Between Layers and Catastrophes

Creationist School Museums as Bridges Between Science and Worldview

Abstract

This article examines school-based Paleontology museums as active-learning environments that can integrate science, culture, and worldview within a plural educational setting. While acknowledging the historical role of museums in disseminating scientific knowledge, it argues that paleontological curation often operates within an evolutionary–naturalist framework presented as the dominant consensus, with limited attention to underlying assumptions and to competing interpretive models. The paper therefore proposes comparative exhibitions in confessional school museums, in which fossils and strata are discussed through alternative explanatory lenses, on the premise that different models may illuminate different aspects of the same record. In its theoretical discussion, the study revisits the classic debate between uniformitarianism and catastrophism and outlines how creationist (flood) geology reads portions of the sedimentary record as the outcome of high-energy global events. It also synthesizes key notions associated with Intelligent Design—such as irreducible complexity and specified information—treated as contested hypotheses, yet pedagogically useful for problematizing inference in historical sciences. From an educational standpoint, the article argues that school museums can function as living laboratories for scientific literacy, argumentation, and epistemological reflection, aligning confessional identity with competencies emphasized by Brazil’s BNCC and ENEM. Finally, it acknowledges limitations and critiques, including academic resistance and risks of proselytism, and defends teacher mediation guided by investigative questions, so that instruction yields better questions than definitive answers.