The Battle for Truth at the Smithsonian

The president also called for his administration to ensure that exhibits would ensure that institutions would exhibit "tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals" within 120 days, The New York Times reported. 

Meanwhile, Geologist Casey Luskin, an advocate of Intelligent Design, accused the Smithsonian's Hall of Human Origins of promoting an inaccurate claim that humans and chimpanzees are about "98.8% genetically similar" with "only about a 1–2% difference," The Christian Post reported.

Luskin, who holds a Ph.D. in geology and is a fellow of the Discovery Institute, wrote an op-ed for the New York Post refuting the Smithsonian's claim by citing a study published in the journal Nature in April, which found that there is a 15% genetic difference between humans and apes, contradicting the museum's claims.

"This argument for human evolution based upon the claim that we are only 1% genetically different is wrong," he told host Andrew McDiarmid on the Discovery Institute podcast "ID The Future" on August 11.

He argued, "We are far more than 1% genetically different."

"The percent genetic similarity between humans and chimps really doesn't tell you anything about whether we share a common ancestor because those genetic similarities … could also be the result of common design," said Luskin. 

Luskin also shot down the Smithsonian claim that "the ancient species Sahelanthropus tchadensis was an 'early human' that walked on two legs," when the Nature study noted that "Sahelanthropus was an ape," and many features "link the specimen with chimpanzees, gorillas or both, to the exclusion of hominids."'

Overall, Luskin noted that the museum's inaccuracies occur on the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, a case about the outlawing of teaching human evolution in public schools that resulted in the teaching of Darwin's theory.

"How ironic that 100 years later, the nation's premier science museum is obscuring scientifically objective and accurate data on the very same subject," he said.

"To fail to correct this exhibit is to use taxpayer money to miseducate the public about a question of profound scientific, sociological, and philosophical importance," he concluded.

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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.