This has been an interesting discussion, but (with some exceptions) I
thought that too many of the questions and concerns were focused on rather
fundamentalist views. Yes, these are out there, but there are far more
moderate and liberal voices in the religious communities and in the
scientific communities as well.  Many of these people do not see fundamental
conflicts, but potential dialogue in areas from hard science to the ethics
of science and medicine.  One web site with a very extensive bibliography
divided by level from introductory to advanced is at the Templeton
Foundation (www.templeton.org) under the link "Expanding Humanity's Vision
of God: A Science and Religion Essay Contest."  This section includes both
information on the contest and the bibliography.

A regional organization with some similar goals is the Philadelphia Center
for Religion and Science (www.pc4rs.org).
I think museums should, in their their educational roles, start exploring
these links, rather than trying to maintain a complete divide between
"facts" and issues of meaning, values, and interpretation.  These issues are
significant for both science and culture based institutions. (And in my
opinion, these serious questions reach a much wider audience, and have
nothing to do with giving "equal time" to people who want to claim the world
was created 5741 years ago or that dinosaurs never really existed.)

An indication of how far we have to go is from a recent program held a few
weeks ago at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia by PCRS.  I wasn't
there.  As I recall the news report, it brought together a number of
scientists and Jewish and Christian religious thinkers to discuss ethical
issues related to life and death and medical technology. These were
mainstream people discussing a topic of wide public and scientific concern.
The conference was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  A few days later,
the president of the Franklin Institute wrote a letter to the editor of the
Inquirer stating that wording implying that this was a "Franklin Institute
event" were wrong, and that the FI had merely rented space as it does many
times and was in no way responsible for the contents of the program.

While undoubtedly technically true, do you think this letter would have been
written to "correct an impression" if the news story had been about a
meeting of the United Way or Chamber of Commerce?  What was it that made a
major science museum run to distance itself from the minor notice that an
interesting discussion crossing some traditional boundaries had taken place
at its facility?  Is the mere mention of religion or presence of a faculty
member from a leading seminary on a panel on ethics enough to cause
embarrassment ?

Robert Tabak
Director of Programs
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
Philadelphia

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