A creationist, an evolutionist, and a Darwinist were walking in the woods

They saw a patch of flowers.

“Why are these flowers beautiful?” asked the creationist rhetorically.

“OK” said the evolutionist, “Why?”

“For the joy of God and man,” said the creationist.

“No” said the evolutionist, “Beauty is subjective, in the observer, not in the flower, and nothing in nature has any purpose.  It just is.”

“No,” said the Darwinist.  “These flowers must be pollinated by a creature that drinks nectar by daylight, probably a bee, and the flowers are beautiful to please the bee, as a woman is beautiful to please her husband.”

“That is sexist,” said the evolutionist, “and why should bees care about beauty?”

12 Responses to “A creationist, an evolutionist, and a Darwinist were walking in the woods”

  1. Zach says:

    This your creation Jim? Reads a lot like how you might word things.

    Not bad.

  2. The evolutionist’s question actually does make sense and has an answer.

    Insects care about beauty to order to identify the right flower. Flowers are beautiful so they may be fertilized by the right insect.

    • jim says:

      That would explain why each kind of flower looks distinctive and different, but not why they are beautiful.

      • nikto says:

        You are culturally taught to think of flowers as beautiful, also are by nature inclined to see them as such. These are related to the utility of plants for human individuals and societies.

        A good weather feels good because it tells you you can survive and thrive.

  3. josh says:

    Well done.

  4. […] A creationist, an evolutionist, and a Darwinist were walking in the woods They saw patch of flowers. “Why are these flowers beautiful?” asked the creationist rhetorically. “OK” said the evolutionist, “Why?” “For the joy of God and man,” said the creationist. “No” said the evolutionist, “Beauty is subjective, in the observer, not in the flower, and nothing in nature has any purpose.  It just is.” “No,” said […] Reasons for the endless movement left I have identified several different mechanisms for the endless movement left. Entryism, the conspiratorial takeover of organizations by other organizations.  This is exemplified by Acorn, which has a single headquarters, but a hundred organization names, the residue of all the many organizations they have taken over. Phariseeism:  The Puritans were holier than thou, their successors […] Leftism as cancer Leftism is to memes as cancer is genes. If the cells of the body mutate, cells that multiply at the expense of the body will be selected.  And cells that mutate to a faster mutation rate will be selected, since they will have more fast multiplying variants. In a healthy body, each cell lives for […] Global Warming Scientists trapped in Antarctic Denial This expedition to Antarctica is led by global warming scientist Chris Turney, whose company, Carbonscape, sells carbon indulgences. If you sin by emitting carbon, Chris Turner will, for a suitable payment, offset your sin with his carbon offset credits. In the course of this expedition, they have repeatedly smacked up hard against ice that their […] Merry Christmas everyone […]

  5. Glenfilthie says:

    I don’t get it.

    For us kids off the short bus, we are waiting for the punch line…like “And then the bear wiped his ass with all three of them…!!!”

    • jim says:

      The punchline is “men without chests”.

      Alternatively, you can read it as an explanation of why the Christian Creationist reaction, such as Sunshine Mary, get along so well with the atheist Darwinist reaction, such as Heartiste.

  6. […] A creationist, an evolutionist, and a Darwinist walk into a bar… […]

  7. […] A creationist, an evolutionist, and a Darwinist were walking in the woods « Jim’s Blog […]

  8. peppermint says:

    brilliant koan 🙂

Leave a Reply for josh