RIDDLE AND MYSTERY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 5: OUT OF NOTHING
BY RICHARD S. KIMBALL
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 8:02:07 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity, here have we come. — Robert T. Weston
Big Question: How did life begin?
Where are the youth who have never wondered why they exist, where life comes from, what lies beyond the first known causes? Session 4 applied faith and belief to the question of God's existence. This session applies science to the question of how life began. It explores the beauty of poetic answers from myth and story, then presents science as a probable source of more accurate information.
An optional timeline activity (Alternate Activity 7) helps youth find their own place in the development of life over millennia—a process stretching from the Big Bang to the present. In WIT time, youth respond to the Unitarian Universalist emphasis on what we do with our life over a preoccupation with life's ultimate cause. The session affirms Unitarian Universalism's position that our search for ultimate answers is unlikely to end.
Evolution is the subject of the story and informs other activities. To do more with the topic, use Alternate Activities 4, 5, 6 and/or 7.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Playing Detective | 20 |
Activity 2: Story — A Garden Is Born (Evolution) | 8 |
Activity 3: WCUU — Wonder of the World | 17 |
Activity 4: WIT Time — Taking a Stand | 7 |
Faith in Action: Planting New Life | |
Closing | 3 |
Alternate Activity 1: Notable Thoughts | 5 |
Alternate Activity 2: Song — Life Is the Greatest Gift of All | 5 |
Alternate Activity 3: Challenge Question | 5 |
Alternate Activity 4: Wonder Art | 15 |
Alternate Activity 5: Great Story Stuff | 20 |
Alternate Activity 6: The Awakening Universe | 20 |
Alternate Activity 7: Personal Timelines | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
With preparations complete, carve out a meditative moment for yourself. Relax. Take several deep breaths. Remember when, as child and youth, you searched the stars and clouds for clues to the source and meaning of life. Recall the awe your questions inspired, and recapture it now. Smile in the knowledge that simply joining youth in their search of life's mysteries is good.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Greet youth as they enter, and introduce yourself to any you do not already know. If the group uses nametags, invite everyone to (make and) wear one. If new youth join this session, add their names on card stock to the Kid for the Day bag or box.
Sound the bell or tingsha chimes to call for silence.
Reach into the Kid for the Day bag or box and select a name without looking. Announce the name and place the paper back in the bag or box. (If a Kid for the Day seems reluctant, allow them to pass. Draw another name or invite the participant to select one.)
Indicate where you have posted the chalice lighting words. Invite the Kid for the Day to light the chalice while you lead the group in reciting "May this chalice light show the way as we search for answers to our biggest questions and seek to understand life's deepest mysteries."
Invite the group to share a moment of silence. End the silence by sounding the bell or tingshas. Explain that you will use this same ritual—chalice lighting, followed by silence—at each session.
If new participants have joined the group, invite all, in turn, to introduce themselves. You can do more of a check-in, but keep it focused.
You may wish to ask if anyone did any Taking It Home activities from the previous session and would like to briefly share what they did.
If you have posted a covenant made by the group in Session 1, direct the group's attention to it and ask if anybody wants to suggest changes. Process any suggestions quickly, and amend the covenant as needed.
Announce that it is time to hear the Big Question of the day. Hand the Kid for the Day a copy of Handout 1 and help them understand and implement the instructions. Write the question—How did life begin?—on the newsprint under the "Today's Big Question" sign.
If you are using Riddle and Mystery's sessions in sequence, you might ask if today's Big Question reminds youth of another Big Question they have already considered. Help them identify "How did life begin?" as a variation of "Where do we come from?" (Session 1).
Ask the Kid for the Day to extinguish the chalice. Move the chalice table aside as necessary to allow movement in the room.
Set aside the "Today's Big Question" sign and the Kid for the Day bag or box, with the names and extra pieces of card stock, for re-use.
Including All Participants
If the group includes youth who may have difficulty reading, be sure you routinely allow the Kid for the Day to pass.
ACTIVITY 1: PLAYING DETECTIVE (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite the youth to work in small groups to solve mysteries including the mystery of how life began.
Ask if participants enjoy mysteries and detective stories in books, movies or television shows. Say you have a few mysteries you want them to solve. Tell them they will work in small groups and present each solution in the form of a story that explains the mystery.
