Ganesha at the Zoo

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www.washingtonpost.com

TULSA, OKLAHOMA, July 7, 2005: A city board reversed direction on Thursday and

rejected plans to add a creationist exhibit to the Tulsa Zoo. Board members

voted 3-1 against installing an exhibit on the origin of life from the Bible.

The vote, made at a special meeting of the board, reversed a June 7 decision to

add a Genesis story to the zoo. As one of only nine "living museums" in the

country, the Tulsa Zoo should develop displays that explain the cultural

significance of animals, McNamara said. She said an elephant-like stone statue

(HPI adds: that is, Lord Ganesha) near the elephant exhibit fit within that

mission. The statue has been one of the key items in the fight over Genesis

display. Tulsa resident Dan Hicks had argued for the creationism display as a

balance to other religious items at the zoo. Hicks, an architect, had agreed to

pay for a Genesis exhibit and came to Thursday's meeting with a 5-foot by 3-foot

plan for the display as he envisioned i t.

Current Mayor Bill LaFortune was the lone board member to back the planned

display. He suggested that the board should form a committee to look at any

religious symbols at the zoo and consider what to do with them. No action was

taken on this suggestion. The board's original decision to include a biblical

story on the Earth's origin had divided residents and thrown Tulsa into the

national spotlight. In the meantime, the zoo continues to have a representation

of a Hindu god, a globe sculpture that promotes pantheism and a Maasai display

that contains the equivalent of posting Scripture, Hicks said.

2. New York Times Credits Lord Ganesha With Tulsa Zoo Resolution

www.nytimes.com

Published: July 10, 2005NEW YORK, NEW YORK, July 10, 2005: HPI note: This

unsigned editorial appeared on the NY Times editorial page with regard to the

previous story.Christian creationists won too much of a victory for their own

good in Tulsa, where the local zoo was ordered to balance its evolution science

exhibit with a display extolling the Genesis account of God's creating the

universe from nothing in six days. A determined creationist somehow talked

three of the four zoo directors, including Mayor Bill LaFortune, into the

addition by arguing that a statue of the elephant-headed god Ganesh at the

elephant house amounted to an anti-Christian bias toward Hinduism. After the

inevitable backlash from bewildered taxpayers warning that Tulsa would be

dismissed as a science backwater, the directors "clarified" their vote to say

they intended no monopoly for the Adam and Eve tale but rather wanted "six or

seven" creation myths afforded equal time. There was

the rub: there are hundreds of creation tales properly honored by the world's

multifarious cultures, starting with the American Indian tribes around Tulsa.

You want creationism? How about the Cherokee buzzard that gouged the valleys

and mountains? And why should Chinese-Americans tolerate neglect of P'an Ku and

the cosmic egg at the zoo, or Norse descendants not speak up for Audhumla, the

giant cow? The futility of this exercise was emphatically made clear last week

when a crowd of critics demanded reconsideration. With the speed of the Mayan

jaguar sun god, zoo directors reversed themselves, realizing they had opened a

Pandora's box (which see). In stumbling upon so many worthy cosmogonies, Tulsa

did us all a favor by underlining how truly singular the evolution explanation

is, rooted firmly in scientific demonstration. Second thoughts are a creative

characteristic of Homo sapiens, and the Tulsa Zoo directors did well by theirs.

They were fortunate to have G anesh, known to true

believers as the remover of obstacles and the god of harmony, on the grounds.

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