From the mouth of babes! (Steve's daughter Tara's essay shared with "Uncle Ron" and Ronnie Marshall)

Hi Ron & Ronnie,

I'm feeling better today- back to the grind tomorrow. I thought you both would find my daughter Tara's high school essay on "Darwin vs.Creationists" interesting.

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"Mommy, where do people come from?"

So you’ve just explained the whole sex thing to your four-year-old as
diplomatically as possible, resolving not to give them any of the birds
and bees crap you were force fed as an impressionable toddler. Now she
wants to know how the human race evolved (damn kids are so smart these
days.) Do you go with ‘Adam and Eve’ or ‘Darwin's Theory of Evolution’? Good question. I’m going to answer that for you.....

Chances are that both will sound like a fairy tale to a small child.
"One upon a time, there were two people, Adam and Eve, and Adam ate the
forbidden fruit. See honey, he’s selfish, just like your father." Or
the alternative.... "Honey I know I told you our ancient ancestors were
apes, but you can stop calling the gorilla at the zoo Great-Grandpa
Freddy, people are starting to stare." Its hard to explain the
Evolution Theory to a child when they have already heard of Adam and Eve
at church. However, like many people, they will probably be willing to
believe both. That’s a problem for me; when thinking about that stuff
too much I start to turn a little atheist, and I would rather not. The
concept of spirituality is appealing; in a world full of chaos its a
good crutch to have (in moderation.) Exploring both the scientific and
spiritual approaches to evolution can be beneficial in trying to make
sense of it all.

First off, Darwin wasn’t the first person to theorize evolution. As
early as 1744, Jean Baptiste Lamarck developed the theory of inherited
acquired traits. He adhered to his belief that a change in the
environment causes the physical needs of organisms living in the
environment to mutate. For example, an unneeded organ would shrink and
finally disappear over time. He also believed that they would develop
new organs when needed. This is the 1st law in his book Philosophy
Zoologique. Originally, Darwin tried to refute Lamarck’s 2nd law, in
which he states that changes are heritable, but later he admitted they
were significant in evolution.

Which brings us to Darwin. His ingenious theory means nothing without
evidence, and there is a significant amount of it. Is there any
evidence of the Biblical theory? No, not really. Is the Shroud of Turin
authentic, historical evidence? My father, who recently saw it when he
went to Italy said that it "left me feeling cold", while in the
self-portrait of Leonardo DaVinci he "saw the divine." No doubt the
shroud did belong to someone, but Jesus? I think not. The negative
image of the face etched in blood-- a miracle? No, science. There is,
in fact, a scientific explanation for essentially everything-- science
is the only true "miracle" I have seen thus far.

Darwin's theory which consists largely of the survival of the fittest is
fascinating to study. If an animal is not equipped to live in its
environment, it dies off and leaves behind various states of its
mutations. The dinosaurs are gone, but we have a smaller more efficient
model- the lizard, kimono dragons, etc.
Its like everything in life.

Think of your first computer. The big clunky black and white piece of
junk that could barely do spell check. Now think of the computer you
have now. Slim, sleek, Macintosh laptop- plays CD’s, goes online and
connects you to a vast pool of information. Between your old black and
white Mac and your new color portable laptop, there were several other
models. The clunky box didn’t become the laptop overnight. In between,
there was a primitive color model with a CD-ROM that hooked up
separately and new programs that are now taken for granted like Adobe
Photoshop.

When you look at the evolutionary tree, you see dinosaurs, lizards, and
the various states in between. Computers— same thing.
(Oh yeah, except computers are smarter, ha. ha.)


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( Tara, I am very proud of you - your ability to think straight and then express in writing what you think. This idea of evolution is one of the great ideas you will encounter in life. I would like to send you some essays of the late popular science writer Isaac Asimov on the Evolution Vs. Creationism controversy.

I made a reference to the creationists in a letter to the Providence Journal which was published Monday. ( " A Strange Place for the Reverend Ahlburn " ) .

Note: Lamarck was mistaken in thinking that " acquired characteristics " can be inherited.

LEARN all you can with your young mind. Adults get stupid and stale with Marriage & Family responsibilities - not ALL of them of course. Your parents are the exception.

A good thing that " Don Rogers " is now just your aloof dear Grandpa. " What holds the world up ? What hold its up ? ", he asks in a drunken Sunday afternoon babble.

Why Atlas - of course !

Take care, honey.

Uncle Ron