Reconciling Creation and Evolution

And so the Little Pebbles are into the second day of Hilary Term this morning.

We are very keen that the Little Pebbles learn to think for themselves. And that is why yesterday, as they were still hyper from coloured sweets and marzipan, we kicked the term off with the annual "Reconcilathon" for the older Pebbles.

Put simply, we read out the first few chapters of Genesis, then we explained the Theory of Evolution. Then we told them they're both true, and asked them to explain how.

Some of the explanations are probably worth listing out:

"Adam killed all the dinosaurs because he was angry because he kept treading in the droppings."

"Are all the extict animals God's mistakes?"

"How come, if the unicorns all died in the Flood, they're in the book of Job?" (This from a child whose parents used to attend the Bogwulf Funambulist Baptists, and still cling to the KJV.)

"I reckon the Flood isn't one story. It happened lots of times. Only my Auntie was flooded out, and she lives in Northampton."

"Eve and Adam eating the apple were being selfish. Just like it says in Evolution. Maybe Adam and Eve should have been called Selfish Gene and Selfish Jean?"

"So if Evolution is true, how come we've still got One Direction?"

"If it's Survival of the Fittest, why does the Government try to stop obesity? Surely they're fighting against nature."

"So what are wasps for?"

"How come humans and animals are made in a different order in Genesis 1 and 2?"

"These are three or more different ways of explaining the state of things. Why do I need to reconcile them?"

This last one shows dangerous signs of independent thinking. She'll go far. I think we may have identifed the next Archdruid.