Form groups of three of four participants and give each group paper, pencils and a copy of Leader Resource 1 (or, direct their attention to the posted list of mysteries). Explain that the paper is for making notes; they need not write out their stories in full detail. Tell them they will have about eight minutes to prepare two stories—one story that solves mystery number 6 and one that solves any other of the mysteries listed. Tell them you will let them know when four minutes are up so they can switch to their second mystery. They may try to solve additional mysteries if they have time.
Separate groups so they cannot overhear one another, then signal them to begin. Signal when four minutes have passed. After another four minutes, bring the groups together and invite them to share stories as time allows.
When they have finished sharing, say that billions of people, maybe most people who have ever lived, have wondered how life began. So, over time there have been many, many solutions offered to the sixth mystery. Note that you will share another explaining story in the next activity.
As appropriate, note that the youth have acted not only as detectives, but also as scientists, using the concept of cause and effect. They started knowing what the effect was and then tried to trace its cause. This what the earliest people did: They saw that life existed, then created stories and myths to explain what had caused it to be—where life came from.
Point out the posted UU Sources or distribute copies of Session 1, Leader Resource 1 for youth to share. Ask them to think about which Sources might tell us how life begins. Almost certainly somebody will quickly suggest science. If not, do so yourself. Ask the group how science could help answer the question. Affirm responses.
Ask the group how science works. Ask if anybody can explain "scientific method." (Many sixth graders study this subject in school.) Explain in your own words:
Scientists begin an inquiry by defining what they want to know—framing a question. Then they make a guess, called a "hypothesis," about what the answer might be. Next, they set up an experiment to see if the hypothesis is right. If the experiment shows the hypothesis is correct, then scientists say the idea has been scientifically proved. If not, they make a new hypothesis—maybe even a different question—and try again.
Even when scientists have proved something, they know they must be ready to change their minds later, if different experiments show different answers. A hypothesis must be tested more than once. Results are not valid unless others who try it obtain the same results. If they do not, something is wrong needs more thought and experimenting.
Ask participants if they can define a scientific theory. Affirm that a theory is not a fact. It is an explanation about the world and how it works that scientists shape—using all the facts they know and the hypotheses they have proved so far—and then try to prove by doing and analyzing more experiments.
Ask youth how the scientific method of solving a mystery differs from using faith and religious belief, which they have talked about in previous sessions. The answer most useful for sixth graders lies in experiments and proof.
Ask:
(Can science prove whether God exists? The answer is "no." Some people have tried to prove God exists, but none can offer proof that everybody else accepts. The idea that God does exist is a belief, and some scientists have that belief. In fact, Nature magazine did a survey in 1997 in which 40 percent of scientists believed that God exists.
Say that today's story talks about the scientific theory of evolution.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — A GARDEN IS BORN (EVOLUTION)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group and read or tell the story. At its conclusion, ask for reactions:
Say in your own words:
While most scientists and most Unitarian Universalists today accept the story of evolution as an answer to today's Big Question, they also recognize that creation myths were a wonderful way for ancient peoples to answer their own big questions and explain the world. Some people still strongly believe in creation stories like the story of Adam and Eve. Most UUs believe we can learn from and enjoy creation stories even if we do not believe they are literally true.
Many people believe in both evolution and a God that created the universe. Perhaps they see evolution as the mechanism God used to create everything.
ACTIVITY 3: WCUU — WONDER OF THE WORLD (17 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants present a WCUU segment involving five On-Air People—Anchor, NUUs Analyst, Dr. UU Scientist, Science Assistant and Competitor—and a Studio Crew which might include a director, a floor director, a camera operator, a sound engineer, a lighting director, a script supervisor and multiple production assistants.
Assign roles, using volunteers for On-Air People and Studio Crew. You might invite the Kid for the Day to be the Anchor or Dr. UU Scientist.
Give participants who need to follow the script a moment to look it over. Review it with them if you have participants with limited reading skills.
Tell the group when the show should end to keep the session on schedule; assign a Studio Crew member (director or floor director) to watch the time.
Begin the broadcast.
