On Evolution and the Origin of the World

The plastic Tyrannosaurus Rex whom we call Twinky has reappeared in our home. The girls excavated him from the sub-strata of the toy box the other day. But V. is a little afraid of Twinky, especially his plastic teeth. Adinah was trying to explain this to me this morning, as she sat on the edge of our bed, and Anette read a magazine and V. lurched around between all of us. And I said,

P: I can understand why V. is afraid of Twinky. I think men would have been very afraid of dinosaurs if they had lived at the same time. But they didn't. The dinosaurs were all gone by the time men started walking around.

A: Pat, do you think one man made the whole world?

P: Well, a lot of people think-

A: I don't--I think it was fire and rain that made the world.

P: Yeah, a lot of people think it was made by one man, and a lot of people think it was fire and water and rain. But some people think it was made by a man who was more powerful than a man--a god. But when we look at the rocks and wood and plants around us, it looks more like it was the fire and water. That stuff tells us that men came from monkeys and monkeys came from fish and-

V: The ooh-ah! Oooh-ahh.

P: Oh yes, V., the monkeys.

V.: Oooh-ahh.

A: In Ethiopia, they think that.

P: What--that one man made the world?

A: Uh-huh.

P: Well, I think Ethiopia is like a lot of places--some people think it was a god, and some think it was other stuff.

A: I think it was fire and water. Just like it says in the Mickey Mouse movie.

P: Yeah--hmm--well, Mickey Mouse might be right about this one.


In all my years as a pop culture junkie, this was the first time I'd ever heard such a close reading of Fantasia as a Darwinist, pro-evolution film. Who says you never learn anything from your kids?