In Dallas, there is a wonderful little place right across from the Kennedy Memorial called The Conspiracy Museum. The curator has tied every politcal assassination of the past 140 years together into a single grand scheme, without a single guilty party ever being apprehended; he has about a dozen gunmen at Dealey plaza; he has the Soviets shooting down a Korean airliner in the late '80s as part of the conspiracy... It's all truly mind-warping stuff. But what's really, really great about this place is, as you walk in, there is a huge sign titled "What We Believe." No trying to trick you into anything, no condescending assumption that of course everyone sees the world the same way we do. Rather, they tell you, here's where we're coming from; accept it or reject it, this is how we've put the pieces together. I think every museum in the country should be required to have such a sign. Walk into a science museum and be told what science is: a particular way of looking at the world, based on evidence, observation, and repeatable experiment; a way that has tremendous strength, but also some very real limitations. I believe many people who resist evolution do so because science is presented to them in precisely the same way religion is presented: as received wisdom from an all-powerful source which we are not allowed to question. And hey, if I had to choose between two omnipotents, I'd take a loving God over an indifferent universe any day. Of course, I realize that, in the words of Pope John Paul II, these are non- overlapping magesteria. Unfortunately science, recognizing that religion is really good at getting its message across, has adopted much of religion's form, thus obscuring its own message and confusing the public. And, not surprisingly, religion has turned around and adopted the form of science, in "scientific creationism" and "creationist museums." Art and history museums, which are perhaps even more subjective, may be in even greater need of such up-front explanatory labels. -- Eugene Dillenburg Exhibit Developer Science Museum of Minnesota ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).