Whoa now, what do you say to that, Mr’s Ernst and Charles? Those must have been some mighty old humans — and I seriously doubt that they looked anything like we do right now — and you really don’t think that the dinos would have eaten us for lunch, with no weapons but rocks. I definitely wouldn’t want to be up against feathery T-Rex with just a rock.

Or did Adam and Eve have M-16s — maybe that was part of their ‘Fall’ — they lost their innocence, and started dressing in camoflage and built rocket launchers. Hey, maybe that’s why the dinos went extinct!

I am shocked at the state of things right now. We are debating changes within the states that ban love, and banning textbooks that teach our children what we know about the world we live in.

I don’t have trouble when folks have an open mind. Ever. But this is different. There is a collection of forced and extremely well thought-out explanations churned out by the religious right about why evolution shouldn’t be taught in schools. Type ‘evolution’ into google, and you will be amazed at the variety of incredible scholarship, with proofs, diagrams, simplified drawings, etc. and of incredible denial, with other diagrams, diatribes and such. Check it out.

The thing is, I really want to teach my children about God, and about how loved we are in this world, despite all of the suffering and pain. Despite the oppressed and the oppressors, despite the starving and the bloated, God is with us…

I read the bible, and I live by it. Nowhere do I read that one shouldn’t teach one’s children about science, and about the way we understand the world. Barbara Kingsolver wrote an incredible article about exactly this: If we are so pious, and believe in a loving and all-knowing, all-creating God, how could we have such disgust for God’s creation? She calls our denying the process of evolution, of earth’s changing and growing, “spitting in the eye of God.”

Shouldn’t we focus on moral values instead of squashing our childrens’ ability to make their own choices and decisions about the world? Not to spit in God’s eye, but instead embrace Creation. I know that the more I find out about evolution, the more I believe in God — the incredible order of the world, of plants, animals and other life. The incredible diversity on this planet.

Moral values are not just for the people who live in red states. I live by the bible. I live as a good Christian. AND I believe in environmental conservation, AND I believe that evolution is part of God’s amazing Creation, AND I believe that we are all God’s children, each one of us.