January 10, 2011 – “You're the retarded offspring of five monkeys having butt sex with a fish-squirrel! Congratulations!”

Today I use my omnipotence to fight against the thing that annoys me the most.  Nope, it’s not Dr. Phil; but you are close.  Today I begin to tackle ignorance, and I’m starting off with a topic that is near and dear to my heart. 

Evolution is scientific fact.  That is a big deal considering that science is a subject that deals mainly with theories and hypotheses.  A scientific fact is a provable concept.  It’s something we can see in nature and repeat in a laboratory.  Scientific facts serve as a basis for the discipline at large.  Therefore, you cannot learn science as a subject if you deny or ignore certain scientific facts. 

Every public school must teach science and every science curriculum must include evolution.

What bothers me most about those who deny evolution is that they tend to have a very poor or non-existent understanding of the subject.  Perhaps your view of evolution is pretty similar to the title of this post (thank you to South Park by the way).  If so I can understand why you consider evolution to be crazy, blasphemous babble spouted by atheists.  If you actually understood the concept, however, I doubt you would think it was so controversial.

Evolution means “change over time.”  Yup, that’s it.  The basic foundational concept to evolution, what is considered to be scientific fact, is that species can change over time.  This change can happen in lots of different ways.  Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is one way in which evolution occurs, but it is not the only way.  Domesticating animals, something known as artificial selection, is another method.  Clearly we can manipulate the biological traits of certain species through selective breeding; natural selection is pretty similar except that the challenges of the natural environment are what determine which individuals are the most successful breeders as opposed to humans.   

At this point you might be saying, “OK, species can change – but I know that I didn’t evolve from some monkey.”  You’re right, but you do share a common ancestor with monkeys.  From that common ancestor, the species that we know commonly as monkeys today have been evolving just as long as humans have.  That means that you should consider them to be as different from that ancestor as we are.

I understand that part of the reason that evolution is considered controversial is the belief that it goes against religion.  Negotiating an understanding of science and religion is something that each individual has to do in their own mind, but the two subjects do not have to be at odds.  Science is the study of the natural world.  Religion deals mainly with the supernatural.  Science has nothing to say about God, the afterlife, the soul, miracles, etc.  Moreover science is not and should not be any kind of basis for ethics or morality.  An understanding of the natural world is crucial however, and from now on, this understanding cannot be censured in any way.

As always I remain you all-powerful and benevolent Queen of the World,

Marisa