overheard and underthought

So there I was in the zoo gift shop… you know, the place people go at the end of the trip, after they’ve seen and hopefully learned and had this experience getting close to and finding some sort of understanding of the other animals we share the planet with… and there are these two women just outside the book section. They’re talking about learning more about animals, and the world, and how it came to be. So I’m pretty much delighted, because the zoo, and science, has obviously done it’s job…

But then one of the women is discouraging another from buying a book, and tells her that her husband has found a wonderful website that explains it all and puts it all in perspective.

Wait for it…

And the second woman thinks that’s a great idea, because she wants to put it all together for her kids too, and if she can save money going to a website and learning about all of God’s creatures…

Oh, the other woman says, it IS wonderful, and it doesn’t only talk about how all the animals came to be, but it talks about the history of the planet and geology and “stuff”…

and at this point I’m beginning to get that cold, crawly feeling on my spine because I’m terribly afraid, just by the way the women are talking, that I know what’s going to come next.

“It’s called Answers in Genesis” the woman says with a flourish.

Now, I’m standing there in uniform. It’s not my conversation (although if I were in jeans I may have said something), and I can’t very well say “well, you know, science has disproved most of the religious theories on that site, and while many people choose to believe rather than to learn, I’m sure you’d be more than interested in any one of the marvelous books we have here that have empirical evidence and scientific proofs about the topics you’re interested in.”

Because, when I’m in uniform, “cultural sensitivity” is part of the job.

Now I’m all for cultural sensitivity to a point. I think diversity is a great thing. I just don’t think that confusing science with religion or “culture” is a good thing.

So I always wonder, why do people who choose NOT to learn from these experiences at zoos, museums and science centers, GO to zoos, museums and science centers?

I suppose, like for many other people, it’s the entertainment factor. But when I hear things like this, I wonder if these institutions have failed their job utterly, or if, perhaps, in seeking more, one (or both) of these women and others like them will find discrepancies in their belief system, start to think about the facts and science behind what they’ve seen and heard, and start turning to rational explanations of why the world is the way it is rather than continuing to take shelter in fantasy.