Update on my dad trying to learn about evolution
He is being convinced, he says, though he intends to read very closely to look for faults. Presumably this is on a reread. I am very pleased, in any case.
Today he informed me that birds are just dinosaurs, only not extinct.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:22 pm
At least he’s trying.
When my MIL issued her impromptu invitation to my house this past Sunday, she infringed upon the last episode of a summer long weekend miniseries I’d been watching about the western pioneering experience in the 19th century and the impact upon the Native Americans, the clash and this synergestic experience (TNT’s Into the West). So we’re sitting there watching two estranged brothers who are Native American who are reunited and she leans over to Garrett and says, “Now you see, that’s showing that the Indians were real people had feelings and loved each other.”
This disturbed me on so many levels. Probably foremost that she assumes some sort of ignorance/prejudice in my children that they should conquer that is SO not there but just reveals her own re-education. Talk abotu generation gap.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
Crap. I forgot to make a second paragraph. It would have read simply:
WTF?
July 30th, 2005 at 9:06 am
He is trying, and I am very happy, because seriously, his beliefs involved us being put here by aliens.
Yeah, it sounds like she’s trying to show them that Indians are good! And that it needs to be forced into TV, because otherwise they’d show that they’re bad. And also that people assume as much. Very odd. And obnoxious.
July 30th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
very obnoxious. thank you for letting me vent here. I tend to get her company in large doses after long dry spells. It’s trying at times.
July 30th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
You’re always welcome to vent here. I understand how family can be . . . difficult.
July 30th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
We see evolution in action all the time, in the ultra-short-lived megagenerational stuff called bacteria that makes up the bulk of the world’s biomass.
July 30th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
In a class I was in recently, we were talking about evolutionary psychology. One student said that she didn’t believe in evolution. I can’t even wrap my brain around that. I get that some don’t believe in evolution as being how it is that humans came to be on this earth. But, I don’t get *not* believing in evolution *at all*. What about species evolving? Adapting? I wish I’d taken more religion classes when I was an undergrad, or that I had been more exposed to these belief systems as a kid, as this is something I just don’t grok.
July 31st, 2005 at 10:08 am
I long ago gave up *understanding* my father’s point, we just argued for the fun of it. But we have many other things we can argue about.
August 1st, 2005 at 5:53 pm
I must have missed it, but I gather that you eventually recommended a book and he’s reading it. Which one?
August 1st, 2005 at 9:40 pm
I think it’s called just ‘Evolution’, it’s the companion book (lots of pictures) to the PBS series.