The Abington Park Museum in Northampton said poor grammar and factual inaccuracy, rather than a complaint from a religious fundamentalist, had led it to obscure part of an information board about Charles Darwin.
Covering up a paragraph relating to an exhibition about local 19th-century geologist Beeby Thompson, a correspondent of Darwin, led to criticism from, among others, the National Secular Society.
The paragraph described how Darwin "used the same layers of fossils that had supported the Genesis view of evolution to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to adapt to the rigours of it's (sic) environment - the struggle for survival through natural selection leading to the survival of the fittest".
The action by the council-run museum led to it being accused by the National Secular Society of "pandering to the growing tide of obscurantism that makes up the creationist movement".
However, Northampton Borough Council denied it had undertaken any form of censorship and said the original complaint was made to the museum in 2005.
A spokesman for the council said: "A member of the public complained about the phrase because of the conflation of Genesis and the theory of evolution. The officer responsible agreed that the phrase was inaccurate and confusing but on strictly factual (as opposed to religious) grounds. The complainant's personal beliefs had no bearing on the way the complaint was approached."
He added that the error had now been removed and a new panel was back on display.
According to local press reports an attendant at the museum resigned in protest at the alleged censorship last month.
Brendan Glynane, the council's cabinet member for museums, told Museums Journal: "It is disappointing that some groups have tried to use this error to further their own agenda and make proverbial mountains out of molehills."
Covering up a paragraph relating to an exhibition about local 19th-century geologist Beeby Thompson, a correspondent of Darwin, led to criticism from, among others, the National Secular Society.
The paragraph described how Darwin "used the same layers of fossils that had supported the Genesis view of evolution to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to adapt to the rigours of it's (sic) environment - the struggle for survival through natural selection leading to the survival of the fittest".
The action by the council-run museum led to it being accused by the National Secular Society of "pandering to the growing tide of obscurantism that makes up the creationist movement".
However, Northampton Borough Council denied it had undertaken any form of censorship and said the original complaint was made to the museum in 2005.
A spokesman for the council said: "A member of the public complained about the phrase because of the conflation of Genesis and the theory of evolution. The officer responsible agreed that the phrase was inaccurate and confusing but on strictly factual (as opposed to religious) grounds. The complainant's personal beliefs had no bearing on the way the complaint was approached."
He added that the error had now been removed and a new panel was back on display.
According to local press reports an attendant at the museum resigned in protest at the alleged censorship last month.
Brendan Glynane, the council's cabinet member for museums, told Museums Journal: "It is disappointing that some groups have tried to use this error to further their own agenda and make proverbial mountains out of molehills."