At the end of the broadcast, ask participants how it went. Ask them to summarize how typical Unitarian Universalists respond to today's Big Question: "How did life begin?" Do they think non-UUs would understand Unitarian Universalism better after seeing the WCUU broadcast?
ACTIVITY 4: WIT TIME — TAKING A STAND (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say you want the youth to explore where they stand on some questions about the origins of life. Explain that for each question, participants should place themselves where you indicate to show which of two answers they believe—or, they may move to a place in the middle to show their answer falls in between the two you offer.
Pose the first question from Leader Resource 3 and indicate where participants should stand for "yes" and for "no." Give as much guidance as needed until participants get the idea of responding with motion. Once youth are in place, ask volunteers to comment: Why are they where they are? Suggest they may move and change position as they like as they hear the reasoning of others.
Ask as many questions from the list as you like, and add some of your own if you wish.
Including All Participants
Adapt the activity to fully include youth of limited mobility. You might help a youth to a position near the middle and after you read each question, invite them to indicate verbally or by pointing the spot where they choose to be. Or, have the group remain seated and call out their responses to each question. For example, read the first question and then ask who says "yes," who says "no" and who would place themselves in the middle. Invite some volunteers to comment on their own choices, and then ask the question again.
CLOSING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Briefly summarize the session with words like these:
Today's Big Question asks how life began. We used the idea of cause and effect to make up some stories of our own about why various things happen, then we heard how the story of how evolution explains the development of life. We said that myths are powerful and a good way to learn about the people who told them, but that science may be the best source for information about how life actually began. In our WCUU broadcast, we talked about life as a great wonder. In WIT Time, we took a stand to show some of our own ideas about how life began.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout. Suggest participants use the activities to continue exploring the themes of today's session.
Relight the chalice. Ask the group to say these closing words with you:
May this light shine on in each of us as we search for the answers to our own biggest questions.
Extinguish the chalice (or ask the Kid for the Day to do it). Sound the bell or tingshas to end the session.
FAITH IN ACTION: PLANTING NEW LIFE
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If the group has chosen an ongoing Faith in Action project, continue work on it.
Or, consider this short-term Faith in Action project:
Planting New Life. Tell the group scientists have found it is healthy for humans to keep plants around and inside buildings. Ask if participants know why. Affirm that plants help improve air quality and humidity; plants can also add beauty to our surroundings. Helping people stay healthy can be an excellent way to practice Faith in Action. Unfortunately, economic injustice leaves some people so strapped for resources that they lack money or time for acquiring plants and thus do not get the benefits of living around plants. Providing a plant can not only make someone feel better, it also takes a step toward making life more equitable and fair.
If you have decided to engage the group to provide plants for the congregational meeting space, point out that the plants will add health benefits to the congregational building, and can help the congregation save money for other important projects, such as working for economic justice.
Show the group the planting supplies and invite participants to plant the seeds or pot the seedlings you have brought. Set protective saucers beneath all plants placed indoors.
Have youth give the seeds or plants an initial watering, then talk about later care. What must be done to keep the plants alive? Periodic watering is the greatest need. Ask if youth will volunteer to arrive early for future group meetings so they can water the seeds or plants.
Ask how youth would answer today's Big Question—How did life begin?—when it concerns seeds and houseplants. Can youth be the cause of tomorrow's flowering effects?
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders after the session to reflect on it. How was your mix of discussion and action? Do youth seem excited by science? Should you talk more about science in future sessions? Note that the Big Question for Session 6 is "What happens when you die?" Plan to reflect on your own answers to that in the days ahead.
TAKING IT HOME
Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity, here have we come. — Robert T. Weston
Talk about the quote. When you think about how life began, do you go all the way back to the stars?
WHAT WE DID TODAY
Today's Big Question is "How did life begin?" We saw that science is one of the best UU Sources to help answer that question, and we heard an answer in the story of evolution. We broadcast a WCUU show about life as a great wonder of the world, and we took a stand to show what we think about the beginning of life.
ANSWERING TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
How do members of your family feel about the theory of evolution? Do all of your relatives feel the same way? How about your friends? Talk about the Source that explains the beginning of life best. Is it religion? Science? Your own experiences and inner feelings?
