Religion

Among all the topics discussed with interviewees, engagement with religion is the one that reveals the most disagreement. Many advocate for a firewall, desiring no incorporation of content within science exhibits. Others think active interaction with those who hold distinct worldviews is critical to success. The author advocates for the latter, with due acknowledgement of the risks, especially within a natural history museum environment. At the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the lead curators object to a video that breaches the firewall sealing faith off from science, but two other interviewees defend its inclusion. For the Smithsonian (NMNH), the Broader Social Impacts Committee provides engagement via website content and occasional museum events. Nonetheless, despite its strong commitment to welcoming those with religious worldviews, the NMNH human origins hall contains very limited religion-related content on permanent display. Alleviating the alienation of religious visitors is perhaps the most difficult issue designers of U.S. human evolution exhibits face. The author argues that ignoring the concerns of this sizeable demographic and delimiting the museum’s role to presenting scientific evidence neutrally is unlikely to solve the problem.