Origins - Museum of Nature — Attraction in Parroquia Bella Vista

It's a religious-based institution. My Spanish is weak and I didn't read the sign on the front of the building closely enough to know that this is run by the Seventh Day Adventists, a small Christian sect. It's a big building with multiple parts and the sign is way up at the top, so it's easy to miss. The name of the museum itself gives no hint about its religious connections. The information about animals and tectonic forces seemed normal for a small, tourist-focused free museum and I didn't realize that something was wrong until I got to a few displays toward the end. I thought it was odd that the child-focused animation displaying the visual differences between marine and land iguanas showed a White, bearded, expedition-outfitted man walking up to the animals without mentioning Darwin. As a matter of fact, his name doesn't appear anywhere in this museum, nor does "natural selection" or "evolution." Instead, the displays use language similar to the most recent version of creationism, Intelligent Design. Consider the example in the pictures that accompany this review, for example. It refers to "design" as if someone or something created it instead of it being the unforeseen result of various natural processes. It actually states that "random forces" could not have produced something so beautiful, which is exactly opposite of the basic premise of evolution. Personally, I am offended that there's a museum in the place that inspired Darwin to develop his scientific explanation for biological diversity that ignores him and implies that a supernatural force actually designed everything in the natural world. The museum's method is insidious because it does not openly state its position, does not acknowledge other points of view, and presents its opinions as fact. Biologists will allow that evolution is unproven (though it is probably the most popular theory in the world), but this place presents a religious view as if it is objective truth. I have to doubt everything I think I learned while reading the other displays, which means the place ironically undermines one of the main purposes of museums--to enhance visitors' factual knowledge. I guess the first star in my rating is for the great air conditioning and the second is for the non-religiously tainted information, which promotes some general lifestyle advice (about eating well, sleeping at set times, minimizing alcohol, etc.) that I believe is...

Excellent museum where you can spend easily more than one hour. The museum offers detailed explanation of micro evolution that has occurred on the Galapagos Islands. It shows most important plant and animal species that you can find on the different islands of the archipelago. It shows also detailed explanation of the volcanic activity there and also gives some general information about the geology of our planet. Everything is very modern, interactive and easy to navigate. The museum also gives us introspective to different understanding of evolution and challenges the mainstream ideas which I personally liked a lot. Absolutely...

Worth a visit if you have spare time but you’ll live if you miss it. the museum premise is quite manipulative in that it throws lots of interesting science at start but goes full creationist by the end of the museum. It’s very vague about “time” as the age of the earth directly contradicts some of the main principals of creationism. I did it as I had some time to kill between boat trips.

I’d love to know about the funding of this museum. As it’s quite a nice building in a prime location on the Main Street. I’d suspect some US investing from...