The question of evolution

There has lately been some discussion among my Christian acquaintances about teaching evolution in Christian schools. Most are opposed to it, or would accept it as long as it is taught in tandem with the creationist apologies that “refute” evolutionary theories. This discussion has prompted two prongs of thought in me.

First, I am appalled by the intellectual censorship that these acquaintances are promoting. Students educated with blinders on will be ill-prepared for independent reasoning. If students are told what to think, they will have a hard time thinking their own thoughts. Besides that, such a policy of censorship is unfavorable to the creationists’ stance. It suggests so great a weakness in their position that it cannot withstand even the slightest scrutiny. Why else would they be so afraid that students who are taught evolution will embrace it and reject creationism?

It would, in fact, benefit creationists to allow students to analyze the evidence and ponder the questions involved in both positions and reach their own conclusions. Students who are taught in this manner may be able to formulate new, powerful defenses of creationism, or they will find it easier to retain some sort of faith if they do embrace evolutionism.

Second, I find myself hounded by questions relating to evolution. For instance, what drove land animals into the cold, dark sea? (Note, I’m not questioning whether it happened—that is of little consequence—but why.) What events transpired to cause angler fish to evolve in such a way that the male has only a meager existence as little more than a sac of sperm attached to the female angler fish’s side? For that matter, why would cats evolve barbed penises that make the essential act of coition absolutely unpleasant, and how does the drive to reproduce overcome that unpleasantness?

There are less scientific and more philosophical questions as well. How did we develop a concept like honor, which is often in distinct contradiction to the drive to live and reproduce? And, if gods aren’t real, why did humans create them?