SEE A SHOW
Watch a DVD called "The Awakening Universe." It is a capsule summary of the past 14 billion years prepared by Thomas Berry and based on the work of cosmologist Brian Swimme. Your congregation or your local library may have a copy, or you can find it online for your family to purchase. You will hear this narration, near the end:
The universe arose and gave rise to the galaxies. The galaxies gave rise to the stars. Our sun gave rise to the earth, and the earth gave rise to life and to all that we are. And now it is causing us to awaken from our dream of lonely isolation so we may rejoin the great community of life and take on our part in the stupendous unfolding story. As Thomas Berry says, "This is our great work."
What does that mean to your family?
SHARED SEARCH
Go together to a place that makes you or somebody else in the family think about how life began. Maybe it is a starlit field, or the shore of an ocean. Maybe . . . but you decide.
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph something that makes you think about how all of life began. It could be something outdoors, such as flower buds on a tree. It might be a book inside your house. Get a camera and decide what calls to you.
FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION
The story of evolution not only explains how life began, it also demonstrates how strongly we are connected to all other life on the planet. Encourage your family to deepen their relationship with another life form. You could do this by caring for plants in a garden, spending more time with pets, or building birdhouses.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NOTABLE THOUGHTS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Notable Thoughts is the first Alternate Activity in each session of Riddle and Mystery. Remind participants that this is a time for them to record their own ideas about today's Big Question. Distribute participants' notebooks and pencils or pens. Provide any new participants with notebooks. Say that the notebooks are private; you will keep them between sessions but not read them.
Tell the youth they will have about five minutes. Remind them of today's Big Question: "How did life begin?" Say they can write about anything they want. Their ideas can be as different as they wish from what you have talked about so far. If youth have nothing to record, they are free to doodle or relax.
Give them a few minutes to work quietly in their notebooks. When time is up, offer that they may seal their notebooks with masking tape before handing them in. Collect the notebooks.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: SONG — LIFE IS THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Remind/tell the group that Unitarian Universalists often express our ideas in hymns. Introduce "Life Is the Greatest Gift of All" Hymn 331 from Singing the Living Tradition in a manner comfortable for you. Ask for reactions:
Ask the group:
An answer comes at the end of the first verse, which says to treasure the gift and offer back "deeds of shining worth." Engage the group to name "deeds of shining worth" they can, or do, offer—either individually, as the Riddle and Mystery group or as part of their family or another group to which they belong. Suggest the group's Faith in Action projects may be such deeds. Guide youth to articulate how such deeds express thanks for the gift of life.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: CHALLENGE QUESTION (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Challenge questions guide a deeper inquiry for especially thoughtful individuals and groups. For this session, ask:
Is science a religion?
If you search for an answer on the Internet, you find people saying "yes" and others saying "no." But what do the youth think?
Lead a discussion. You might also ask:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: WONDER ART (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth draw as you read words poetically describing the beginning of life.
Settle participants at work tables or on a floor. Distribute Scratch-Art paper and toothpicks or construction paper and pastels/crayons to share.
Ask for a quiet, meditative moment, and invite youth to use the materials to create whatever they wish after you begin reading the words or playing the music. Say their creations can be abstract or realistic, whatever they like. Read the words slowly and dramatically; they are very powerful. If you have more time, you may wish to pause, then repeat the reading.
When the artwork is complete or time is running out, give youth a chance to stand back, examine and comment on what they have done. If possible, display their artwork. You may wish to also post the text of the reading.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 5: GREAT STORY STUFF (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Present The Great Story perspective on evolution and how life began. Connie Barlow is a Unitarian Universalist who has devoted herself to telling the story of evolution, together with Michael Dowd, a United Church of Christ minister. Barlow has prepared an entire children's curriculum, available through the website.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 6: THE AWAKENING UNIVERSE (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Show the group The Awakening Universe, a capsule summary of the past 14 billion years based on the work of Thomas Berry and cosmologist Brian Swimme. The DVD conveys some of the awesome wonder associated with the creation and evolution of life. Explain that Brian Swimme, the speaker with flowing gray hair, is a cosmologist (who studies the physical universe) at the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd base some of their "The Great Story" work on Swimme's ideas. Leave time for youth's comments.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 7: PERSONAL TIMELINES (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to narrow today's Big Question from "How did life begin?" to "How did my own life begin?" Say, in your own words:
It is easy for most of us to find out about events 12 or 13 years ago, just before we were born. But the trails that led to each of us being born go back way beyond our parents. Science now believes life on Earth can be traced back about 14 billion years. That is a long, long time. If every year equaled one inch and you drew a line showing 14 billion of them, the line would go around the Equator almost nine times.
