Anyone who knows my biography knows this hits me where I live. This letter is the best case scenario for what my life might have been like if I'd stayed.
1) I am contemplating the advice for LW to nail down precisely what she believes -- religious belief can be slipperier and squirmier than one might think, and a distinction between science fact and religious fact would have been useful here, I think.
2) LW could use a good long article or book about evolution. Not to use to argue with her blowhard father, but so she can sit quietly and know he's wrong and just nod until he talks about something else.
3) This is also/maybe primarily about an elder family member who will Not Shut Up and LW needs some advice on that.
4) Hey, LW: Adam and Eve are probably not literal people who existed, but never mind that. More importantly: evolution may or may not involve an entire species. Often it involves a population instead of the entire species. So, take A Monkey Species. A population of that species might evolve into proto-apes, who then diversify into several ape species. The remaining population of the Monkey Species, maybe because they're in a slightly different environment or whatever, stay as the Monkey Species or diversify into several other species which are all monkeys, not apes. Again, this is way oversimplified. Go read a layman's science book. Read it with your kids!
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1) I am contemplating the advice for LW to nail down precisely what she believes -- religious belief can be slipperier and squirmier than one might think, and a distinction between science fact and religious fact would have been useful here, I think.
2) LW could use a good long article or book about evolution. Not to use to argue with her blowhard father, but so she can sit quietly and know he's wrong and just nod until he talks about something else.
3) This is also/maybe primarily about an elder family member who will Not Shut Up and LW needs some advice on that.
4) Hey, LW: Adam and Eve are probably not literal people who existed, but never mind that. More importantly: evolution may or may not involve an entire species. Often it involves a population instead of the entire species. So, take A Monkey Species. A population of that species might evolve into proto-apes, who then diversify into several ape species. The remaining population of the Monkey Species, maybe because they're in a slightly different environment or whatever, stay as the Monkey Species or diversify into several other species which are all monkeys, not apes. Again, this is way oversimplified. Go read a layman's science book. Read it with your kids!