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http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/176/2/

Museum tours spark controversy
      Written by Devon Barclay
      Tuesday, 18 October 2005
      While the courts debate the constitutionality of teaching intelligent
design and creationism in public schools, some private schools are taking
another tack. Through guided field trips to venues like the Denver Museum of
Nature and Science and the Denver Zoo, tour guides hired by churches,
private schools, and religious organizations are taking students on a
hands-on "debunking" of evolutionary science- counter to the message those
same exhibits carry. And while using public resources to teach creationism
has been ruled unconstitutional, these tours operate without museum sanction
or resources, and tour the exhibits as any other guest might.
      The tours are led by companies like BC (Biblically Correct) Tours, but
are nothing new. BC, for example, has been providing the tours for over 15
years, and has taken around 30,000 people to major historic sites and
landmarks throughout the state. With the growth in private, religious
schools, however, demand for the tours seems to be picking up.

      Maranatha Christian Academy in Arvada has used the touring company for
its own field trips. The school's founder, Pastor Don Miller, "evolved into
a creationist" from an upbringing as an atheist and after a career in
pharmaceutical science. He started the school as part of his ministry. "I
became a believer through the theory of intelligent design," says Miller.
"The scientific facts just didn't support evolution. I saw the lies of
evolution in the public schools, and as a scientist realized that it didn't
qualify as a theory."

      Now, says Miller, "we have scientists that teach creationism in our
high school. We look at evolution, and we blow it away." As for the touring
companies, Miller says, "they're doing it based on looking at the fossil
record, and it's the right perspective."

      Others in the conservative religious community also speak highly of
the tours, especially as a stimulus for debate on the evolution issue. Often
lost in the intelligent design debate are the sheer number of variations of
the idea within the intelligent design community. "I've been a 'day-age'
creationist," says Pastor Roger Funk of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada,
describing the view that the days described in Genesis could have been
spaced over millennia. "But over the years, I've become more of a
twenty-four hour day creationist. Within the Christian community, there's
divergent views. Obviously we all believe God played a role in whatever
beginnings of life took place, because that's being a Christian as we
understand it." But between evolution, intelligent design, and strict
creationism, Funk says, "children need to know all three. For maybe 40% of
Americans, evolution's a strong belief. Children need to understand the
theory, and that there are giant holes."

      Richard Stucky was raised as a creationist, but says, "my parents gave
me National Geographic as a child because they wanted me to be a free
thinker." He's now the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's Vice-President
for Research and Collections. He believes that "it is anybody's right to
provide their own interpretation of the material in the museum, but the
tours provide a great deal of false information, more or less attack straw
men, and don't use a scientific method for understanding the origins of
life." Still, he says, "the exposure of real scientific information to all
people is a very positive thing."

      "In science," he says, "you use many of the same standards as you
would in a courtroom. "You can't just use testimony from a single source to
draw conclusions."

      With or without real holes in the theory of evolution, it seems pretty
clear that the tours "debunking" the theory will continue. "The tours are
taking place but they're not sponsored by the museum - we want to be very
clear about that," says Julia Taylor, a museum spokesperson. "There are some
free speech issues involved."

      Americans United for Separation of Church and State confirms that.
Says Jeremy Leaming, a spokesperson for the organization's D.C. office, "as
a private group they have a free speech right to do this, as long as they're
not taking public school kids or receiving state support. I don't see a
first amendment (church-state separation) issue."

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