SAU President Gordon Bietz |
The exhibit itself has three segments: The cell, the geologic column, and intelligent design. The cell portion of the exhibit is an artistic model of a cell complete with three-dimensional nucleus and paintings on the wall depicting cellular components and processes. A touchscreen provides a key to understanding the artwork.
The nucleus of the cell exhibit |
The geologic column portion of the exhibit presents fossils and fossil casts in the context of Harold Clark's ecological zonation theory. I know there has been faithful Adventists who have recently questioned Clark's model (PDF), and I was a little surprised to see it so prominently featured. On the other hand, I think a lot of the points made by the exhibit were perfectly valid and interesting and worth considering.
The geology hall |
The intelligent design hall consisted of the typical sort of exhibits you might expect: functional information in proteins, origin of life, etc. One unfinished exhibit drew an analogy between the parts of a mangled iPhone randomly coming together to form a phone and the origin of cells. Yes, iPhones will blend.
"This phone was a functional model before dropping it into a blender." |
I had a great time with the folks at Southern, and I congratulate them on a beautiful exhibit. You can get a preview of the exhibit at their website.
Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.