evolution
Darwin and the chicken’s egg (M&G)
Friday, February 27th, 2009 | creation, evolution, rational thought | No Comments
What came first, the chicken or the egg? I’m thrilled to report that after extensive navel contemplation, this quintessential human conundrum has been laid to rest. The answer, which is revealed here, has been right in front of us for decades.
What got me pondering such erudite matters, amid bouts of staring at the wall (as writers are wont to do, louts and layabouts, the lot of us), was the birthday of one Charles Darwin, who breathed his first on February 12 two centuries ago. › Continue reading
My cousin’s a chimpanzee (M&G)
Friday, October 3rd, 2008 | creation, evolution | 1 Comment
I chuckled last week when I stumbled on a news story about the re-chalking of an ancient British monument, the Cerne Abbas giant. Volunteers had cleared overgrown vegetation and re-chalked the white outline of the pagan figure.
The 55m-long caricature again stands boldly against the green Dorset hillside — replete with raised club and engorged penis.
I can just imagine the conversation from across the valley where six-year-old Jimmy’s family is picnicking. “Mummy,” he asks, brow troughed, “why’s the giant’s willy all funny?”
It’s not often that a national monument gets to fast-track that awkward birds-’n-bees conversation. But it raises questions much broader than merely where babies come from. It cuts down to the meaning of life, the universe and everything (as the late, great Douglas Adams put it).
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