Smithsonian Embroiled in God v Darwin Dispute

In the United States a scientific dispute has broken out over a decision to screen a film considered by many to be Creationistic and not scientific. The National Museum for Natural History of the public Smithsonian Institute plans to screen the film “The Privileged Planet” on June 23rd. The film promotes the theory of “Intelligent Design”, which is a form of Creationism.

Creationists deny Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and see God as guider behind every development.

The documentary film is based on a book that promotes the “Intelligent Design”-Theory which is written by Guillermo Gonzalez of Iowa State University and Jay Richards, vice president of the Discovery Institute in Seattle.

The movie suggests part of science is supernatural. The chairman of the US-Geophysical Union, Fred Spilhaus, believes this to be illogical. He said Creationism is not a science. Because scientific cognition would be based on evidence, was provisory and could be audited at any time.

The Smithsonian Institute is considering cancelling its support worth USD$16,000. for the producers of the film after assessing the movie’s content to be against the mission of the Institute. However, invitations have already been sent out. Dozens of well-known scientists protested.

Fred Spilhaus, insisted the Smithsonian Institute reconsider and called on other researchers to file a protest on the Smithsonian-website.

In the United States, the Creationists are waging a campaign against Evolutionism - which was a reputed reason for criminality, drug misuse and wars.

The Creationists have had their successes: In many US Federal States there are juristic and political controversies upon Darwin’s ideas in schools. School book publishers excluded mention of Darwin. Draft laws insist that schools give equal treatment to Creationism and evolution – even though US-law regulates the separation of church and state. But those faithful to the Bible enjoy the backing of the U.S. “moral majority. A survey by research centre Gallup showed only 10 percent of Americans trusted the theory of Evolution, whereas 45 percent think God had created Earth about 10,000 years ago.

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