate. After all, these links between ancient ape-human common ancestors aren’t really missing, are they? No, in spite of what Creationists like the Kenyan Pentacostals claim, those links have been found, and can be seen quite clearly in places like that museum in Nairobi.
How embarrassing for the Creationists.
Even more embarrassing is the reaction of the Kenyan Creationists. Confronted with clear evidence that their religious beliefs are not literally accurate, the Creationists have not adapted their beliefs to fit with reality. Instead, they are trying to cover up the evidence. They’re demanding that those fossils of extinct hominids from Kenya be hidden from public view, so that people won’t be able to see the truth.
From Kansas to Kenya, Creationists are working hard to replace information with ignorance, converting schools into seminaries and museums into mythological exhibitions. Seminaries and displays of mythology ought to be allowed in their own places, but those of us who prefer to be able to access information that has not been filtered by religious censors ought to be able to find what we’re looking for.
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