Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for September 06, 2012

Holy Darwin? Lol…

LOL! Oh, here’s hoping she enjoys this school year. :)

Watch the creationist gang come scroobling over to pick at evolution. Today their attack will be on Darwin, who is allegedly a god of scientifically-minded people.

Chalkboard? I thought it was all whiteboards now.

A good teacher can cut down on the boredom!

Wish we had the same surprise for president!

woohoo.. Alix is up and running….. !

Holy Darwin!

Actually, Raghead is pretty accurate with his comment. In my neck of the woods, in 2002 stickers were put in science textbooks stating “Evolution is a theory, not a fact, concerning the origin of living things.” The case had to go to court to get the stickers taken out. The county claimed it “fostered critical thinking”. They never got any input from scientists on the wording of the sticker, and the sticker was praised from all sorts of church groups.As for me, I am confident that my kids can make their own decision on what makes sense to them, so I will buy them books about evolution and let them figure it out.

I’m going to start saying “Holy Darwin” at every opportunity

The Biblical story of creation and the “theory” of evolution run side by side – water, fish, animals, humans. Never could understand the big fuss. And if you don’t believe in evolution, you’ve never tried to stay one step ahead of viruses.

At least she won’t get sent to the principal’s office for saying it.Ms. Erma is a great addition.

Cool teacher alert! Cool teacher alert!

Holly Darwin?! Was she his daughter? ;-)

When I was teaching Biology in Arkansas in the late 60’s and early 70’s, it was actually against the law to teach evolution. I ignored it and got into trouble. Others obeyed and the students got a poor education. It’s legal now but many teacher avoid the subject just so they don’t have to deal with irate parents. Holy Darwin!

Well, you know the old saying: " if a God did not exist humans would have to invent one". Alix is just putting that idea into action.

Dani – The Biblical story of creation only parallels the results of scientific discovery if you selectivly ignore certain parts. The Bible has plants appearing before the sun and stars, birds appearing on the same day as fish before any other land animals, and a giant “firmament” to hold the water in the sky (yet to be discovered).

Rx71Wm29 So “Holy Mackerel” is making a god out of a fish? I think you miss the idea of this particular type of exclamation.

@Grond123, it’s also hard being a Christian who believes in evolution and is not a fundamentalist. There are a lot of different kinds of Christian, but it seems that only the ones with rigid and hostile beliefs get the media attention.

“if you believe in nothing, you’ll fall for anything.”

Pithy, but facile. Perhaps more people in the world believe in a deity or deities than do not, but their belief systems are, for the most part, mutually incompatible. No matter what the “truth” may be, the majority of human beings on earth would believe it is false. The various theologies cannot ALL be right, but they CAN all be WRONG.

It’s been a long time since I have seen elementary school, but doesn’t one teacher still teach all the basics subjects with the exception of phy ed and music? Separate subject teachers are not until junior high. Advise me if things have changed.Thanks.

dblbaraje, depends on the school. In NYS grades 5 or 6 and up get separate teachers for the basic subjects as well as phys. ed. art or music.

harebell – thanks for the update

“Holy Darwin”? GREAT exclamation!

That’s how I felt back in fifth grade when I discovered that nice remedial reading teacher became my permanent teacher. Praise Jesus!

harebell overgeneralizes – Rochester is in NY state and it would be rare for a 5th grader to have a separate teacher for science – increasingly true for 6th graders as well as the district moves from middle schools toward a K-8 model.

I recently retired from my industrial physics position but have resumed volunteering as a classroom science consultant through my former employer’s program. Our team serves the 4th grade classes at a low-income school.

And I’m the proud owner of a “Your a Good Man, Charlie Darwin” T-shirt.

I alway thought the God must be laughing if he created evolution

I thought Alix liked school….

Darwin was not holy.

“who really cares if either is correct? it affects me how? they are both theories and/or myths as far as I am concerned”

I take it you have no interest in being a scientist or teacher, then. At least, I truly HOPE not.

They still use chalkboards? >looks around at the whiteboards all over his alma mater<

Evolution affects you because a great deal of modern medicine rests on it. I assume you have a body. That means you are going to have contact with the medical system at some point.

Of course, I’m sure you can manage to go through life as a completely ignorant consumer of other people’s services, but I would like to point out that

(a) having some understanding of biology makes you at least slightly less likely to be ripped off by quacks selling biologically implausible “miracle cures”

and

(b) your access to real, genuine medical treatments depends on having enough of a well-educated population to do the basic research to develop the best treatments possible, and to be able to diagnose problems and treat them appropriately. Believe it or not, a good understanding of how evolution has shaped our physiology helps doctors too.

With this in mind, you should probably support the teaching of real science – evolution – in schools.

So yeah, if you choose to be completely ignorant and apathetic, you certainly have the right to do so. But you don’t get to claim that it doesn’t matter.

I was as excited as Alix when I read this strip! Holy Darwin! It gave me goosebumps! Days later it still does. Thanks, Jan Eliot, for upholding science and, especially, for making it electrify a little girl!