Education

I was in Borders today, and I wandered into the science section, and there were all those troublesome Darwin books. When I hear people arguing that evolution isn't true, I often think, "Don't take my word for it, go to the source." "The Origin of Species" is so bursting at the seams with evidence, experiments, explanations, you almost don't need any of the books about evolution that have been published in the 150-or-so years since then. It's a staggeringly great book.

But then I reflect the people I know who don't believe in evolution would not be convinced, no matter what anyone said, let alone Darwin himself. As I looked through the books, I was suddenly reminded of people I knew in high school who were impatient to get out of school and start working. They were in school because someone was making them go. They always asked the same question: "Why are we learning this? We'll never use it after we leave here."

I think, are those same people now Tea Partiers? Or were they lucky enough to rediscover how wonderful the world is, wonderful enough to learn about?