That's right, the Chicago Tribune reports Darwinian paleontologists are angry that the "Lucy" skeleton, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and hailed as an upright walking hominid, has begun a six-year tour of American Museums. Lucy's first stop is at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (exhibit opens Friday). Here's what Richard Leakey, a prominent evolutionary paleontologist who specializes in African hominid fossils, had to say about Lucy's travels:

It's a form of prostitution, it's gross exploitation of the ancestors of humanity and it should not be permitted.

Ouch. However, the discoverer of Lucy, Donald Johanson, is OK with the traveling skeleton plan. "Seeing the original Lucy will surely heighten public awareness of human-origins studies particularly at a time when the validity of evolution has come under fire in our schools," he said. "A broader exposure of Lucy to the public does have great educational value."

Yes, and why be angry, anyway? Critics say the travels are too dangerous for the fragile fossil, or that it's wrong to not have the specimen available for scientific study. But as the Houston Museum pointed out to the Tribune, those objections are really groundless. Maybe Leakey actually does say it best: exploitation. To some paleontologists, Lucy's bones are not just fossils, they're sacred relics. Lucy's femur and tibia are practically the pillars of the holy faith of the Descent of Man. To pass the skeleton around to museum after museum is something akin to drawing cartoons of Muhammad. It offends the devout.

Meanwhile, 10 out of 15 Texan state school board members told the media they don't support ID being taught in schools. Interestingly the board chairman, who claims to be a creationist of sorts, thinks not only intelligent design but "anything" that doesn't have a scientific consensus should be rejected from public school curriculum. Good, that rules out Darwinism too. Wonder if the board knows. At any rate, 1 out of 3 isn't bad. Just wait 10 years. It'll be an exciting day when Kitzmiller vs. Dover is challenged in another court.

Maybe we won't have to wait ten years. This film by Ben Stein is going to speed things along.  

(Also: Gregory Koukl has some good thoughts on the creation of "Artificial Life", and Patrik Hagman on creationism in Turkey.)