In Britain's Northampton, the Abington Park Museum operated by the Northampton Borough Council is in the midst of a controversy over a display on Darwin and fossils. The Northampton Chronicle & Echo reported last week that the museum was instructed to cover up one paragraph of an explanatory sign after a complaint by a religious fundamentalist. The Council said it was also concerned about poor syntax in the paragraph. The first two paragraphs of the sign explain that Darwin challenged the Biblical view of early geologists that fossils showed successive waves of creation. The objectionable paragraph then said: "[Darwin] used the same layers of fossils that had supported the Genesis view of evolution to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to the rigours of it's (sic) environment – the struggle for survival through natural selection leading to the survival of the fittest." [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]
UPDATE: The National Secular Society reports (Sept. 1) that Northampton Council has ordered a new, corrected sign to replace the one that has been partially covered. The new wording is similar to the old, but omits reference to the Genesis view of evolution. Council head Tony Woods said the original sign was covered over by the previous administration because it was factually incorrect. [Again thanks to Scott Mange.]
