11.22.05
Big Business Scared on Evolution
It is perhaps to be expected that Big Biz should consist of cowards scared away from the Darwin debate: The Darwin exhibition frightening off corporate sponsors
Why is it that 51% of Americans reject the theory of evolution? Without being unfair about the obvious klutz factor in the mentally retarded American religious culture, part of the blame must rest on the transparent failure of the Darwin establishment to present evolution as distinguished from the theory of natural selection. This fatal flaw in the mode of discourse has left a gaping hole a mile wide that, unbelievably, gives creationists idiocy an edge against science.
An exhibition celebrating the life of Charles Darwin has failed to find a corporate sponsor because American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution.
The entire $3 million (£1.7 million) cost of Darwin, which opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York yesterday, is instead being borne by wealthy individuals and private charitable donations.
The failure of American companies to back what until recently would have been considered a mainstream educational exhibition reflects the growing influence of fundamentalist Christians, who are among President George W Bush’s most vocal supporters, over all walks of life in the United States.
While the Darwin exhibition has been unable to find a business backer - unlike previous exhibitions at the museum - the Creationist Museum near Cincinatti, Ohio, which takes literally the Bible’s account of creation, has recently raised $7 million in donations.
The outbreak of corporate cold feet has shocked New York’s intellectuals. “It is a disgrace that large companies should shy away from such an important scientific exhibition,” said a trustee of another prominent museum in the city, who was told of the exhibition’s funding problem by a trustee of the AMNH.
“They tried to find corporate sponsors, but everyone backed off.”
Creationism is increasingly widely backed in America. A CBS News poll last month found that 51 per cent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, believing instead that God created humans in their present form. Another poll in August found that 38 per cent of Americans think that creationism should be taught in schools, instead of evolution