Nov 23, 2009

We have the perfect weather for growing citrus. A bit of sandy soil, regular watering and a bit of fertilizer twice a year and you can't go wrong. Since it doesn't really freeze here much, they do just fine. This is a lemon tree (I think) that is in a container at the car wash. How do you explain evolution to a six-year-old? For that matter, how do you explain it to people who think the world is 6,000 years old? One is about as easy as the other. Noah and I were watching a documentary called, Walking With Prehistoric Beasts this morning and in one scene he saw something that looked like an ape, walking upright like a human. It totally baffled him and started a whole discussion about what it was. He wanted to know if all the monkeys turned into people? But, how about the monkeys that are still here? I know otherwise intelligent adults who ask that last question. Even some who will still protest that they are not descended from a monkey. Of course that assertion is true. We did not descend from a monkey or an ape. We merely share a common ancestor with that branch of the tree of life. If we both, monkeys and humans, trace our way back down our little branches, we eventually find our common ancestor. Farther back, the ones we share with life forms totally different than us, like Hippos, maybe. Eventually, we all trace ourselves to the first life form. The inescapable conclusion is that we are all distant relatives of one another. Tigers, ants and people. Richard Dawkins has a new book out called, The Greatest Show On Earth. Dawkins explains why what we know of evolution is true. The Bible-Thumper-in Chief at the store saw me reading the other day at lunch and asked what I was reading. I told him the title, fully expecting the worst, but he thought it was the story of the circus and that set him off on talking about himself. Close call. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

8 comments:

The Bug said...

We don't live far from the Creation Museum - yikes! Last year Dr. M's aunt & uncle from NC took a bus tour to the museum & had dinner with us later. It was truly horrifying to hear them talk about how logical creationism is. Scary.

Barbara said...

I just wish we had evolved with stronger backs. I'm convinced it was some act of fate that we ended up on two legs instead of four. But then, maybe that's what all of evolution is.

I've never understood the passion with which some people reject what is totally logical...

tattytiara said...

I remember watching Carl Sagan explain how I was related to a tree when I was a kid.

My mind is still blown.

Bella Rum said...

Share a common ancestor with monkeys - yes, but my sister... no.

No, I tell you.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy the works of Dawkins--also Don Symons and Catherine Salmon.

squirrel

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Reya Mellicker said...

The circus, eh? Hmmm .. that was a close call.

Dawkins is not one of my favorite science writers because he is so virulently anti-God. When a person becomes virulent in their belief in or disbelief in God, it kind of doesn't matter which they believe.

Virulent believers are so obnoxious!

Anonymous said...

I ate a citrus fruit today.