Article submitted by Heather on last Friday's school visits

Conversation with a Religious Woman

During my twenty years as a docent, I have often wondered why parochial schools bring their classes to the museum and then refute evolution, telling their students that it’s no more believable than creationism. I conclude that it’s due to generations of family and church brain washing. Now that I’m 70 and have reached the threshold of old age I’ve become much less tolerant of religiosity. When pressed I say what I think.

Such was the case one Friday morning while I was stationed in the North American mammal hall. On this day there were too many kids to schedule high light tours. I called attention to my cart top display with the grizzly bear skull whose size inspires curious children to touch and ask questions. I brought out the deer skull and the wolf skull for comparison to show off the teeth and eye socket location of omnivores, herbivores and carnivores. For good measure I added the skins of the raccoon and the coyote. Fur or hair is the primary identification of a mammal and some kids have seen raccoons and coyotes in their neighborhoods.

While I gave my spiel for the class surrounding my cart a woman carrying a curly haired toddler on one hip stood to one side. I had noticed her earlier walking around the dueling dinosaurs in the foyer. She was tall, attractive and wearing a full length, brightly colored dress. She tried to interrupt what I was saying to the class but when I ignored her she held her tongue for the few minutes until the group went off to explore the mammal hall. I answered her questions about the skulls and furs until more children commanded my attention. She lingered behind the crowd.

When the group left she blurted, “Did dinosaurs really exist?”

I was not expecting such a question. “Yes,” I said, emphatically.

With that I thought she would go away but no, she wasn’t convinced. She pointed to the dueling Tyrannosaurus rex and the Triceratops skeletons. “I looked at these bones very carefully. They aren’t real.”

“You’re very observant.” I was impressed.

“About half of the Triceratops fossil bones are real and maybe 15 % of the T. rex. That’s all we recovered of these particular fossilized animals. These skeletons would look ridiculously incomplete if we only used the real bones.” She didn’t comment.

“So,” I said. “We mold copies of the missing bones from ones in other partial skeletons that we have in our collection. We do have the complete T. rex skull but it’s very heavy and too valuable to risk exhibiting here.”

“Are you religious?” she asked.

Again I was taken aback. For a moment I considered making up something. But why should I? “No,” I said. “I’m an atheist.”

That didn’t seem to surprise her. “So I believe we all came from Adam and Eve like the bible says, not from monkeys or chimpanzees. My great grandmother was human. So was her mother and as far back as we can trace our ancestors we’re all human.”

I attempted to explain evolution in a way that she could understand. She seemed to want to know. “Human evolution takes millions of years. Much longer ago than you can trace back your relatives. Much longer ago than when people wrote the bible to try to explain where we come from.” I was getting more passionate and heated. “In this day and age it’s interesting to talk to people of every faith and religion to find out or try to find out how they can believe in such impossible fairy tales and mythology in the light of what people now know about the world. Indeed I think religion does make people stupid.”

That was as far as I got. A noisy group of children arrived at the cart and I had to pay attention to them.

She didn’t seem to take my comments personally. Her little boy, who had been squirming, now wanted to get down. “I’ll come back later,” she said. “Where’s the dinosaur puppet show?”

I pointed to the stairs. “On the second floor in the North American mammal hall. I hope we can continue our conversation.” I stayed with the cart but she didn’t come back. I was both relieved and a little disappointed.

Later in the locker room while I picked up my belongings I told the other docents the story. “That was gutsy,” one of them said. I felt vindicated.

Comments:

Kudos to Heather. I was raised a catholic and attended catholic schools through college and we were taught evolution.

Maria

This doesn't sound like the woman was a religious fanatic..... she was just trying to puzzle it all out......I think Heather gave her something to think about.....I am an atheist and I never have the nerve to speak my mind like that to visitors.....I hope I will in the future if it is a person who will listen and consider facts....most wont, and it is a waste.....this is a nice forum Chuck....

Susan C