The Evolution of Religion: For Children

Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus). Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

I read this dialogue recently and thought it was brilliant. The short run down is that it's a dad explaining various relatively complex chemistry concepts to his three year old daughter. It's brilliant as an entertainment piece, but in reality it does very little for the education of his daughter, and even less for the 'stop her asking me stupid questions' factor that I'm sure pretty much all parents go through. This got me thinking about the science vs religion debate... was religion created purely for the ignorant to quell the never-ending questions of an infant?

Now, I'm not writing this to ruffle any feathers and start a gigantic religious debate, but it does make one wonder about the benefits of using the almighty as a scapegoat. Being an uncle, I've run into some problems myself when showing my four-year-old nephew images of sea creatures and having him ask 'why is it like that?' For example, when looking at an image of a Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus) he asked 'Why is it shaped like that?' Now, the way I see it, is there's three ways this conversation could go down. 1. Try to explain the truth to him. 2. You don't know the truth, so you fumble around making stuff up and guessing. 3. You don't know the truth, so tell him God did it.

Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus). Photo: Ryan Pearson

Here's one way the conversation could have gone down if we try to explain the truth:

Ollie: Why is it shaped like that?

Uncle Ryan: It's evolution buddy.

Ollie: What's evolution

Uncle Ryan: Well, inside all living things there are tiny things called genes, which depending on the way they are combined in us, make us the way we are.

Ollie: But how?

Uncle Ryan: Well, genes combine into pairs to form things called alleles. Each gene can have a dominant and a recessive form. If someone has the dominant form in their allele, it means that's the one that shows up. So for the octopus, one of its dominant genes might be saying that it has eight tentacles, whereas with a dog, it will say that it has four legs. Do you understand?

Ollie: Sort of I think. But why are they different?

Uncle Ryan: Well, millions and millions of years ago, all of the animals and plants and everything most likely had one common ancestor, and from that, all of the forms of life have evolved. So, there are a few ways this could have happened. The first is called mutation.

Ollie: What's mutation?

Uncle Ryan: That's when a new gene is formed by pure chance, but it can get passed on to the next generation. Like when a baby comes out with dark skin when both of his parents have fair skin... there's no other possible explaination for this except for mutation. *wink*

Ollie: Oh, so like an accident?

Uncle Ryan: Yeah sort of. The thing is, most mutations don't mean all that much in the bigger picture because they're so rare. But if it happened to some of the first organisms, it would have introduced a thing called genetic variation. Which is why the alleles can be different and things look different from each other.

Ollie: Ummm... ok I guess?

Uncle Ryan: Well, once there was genetic variation within the population, then other mechanisms of evolution could have occurred. Like gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection.

Ollie: Ahh, Uncle Ryan, What does that mean?

Uncle Ryan: Well, let me tell you little man. Gene flow is when some new alleles make their way into a population, either through random spreading around of gametes (basically tiny tiny little babies, but before they're babies), or by migration of individuals into new populations... and then the new guys have babies with the ones that were already there.

Ollie: Ok... but why does the Octopus look like that?

Uncle Ryan: Well, we're getting there mate. The next way is genetic drift. And this is a bit like mutation in that it's random, but with this mechanism, the genes don't change, it's just the amount of different types of alleles in a population change randomly. It can lead to a particular allele disappearing from a population, and can also lead to something called the Founder Effect... but we won't get into that.

Ollie: Phew. I'm hungry.

Uncle Ryan: We can eat in a bit. The last mechanism is something an old hairy guy called Charles Darwin came up with. He called it Natural Selection - and this is probably the main reason Octopus looks like it does.

Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus). Photo: Ryan Pearson

Ollie: What's that mean?

Uncle Ryan: Well, natural selection happens because some animals are better at surviving and having babies than other animals. You see, when there are all these variations in alleles within a group of animals, some of them will display traits on the outside that help them avoid being eaten, or help them find food, or help them find a girlfriend and have babies. While others will display traits that aren't quite as good at that, and this means they'll have less babies. Now, when a creature has babies, it passes some of it's traits on to the babies. So when a critter has more babies than another critter, more of it's favourable alleles will be in the next generation. And more of its babies are likely to survive to have their own babies. This causes a change in the frequency of the alleles over generations, and when that happens, a species is said to be evolving.

Ollie: Uncle Ryan, it's ok if you don't know anything about the Octopus. We can play lego instead.

Uncle Ryan: Ahh, but Ollie. This is the fun part, and where we start talking about the Octopus.

Ollie: Are you sure?

Uncle Ryan: Yep, you see, sometime in the long long distant past, some relatives on this octopus were probably in a group. Mind you, they wouldn't have looked anything like this octopus. But some of them might have had tiny little bumps on their legs, while the others might have had very smooth legs. When it came time to eat, the ones with bumps might have been able to hold onto their dinner a bit better than the ones with smooth legs. So some of the ones with smooth legs couldn't eat, and they starved to death. The ones with bumpy legs might have been able to eat more and have babies. These babies might have all come out with bumpy legs, but some with bigger bumps than others. If the same thing happened, and the bigger bumps were better than smaller bumps, then more babies would have come out with bigger bumps in the next generation until eventually, the bumps turned into the suckers you see on his tentacles today. Do you understand?

Ollie: I think so. Look at my Bumble-Bee Transformer.

Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus). Photo: Ryan Pearson

Uncle Ryan: So, all of the things you can see on the Octopus, his eight tentacles, his eyes, his colour changing skin, and everything else... they most likely came from millions of years of natural selection occurring on his ancestors. You understand?

Ollie: Not really. Can we eat now?

The result, one hour of time wasted, with a confused, disinterested child. With option two, you just sound stupid and the child will lose all respect for you. So comparing the above with option three.

Ollie: Why does the octopus look like that?

Uncle Ryan: Because God made him that way.

Ollie: Oh. Ok.

Makes sense right? So in the future I know what I'll be telling kids when they ask difficult questions...

Nah, I never liked the easy option.