The Los Angeles Times had an interesting piece last week, by Mike Boehm, on the exhibit. They asked the curator, Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, why the museum has carefully excluded all scholars who oppose the old, and increasingly contested, theory of Scroll origins from the lecture series accompanying the exhibit, and she came up with a good reply–”You don’t want to confuse people with so many competing theories, so they walk away, saying, ‘Well, nobody really knows anything!’”

I for one find that extremely convincing. The last thing in the world we would want is for people to understand why there is more than one interpretation of the facts. After all, that would only confuse them, and in their confused state they might become depressed, or behave in an irrational manner. They might even start asking why the museum has not explained how it has come about that an entire series of major scholars have rejected the old theory over the past decade, not in favor of “so many competing theories,” but in favor of one competing theory. Yes, we must protect people from the truth at all costs. And we wouldn’t want to do anything that might upset Dr. Kohn’s academic friends!