Happy Birthday Darwin! An Armadillo Walked into the Sanctuary…

February 9, 2009 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

No, it’s not the beginning of a stupid joke.  It’s what happened yesterday at Congregation Beth Adam during Religious School.  We invited the armadillo and some other creatures for a party!  February 12, 2009 would have been Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.  So, we decided it was a perfect excuse to have some cake (though they were a bit confused at the bakery when we called to order a cake that said “Happy 200th Charlie!) and to talk about evolution – and science.

We invited the Cincinnati Zoo for an educational visit.  Enter the armadillo, and a bird, and a ginormous cockroach (ginormous as cockroaches go, at least), and a little baby alligator (adorable, though it has 80 teeth!).

So, why the cake and the animals?  We wanted to celebrate, of course!  We wanted to celebrate Darwin’s birthday, and we wanted to acknowledge that we respect science.  We value science, and we value religion.  We do not think the two should get confused.  But, we do know that scientific facts are often the trump card.

To learn more about religious institutions that are taking a stand and willing to say they understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith, check out the clergy letter project.

My colleagues tell me that I won’t be able to have the zoo come for Darwin’s birthday if I work at another congregation.  I think that would be rather unfortunate.  The adults and children had a great time, and learned a lot as we all affirmed that science informs how we think.  We are not afraid to let science into the doors of our religious institutions.  To exclude it would mean we would be doing ourselves a great disservice.

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