My grandpappy wasn't no ape!

I must relate this latest piece of drama here in my journal, but don't worry, I'll connect it back to my Art of Living as I'm not one for idle chatter.

Today I had Anthropology 324, Human Biological Variation with Dr. McCall. Basically, the class is a study of, well, human variation and the entire course rests on the assumption that evolution and natural selection are factual. Ever since Darwin, there has been heated debate about the validity of evolution, and more recently some public school systems have made the news by placing stickers in science textbooks as a sort of disclaimer that evolution is "just a theory." This is objectionable to any reasonable person with a grasp of scientific principles for obvious reasons.

Dr. McCall decided to go on a tangent and explain to us why what we are learning is important. He is a very practical person, staunchly dedicated to scientific principles and the scientific method. I've had him once before for Human Origins (another potentially hot course for similar reasons) and I've always known him to be very outspoken and unwavering in his beliefs. This is why he has grown to become one of my personal academic heroes.

So, our discussion on why studying genetic variation is important snowballed until we were blatantly discussing the primacy of evolution over creationism, intelligent design, and other non-scientific approaches to human origins. McCall was taking the stance that those who subscribe to creationism (i.e. believe what the Bible says) are ignorant, shortsighted, and hypocritical. I've never seen him so critical of any group before, so it was in a way shocking. Of course, one student in our class raised her hand and politely suggested that some are able to reconcile evolution with Biblical interpretations, as indeed the vast majority of Christians do today. After McCall conceded the remote possibility of a creator being (God), he stated that one would be extremely hard pressed to subscribe to Biblical interpretations of creation while at the same time accepting human evolution as fact. He went on to suggest that believers in creationism pick and choose aspects of science and the Bible, hence the inherent hypocrisy and contradiction in such a stance. The most amusing part was his impression of a "typical" creationist argument: "My grandpappy wasn't no ape! God said so!" Those were his exact words, complete with a thick southern accent. I had found my first true academic hero.

The student eventually gathered her belongings and made her way to the door, obviously agitated. Red-faced and in the most abrasive southern drawl, she forcefully informed the entire class that "y'all need to go to church." We were speechless...for about three seconds.

As Dr. McCall hung his head in despair, the class erupted in a Jerry Springer-like display of "OH NO SHE DIDN'T!" gestures and remarks. It was truly a spectacular sight. Could someone really be this narrow-minded? Was it so that her best comeback after arguing with a trained geneticist was "y'all need to go to church"? Keeping with his personality, McCall had no apologies and informed us that he expected a call from the dean soon. He even related to us another story where he was accused of calling a student "stupid."

I'm sure through the eyes of the offended student, Dr. McCall and the rest of the class was ganging up on her. This is undoubtedly what she will claim if she does voice a complaint. In reality, Dr. McCall argued for the validity of science over unprovable religious ideology. Unfortunately, some in this country still subscribe to creationism or so form of it, and even more allow a belief in a creator being to obscure the truth of genetic fact. McCall was not presenting anything radical. Genetics and science have proven for years that evolution is more than "just a theory," as so many religious people gently remind young children. According to McCall (and I believe him), there is much more evidence for evolution that most other scientific theories, which people readily subscribe to without any question whatsoever. This included the theory of evolution applied to non-human organisms. The hypocrisy and ignorance is endless.

I love college.

I live for truth and knowledge. It is perhaps the number one guiding force in my Art of Living. I believe what can be experienced and comprehended by the human mind. I suspend belief in what has a high degree of probability but has not yet been proven (such as the existence of intelligent life other than on earth). I reject what has no basis in science or reason, including a belief in a higher power or the supernatural. Furthermore, I reject that which inherently has a contradictory nature. By living like this, I am able to accept things as they are and not be taken advantage of. I refuse to be brainwashed by popular culture, religion, politics, and the liberally biased media. I have a brain of my own, and *shock* it operates completely separate from everyone else's. It can be influenced and presented with new facts and ideas, but I will not allow my most valuable asset to be bombarded with ignorance or lies. My mind is my ticket to intellectual freedom, and I refuse to have that taken away from me. That is how I life, in a nutshell.