A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly is threatening to take legal action against Ulster Museum in Belfast if it refuses to showcase a display on creationism alongside its forthcoming exhibition on Charles Darwin.

Born-again Christian Mervyn Storey of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has demanded that the museum includes an explanation of the origin of life according to Genesis as part of its proposed programme commenting on evolution and fossils.

He has argued that the publicly funded museum should be subject to the province’s equality legislation, and thereby represent the beginning of humankind from both perspectives.

Storey told the Guardian: “In the past, when I have written to the museum about the necessity to show the public an alternative to Darwin’s theory, they have been quite dismissive.

“They could be subject to a legal challenge under equality legislation within Northern Ireland if they chose to ignore alternative views that many people here in the province believe in.

“I am not against the museum or anywhere else promoting Darwin’s theory, but I think it would be in the public’s interest to give them an alternative theory as well.”

A museum spokesperson responded: “The Ulster Museum, which reopens later this year following a radical and comprehensive refit, will house galleries and exhibitions of international significance interpreted in line with excellent scholarship and research.

“Within the permanent science galleries we will explain the conventional scientific theories internationally accepted by scholars and scientists to describe life on earth from the earliest evidence of fossils.

“This is consistent with approaches taken by museums of renown across the world.”

The outcry by Storey and his supporters followed a speech on the manmade nature of climate change by DUP’s Northern Ireland environment minister Sammy Wilson earlier this week.