The Discovery Institute will show the movie “Darwin’s Dilemma” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The movie discusses the Cambrian Explosion and the implications and problems it presents to Darwin’s theory. The museum released this statement pertaining to the event:

“The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is dedicated to science and to elucidating the remarkable evolutionary history of life on Earth. The museum actively engages in public programs, undergraduate and graduate education, outreach education and other efforts to increase the scientific literacy of visitors to the museum and the people of Oklahoma.

The museum does not support antiscientific views masquerading as science, such as those espoused by the Discovery Institute, although the museum respects the religious beliefs of all people. Moreover, the museum is obligated to rent its public space to any organization that is engaged in lawful activities, free speech and open discourse.

We invite everyone interested in an accurate description of how life developed over the last four billion years to visit our exhibits, which illustrate through real specimens and science, the fact of evolution as first described by Charles Darwin and that has been continually supported by all branches of science ever since that time. The museum also recommends that people interested in evolutionary science review the more than 1,000 publications by our curators and professional staff that are based in evolutionary biology. The museum does not discriminate against recognized campus organizations based on their religious beliefs, political philosophy, scientific literacy or any other factors. The museum’s many galleries of evolution will be open before and after the showing of the intelligent design film so that the public can learn there is no scientific controversy involved in evolutionary science’s explanation of the development and history of the Earth’s biodiversity.”

Furthermore, at 5 p.m., before the presentation of “Darwin’s Dilemma,” a presentation entitled “The Cambrian Explosion and the Burgess Shale: No Dilemma for Darwin” will be held. They will also provide free admission to the museum from 5 to 11 p.m. It is clear that the Sam Noble Museum is reluctantly facilitating the presence of the Discovery Institute and the showing of its documentary.

The reason for their aggressive, albeit passive statement, is because the documentary raises questions about the Cambrian era and how organisms came into being fully formed at the beginning of time.

The fossil record from that period does not readily support Darwin’s idea of gradual evolution and therefore raises problems with his theory.

It is a question that Darwin still hasn’t answered, even as his 200th birthday has come and gone.

This is why members of the scientific community at OU and in Norman are opposing the showing of the documentary. They have resorted to calling those interested in intelligent design “illiterate,” declaring that the Discovery Institute espouses “crap” rather than science.

The museum, through their statement, joined the opposition.

“The museum does not discriminate against recognized campus organizations based on their religious beliefs, political philosophy, scientific literacy or any other factors.”

This statement assumes that those presenting the documentary and supporting it must be religious, have conservative political views and lack scientific literacy, while disguising the museum’s malicious shot at those people and groups as tolerance.

The release also denies intelligent design as science, stating that “the museum does not support antiscientific views masquerading as science, such as those espoused by the Discovery Institute, although the museum respects the religious beliefs of all people.”

Again, the museum hides its opposition to the free exchange of ideas in jargon that makes it appear tolerant.

However, the museum’s actions, in surrounding the Discovery Institute presentation with pro-evolution events, reveal its true sentiments clearly.

The museum should not have opposed the event in this way. Rather than hijacking the night of the documentary presentation with an opposing seminar and free extra hours of operation, it should have let the event stand on its own.

And, rather than releasing a statement of vehement opposition, thinly veiled in tolerance, it should have said nothing.

OU and the surrounding halls of learning and education should be places of academic freedom and the open exploration of ideas.

Instead of fostering and working toward this ideal, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History has chosen to align itself with the many mean-hearted voices that wish no one would hear any alternative outside of evolution, which, along with intelligent design, is just a theory at the end of the day.