Invite the youth to string together beads to represent some of the really big events leading up to their own lives. The first event at one end will be the Big Bang. At the other end will be today. In between they might place beads to represent events in their family history before their lifetime, their ethnic group's history, their community history, U.S. history, human history or the history of the world. Suggest they might include great-grandparents having babies, then their grandparents having babies and then their own birth. What else? That is up to them, and everybody can do it differently.
Show the beading supplies to the group. Tell them they may include as many important events as they like, and they can use the paper and pencils to keep track of what they are doing. They may write dates of events and any other details they wish on their beads, then string them together in sequence.
Play quiet background music if you like as youth do their beading. When they have finished or time is running out, invite them tie off the laces to hold the beads in place, then share what they have done.
Invite youth to imagine how long their strings of beads would be if they showed all the important events between the Big Bang and their own births. Point out that if the beads each stood for one century, they would still each need 140 million of them. Ask youth to imagine how large their own life of, say, 100 years compares to 14 billion years. When the moment is up, ask how that idea makes them feel.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 5:
STORY: A GARDEN IS BORN (EVOLUTION)
Where previously there had been nothing, now there was something.
Within a black hole, a "singularity" developed.
What's a "singularity?" It's an area in a black hole where the density is so great the pressure squeezes bits of finite matter into a piece of infinite matter. Do you understand that?
Leader: Wait for a negative response.
I don't either! Riddle and mystery.
But some mathematicians support this theory of how the universe began. They call the birth of the universe the Big Bang, but there wasn't really a bang because it didn't happen instantaneously.
The singularity began to cool off and as that happened, it expanded to become the entire universe we know today. It's still cooling, expanding, and changing as we speak. Today, it's 156 billion light years wide. Can you imagine how big that is?
Leader: Wait for a negative response.
I can't either! Riddle and mystery. Cosmogony, the study of the origins of the universe, says this appears to be true.
Atoms became molecules. Molecules of different elements clustered together to form galaxies. Gaseous clouds of molecules formed into suns. Other gases became rock particles. Bunches of rock particles collided and stuck together and became the Earth. Earth has a non-living atmosphere of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Somehow, these elements managed to form themselves into living creatures. Planetary processes brought these elements together to form amino acids and nucleic acids—the building blocks of life—and they created single-celled organisms that grow and reproduce.
How did these non-living elements become life?
Leader: Wait for a negative response.
Many theories exist, but no one knows for sure. Riddle and mystery. Yet, we know that those single-celled organisms, like bacteria, changed over time. Changes in a living organism overtime is called "evolution."
As organisms evolved, they became more complex. Single-celled creatures, probably living in the sea, evolved into life forms with trillions of cells, which live now in the sea, in the air and on land.
Life became more plentiful. The barren rock became a garden. Since all life has a common ancestor, all life is linked. Since all life has requirements to stay healthy and alive, we have a responsibility. It isn't just that my survival might depend on your survival. My survival depends on the survival of trees and plants that create oxygen and the survival of particular bacteria which live in my intestines. Do you think it a far stretch to imagine that my survival might depend upon the survival of a rainforest ecosystem in South America?
Leader: Wait for a negative response.
I don't either! All life is connected and dependent upon other life forms. Riddle and mystery.
Riddled.
Mysterious.
Beautiful.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 5:
HANDOUT 1: TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
To the Kid for the Day:
You have two jobs. The first is getting your group excited about hearing today's Big Question. The second is announcing the question.
1. Say to the group, "Give me a drum roll!" Then wait for a minute while the drum roll builds. (Here is how to do a drum roll: Everybody slaps their thighs, one leg first, then the other, back and forth, beginning gently and getting louder and louder.)
2. When the drum roll is good and loud, hold up your hands to signal "Stop!" Then read today's Big Question. Here it is:
How did life begin?
