Evangelists oppose Leakey's fossil exhibition

Kenyan evangelical Christians have hopped on the anti-evolution bandwagon, and are demanding that all reference to the theory be dropped from an exhibition of hominid fossils in Nairobi's National Museum.

The museum houses Louis and Richard Leakey's collection of hominid fossils, one of the most extensive in the world. The collection includes the famous Turkana boy, an almost complete fossilised skeleton of a young hominid who lived approximately 1.6m years ago, and is arguably one of the best illustrations of the origins of our species.

However, Bishop Boniface Adoyo, chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, says that the exhibition does not represent scientific evidence of human evolution. He says evolution is still a theory, and that the fossils cannot be called as evidence to support it.

Adoyo said he would be satisfied if the exhibition merely renamed itself and worded its material to avoid giving the impression that the fossils were in any way connected with humanity.

"When you use evolution as God's tool in creating man in his image, you have to reckon with the fact at what stage in the evolution process does man attain to that image?" he told Wired.com.

"The conclusion is either God's image is evolving or God Himself is evolving or every creature has God's image. God could be anything and I'm afraid I cannot put my faith in a 'changing God' or an 'anything God'.”

He would rather the fossils be presented as a history of other creatures, Wired.com reports.

The museum says that it hasn't had any complaints from local churches, and fully intends to present the fossils as evidence for evolution when the exhibition reopens in 2007. It is currently closed for renovation. ®