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We spoke in our Thursday class about how the controversy between Darwinian evolution and other religious stories is not that humans emerged from other organisms, which Professor Grobstein said that the Catholic Church now accepts, but that humans are not at the top of these emerging organisms-- that humans are not the epitome of living beings. While I can understand how this could cause strife with religious beliefs, it has never been my impression that the communites in the United States challenging evolution's egibility to be taught in schools is related to a distaste for where humans stand in all of this. More often than not, it's my impression that the people challenging evolution do not simply believe that humans are the end all and be all of... it all, but that there's also no way that organisms could evolve. That this massive world is immutable and unchanging, despite the direct evidence one can observe on the daily news: MRSA and other antibiotic-resitant strains of bacteria, etc.

Is this a misunderstanding of natural selection? Why are people so affronted by the idea that they aren't at the top of the food chain? Does it really lessen their relationship with a higher being or with their faith if they aren't the top of the tree?