One of my special ed. students who usually dozes off and day dreams in class randomly asked a question in class about the origin of species leading to a tangent conversation towards the end of class. Here's an improvised transcript.
Student: Where did humans come from?
Me: Humans are the product of tens of thousands of years of evolution by natural selection.
Student: So you don't know?
Me: To create a human requires an open mind. So you have to consider that it's not possible that in a single instant humans were created, but you have to think like from what ancestors we've evolved from.
Student: So we came from monkeys?
Me: Not quite, we have a common ancestry. To say that we came from monkeys is a common misconception. Monkeys and humans have a common ancestor like how your cousins share a common aunt or uncle with you.
Student: So you still can't tell me where humans came from?
Me: Your question is asking for a single event in Earth's history that leads to human existence, which doesn't exist and impossible to know or begin to answer.
Student (really adamant and getting louder): This is why I believe in God, because science can't explain something so simple as where we came from.
Me (in my head): Now I know how Richard Dawkins felt when he was "interviewed" by Bill O'Reilly...
Me (to student): Yeah, ok. So what's your explanation for man's origins?
Student: Make a pile of dirt and sprinkle some water and God's intervention.
Me: Oh yeah? Go try it at home and tell me how it goes.
Student: Can't we do it here?
Me: Give me a grocery list and I'll think about it.
Student (writes on her list): bag of soil, water, fertilizer, and God
Me: *laughing my ass off*
Bell rings...
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