Ancient boy's skeleton sparks evolution debate

Story Highlights• Kenya's national museum to display 160,000 fossils• Turkana Boy, most complete prehistoric human ever found, to be shown• Kenyan evangelicals upset that the exhibit contradicts Bible

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- 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."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Jay's Thoughts:


God gave man Free Will, and with that, common sense. During the Dark Ages the Catholic Church (of which I am a proud member), used religion as a political tool for power. They denounced anything at odds with Church teaching, using their weapon of terror, the Inquisition, to stop ideas that they held as heretical. Many brilliant thinkers were forced to either hide their beliefs or suffer torture and excommunication. One of these men, Copernicus, was forced to recant his scientific observations of space. Copernicus was able to prove that the Earth revolved around the Sun, not vice versa. At the time, it was Church doctrine that since God made the Universe but placed his chosen people and the Savior on Earth, that Earth must be the literal center of the Universe. Copernicus begged to differ. He proved that the Earth was anything but the center, that we were just one planet among many stars and other heavenly bodies. He was just one man who was plagued by the belief that literal interpretation of the Bible was the only way to read it, and that anything that is discovered to not conform with a literalist approach is a heresy and inspired by Satan.
Sadly, the Evangelical Church in Kenya is still 1000 years behind the times. They want this latest discovery removed from view since it doesn't match their beliefs. They are using a source of logic known as Inductive Reasoning. There are two types of reasoning: Inductive and Deductive. Inductive reasoning makes a supposition, than gathers evidence that supports the theory until it can be proven. Any evidence not meeting the expectations of the theory is thrown away. Using this process, I could prove any wild theory ever proposed by man. However, people looking for the truth, not looking to simply prove themselves correct will use Deductive reasoning, the approach made famous in literary circles by Sherlock Holmes. "I deduce", became a famous catchphrase. Anyone who enjoys shows such as CSI appreciate Deductive logic, since by using this system an investigator must look at all the evidence, piece it together, and only then make a supposition based upon all the evidence. A person using Deductive Reasoning makes a theory only after analyzing the evidence. They do not use the evidence to prove a presupposed theory. If the Evangelical Church would use Deductive Reasoning, they would see that the Bible is a wonderful tool of faith, wisdom, and infallible in teaching moral law. It is not, however, a book meant to be read strictly by literalism. The ancient Hebrews and early Christians came from a society rich in culture and literature. They understood and used literary devices in their writings. This culture of literacy was the foundation of the Bible.
I am not saying that the Bible is not true. I am saying that it is not a book to be literally interpreted from cover to cover. It holds infallible moral and ethical teachings. It gives us history that is often proven to be true. However, it also tells wonderful parables, allegories, and representations of spiritual truths passed from God to Man using literary devices so that the ancient people could understand them. God is wiser and more powerful than any man will ever be, and understands that man must be taught sometimes in ways that provide truth, beauty, and even entertainment.
God also gave us the ability to reason. By refusing to see the truth in science, archaeology, or anthropology, man betrays the very gift given to us above all creatures. God created Man, of this there is no doubt. However, God allowed the evidence of creation to exist in the form of fossils spanning many millions of years. The Bible is the Holy Book of Christians, but the Earth is the Holy Book given to all mankind. Each fossil falls into a chapter or book written expressly by God. Do not profane this Holy Record by hiding things you do not agree with in a back closet.

Thanks,
Jay