the theory of evolution

My students are beginning the unit on Evolution. This is quite a controversy for most of them, as the majority of my kids are hyper Christian. It also turns out that 95% have never ever ever learned about the theory of evolution outside of heresay. It poses some interesting questions towards how I am going to teach it. I started off with a lesson on the nature of science... pointing out to them that science and faith are two different beasts... and for the smarter, more intuitive ones, that they do not necessarily cancel each other out. Oranges and apples you can compare and say, "Which fruit do you like better?" But here we compare orange and umbrellas... there is no category which to sufficiently compare them so that we could pick the better one.

Anyway, I then asked them three questions
1) Based on your prior knowledge, what is the theory of evolution?
2) What is the difference between a scientific theory and a belief? (Shockingly, they ALL got this right... they really know the difference, its so awesome!)
3) Tell me where YOU think humans came from.


I got quite a mismash of answers, and I thought I would share some of the more interesting ones with you.



Question 1:
- To me it says what do you think is responsibe for all the things we have and what was it before.
- I think that the Theory of Evolution is saying that apes are our betters and that every thing has changed from one thing to another and that someone really did not want to straighten things out with God.
- It says that all men came from adam and all women came from eve. (Ericka's note: I think hes a weeeeee bit confused here!)
- The theory suggests that we evolved from primates..in other words we are monkey men!!!! and women
- when u evelate something is when u do what u think is the right answer.
-The Theory of Evolution to me is a cell that evolves into another cell which evolves into something which evolves into something else. (Ericka's note: Aren't you supposed to like, NOT use the word several times in the definition?)
-the theory could be disproven and never proven to be true (Ericka's note: does this even remotely answer the question???)
-The theroy of evolution in my own words is that when there is a saying about something that was found in the pass and they made a statement about that it true.
-Evolution is a theory. Some Theorys say we came from a big boom, others say from apes, heck there is some that say we evovled from primoridal ooze. (Ericka's note: My father, in a flash of brilliance, told my brother and I to say "boom" instead of "poop".... so just think about that, then re-read this response)
-The Theory of Evoultion is (I think) a theory of 6 changes that has to do with human resources.
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Question 3:

- I’m not Christian; I’m modern new age pagan. I believe that there is an after life and a higher power, my it be a powerful cloud of smoke or a talking tree, we came from nature.
-Personally, I am a Christian, but I am completely open minded to the Theory of Evolution and other theories. Who said Adam and Eve weren't really, really hairy or couldn't breathe under water?
-Like I don't see how anyone could believe that we came from monkeys. It just boggles my mind to even think that. (Ericka's note: but its easy to believe that God spoke and everything came into being??? ;) )
-Well I think that humans came from primates. I think this because humans have various amounts of hair all over their bodies and also humans have alot of characteristics of monkeys.
-I am not sure were humans came form.If you think about it they say dinosaurs were on earth first so that must mean we are some sort of dinosaur misfunction that can pretty much never become extinct. (Ericka's note: what?! What does that even mean?!?!)
-In the Holy Quran Allah states that he created man from dirt and clay and from it in to the father of humanity Adam.
-It really doesn't matter where I think humans come from. What matters is that I don't believe humans came from monkeys. If humans turned from monkeys to humans why are there still monkeys?? It just doesn't add up. Scientists are feeding us these theories/stories/etc saying we came from monkeys. Maybe at the end of this lesson I will look at the subject a different way. But for now nobody is going to change my mind about me thinking there is no way we came from monkeys.
-I think humans were on this plant the whole time and they were just in different life forms.
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I think that humans came from God. Now you may be asking "where did God come from?" If a ball is thrown then there has to be a thrower and this process can go back indefinately but there must be an unmoved mover. this is similar to cause and effect. I spit a spit ball at jimmy and it hits him in the head.So jimmy gts a spit ball and misses me and hits john in the head. john misses jimmy and hit the teacher in the head and we are all sent to the principals office. that is basic cause and effect and the process goes back indefinately but there must be an un caused cause and this is called God (Ericka's note: Whaaaaa....?)
-I believe that humans came from whatever was the first thing on earth. Or I think they came from monkeys because a lot of people do represent monkeys. Now I do not know where they came from, but that's where I believe humans came from. (Ericka's note: yeeeah boiiiii representin)
-Whenever something dies it comes back as something else. Humans are the reincarnation of something.
-My own
feelings on the subject however are majorly complicated. I believe in the scientifics of how the earth was formed and life beginning. However that still brings to my mind, what to me seems the greatest question of all. How did anything start? If you think about it, how did anything begin? It is like a computer that has been turned on, and there is someone there just playing a game that we know as life. However when you think even deeper (have I lost you yet? I know my ideas are very crazy.) how did they start? So I believe in god and that when we die we will go up to heaven. However I think he just started the process of life, by creating nature and letting her take over. Yet my mind can't figure out exactly how anything started.

If I haven't confused you enough you can request my extended version, now remastered and bonus scenes not seen in theaters with added confusion!!!
-EVOLUTION IS DUMB!!!! seriously, what we are today came from a one cell organism, YEA RIGHT!!! The truth is that God created us to fellowship with him. If evolution is true, then we should be bent over backwards by now!!! what made evolution stop?!?! Our bodies are so complex that intelegent design is the only option that could be true!!!
-I think that we all came from are mom and dads :-o
-I think......I know that humans were created by god! Well actually I believe that god created the first two humans, Adam and Eve, and from then on they populated the Earth. But then you have to think of when god flooded the Earth and wiped out all the humans except Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. So I also believe that Noah, his wife, and his sons along with their wives, repopulated the Earth after god flood it. But either way, you still get god out of both situations.
-i think humans came from apes and slowly changed into humans lost alot of hair and their faces became rounder and more facial
-To tell you the truth I have no clue where humans came from. I heard somthing about us evovling from apes, but I don't believe that either.
- I think humans were around during the dinosaur year, but no one knew about them.
- I THINK WE CAME FROM ALIANS AND MONKEYS...lol