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: MYSTERIES
Think of your small group as a detective agency and the following events as mysteries to be solved. Make up a story to explain what caused one of the mysteries numbered 1-5. Then, make up a story to explain mystery number 6. If you have more time, return to mysteries 1-5 and choose another to solve. Take notes about all your stories so that later you can share them with the other groups.
1. A house has burned down.
2. A rainbow has glowed in the sky.
3. Two cars have crashed into each other.
4. A pancake tasted awful.
5. Your favorite team has won a championship game.
6. Human life has appeared in a universe that was lifeless.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: WCUU SCRIPT
To the Anchor:
Today's WCUU program talks about a UU scientist's attempt to have life named the greatest wonder of the world. Your job is to follow the script, read your part, and otherwise keep things going. When the broadcast begins, you are alone on camera, sitting or standing in front of a microphone.
[Director: Cue the station break.]
[Director: Cue the Anchor.]
Anchor: This is WCUU, Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists, on the air.
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
Anchor: Good morning. I am [give your real or stage name] here to report a stunning development in the competition to name the greatest wonder of the world. Here to get us started is our WCUU NUUs Analyst, [give NUUs Analyst's real or stage name].
[Director: Cue NUUs Analyst to stand or sit with Anchor.]
Anchor: Tell us what you know about Dr. UU Scientist's claim that life is the greatest wonder of the world.
NUUs Analyst: Just this: As you know, people around the world have voted for many years on the greatest natural and human-made wonders of the world. Usually they come up with things like Niagara Falls and Cleopatra's Tomb. Now this Dr. UU Scientist appears out of who-knows-where to claim that life is the greatest wonder. That's what I know.
Anchor: That's it? You usually have more to say than that, NUUs Analyst.
NUUs Analyst: Right. But right now I'm more interested in coffee and a donut than I am in talking to you.
Anchor: So go get your coffee and donut, NUUs Analyst, and I'll check back with you at the end of our report. Maybe you'll have more to say then. In the meantime, let's ask Dr. UU Scientist to join us.
[Director: Cue Dr. UU Scientist to change places with NUUs Analyst on camera.]
Anchor: Thanks for joining us, Dr. UU Scientist. Now what can you tell us about life?
Dr. UU Scientist: Thanks right back for having me, Anchor. Now here's what I can tell you about life. It's a wonder, that's what life is.
Dr. UU Scientist The biggest wonder in the world, bigger than Wonder Bread, almost as big a wonder as the universe itself!
Anchor: How so?
Dr. UU Scientist: Think about it! Life goes way, way back, so far back we can't say exactly how far back. It came out of the Big Bang and all the swirling stardust that goes back 14 billion years.
Anchor: And how do you know all that, Dr.?
Dr. UU Scientist: Research. Scientific research. No stories and myths for us. We look for evidence, to test hypotheses, which add up to theories we can prove are true. We dig and dig and dig and then we dig some more in our search for real proof.
Anchor: Are your hands covered with blisters from all that digging?
Dr. UU Scientist: Oh, no. I used to dig all the time, but now I have an assistant to do that. There they are now...
[Director: Cue Science Assistant to begin digging. Cue Camera Operator to focus on Science Assistant. Cue Competitor to join Anchor and Dr. UU Scientist.] Science Assistant: I'm digging for fossils and bones. We're trying to track life back as far as we possibly can.
[Director: Cue Camera Operator to focus on Anchor and Dr. UU Scientist.]
Anchor: Thank you, Science Assistant. And, good luck with that. Now let's meet somebody else, a competitor for the greatest wonder of the world who says it's not life, but rocket ships.
Dr. UU Scientist: I'm ready, let's do it.
Anchor: Good morning, Competitor. Tell us why transportation is such a great wonder.
Competitor: And good morning to you. A rocket ship is not simply transportation, you know. Just think of a rocket ship probing outer space. One of the great creations of all humankind! Once there was no transportation at all. Then there were things like rafts and canoes. Then there were steamboats and trains and cars. Then there were airplanes and now there are rockets! Wow! That's a wonder all right!
Dr. UU Scientist: Easily. People had to create rockets. But people didn't create life. Life evolved all by itself.
Competitor: You've got me there.
