People take evolution personally

I didn't realize there was something called Evolution Weekend, held close to the birthday of Charles Darwin. It is a time for churches (and you can be sure they are not conservative) to proclaim it is possible to believe in God an evolution at the same time. The reasons for the effort include fear that the USA will lose ground in education and technology if the public rejects science and counter the impression that religious people are "dumb, ignorant, and hostile to science," Several Detroit and Ann Arbor churches took part.

Alas, Darwin can still be a tough sell. It may not be so much that the church insists on Creation (at least in middle-to-liberal churches), but that another church idea is hard to push aside. The church has long taught that Man is the pinnacle of creation, even made in the image of God. If true, then it is an insult it suggest that humans are cousins to monkeys. People take evolution personally. Alas, this is pretty much an idea that persists only in America.

A biology teacher is trying the idea of expressing evolutionary ideas in biblical terms. He asks students to describe traits of a good person and of an evil person. Imagine an island in which all the inhabitants are good. What would the society be like? How about an island where all are evil? What happens when an evil person visits the good island? Once the discussion has gone on for a while the teacher is able to match various evolutionary concepts with what has happened with each population. The students understand and don't feel threatened.