[Director: Cue Competitor to leave studio.]
Dr. UU Scientist: Possibly so. We don't know about God. Maybe God made the Big Bang that eventually allowed life to begin. That is a mystery, and we cannot be sure. But we can see the wonder of life, and that is what is most important to me. Knowing lots and lots about life from science does not take away from the wonderful mystery of how it all began.
Anchor: Thank you so much for being with us.
Dr. UU Scientist: My pleasure.
[Director: Cue NUUs Analyst to switch places with Dr. UU Scientist.]
Anchor: Now let's see if NUUs Analyst is done with the coffee and donut. Good morning again, NUUs Analyst. Feel better?
NUUs Analyst: Much. Now what questions have you got for me, Anchor?
Anchor: I am sure the magic of television allowed you to see the show even while you were drinking and eating, NUUs Analyst. So tell us: are Dr. UU Scientist's ideas typical of UU ideas about life, what it is and how it began?
NUUs Analyst: Indeed, clearly, yes. Just look at the UU Sources. One of them is "humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit." In other words, science rocks and reason rules. Other UU Sources include ideas of wise people everywhere. UUs honor and enjoy creation myths and stories which give many different ideas about how life began. But most UUs agree that the myths and stories are artistic and poetic ideas about the beginnings. They can help us relish and probe the mystery of creation. But for the facts about how life began some fourteen billion years ago, UUs typically turn to science.
Anchor: Thank you, NUUs Analyst. That is very helpful.
NUUs Analyst: Wait a minute, Anchor. Don't you want to know what kind of donut I had?
Anchor: No I don't. And our viewers don't either. Let's go to theme music!
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
[Director: Cue the station break.]
Anchor: This is [your real or stage name] signing off for WCUU.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: WHERE I STAND ON LIFE
1. Is the theory of evolution the best way to explain how life began? Yes — No
2. I would rather study . . . Myths — Science
3. I think that something or someone had to start the whole process of evolution. Call it God, or call it Mystery or whatever, but whatever you call it, it had to be there. Right — Wrong
4. Should public schools teach evolution to kids whose parents say the theory is wrong because God created everything? Heavens, no! — Heavens, yes!
5. I am glad we do not know everything about how life began. I like having scientific mysteries to solve. Life would be boring without them. Agree — Disagree
6. Here's what some people say: "Time, like other stuff, began at the instant of the Big Bang. Before the Big Bang there was no time. So nothing at all could exist. There was absolutely nothing. So everything did come out of nothing at the instant of the Big Bang." Do you agree? Yes — No
7. Who should decide what kind of science is taught in schools? Parents — Governments
8. Is it weird or wonderful to think that some of the atoms in you might have been in somebody else a thousand years ago? Weird — Wonderful
9. Some UUs say that knowing how to use our lives is more important than knowing where they come from. Do you agree? Yes — No
FIND OUT MORE
Cosmology
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration offers an introduction to cosmology (at map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe) with in-depth yet accessible information on the Big Bang, the beginning of life and other topics.
The PBS program NOVA (at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins) has online resources about the beginnings of life and the origins of the universe, including interactive timelines, which could interest adults or youth.
The European Space Agency's website for children has a section called "Our Universe" (at www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/index.html) with information on the beginnings of the universe and of life.
Science and Religion
To explore one way Unitarian Universalist religious education can celebrate the potential for mutual inspiration between science and religion, see Amy Hassinger's article, "'Great Story' Religious Education" (at www.uuworld.org/life/articles/2700.shtml), in the Spring, 2006 UU World. It reads, in part:
If children can learn... they descend from the stars and that their ancestors once swam in the sea, (Connie) Barlow says, perhaps they'll see there's no fundamental contradiction between having a religious understanding of the world—one that stands in awe of creation and finds meaning and value in existence—and embracing the profound offerings of science.
For more Unitarian Universalist perspectives on the relationship between science and religion, read the pamphlet "Science and Religion: A Unitarian Universalist Perspective" (at www.uua.org/documents/cohenhelen/science_religion.pdf), by Helen Lutton Cohen, which quotes Joseph Priestly, a founder of British Unitarianism: "Distrust all those who require you to abandon (reason), wherever religion is concerned."