La, la, la, {skip}

I have no idea why, but I’m so happy today. It’s not the usual, “It’s a Friday and I don’t have to work” kind of deal. I’m just really really happy. I actually caught myself singing “La la la” and skipping down the hall from my room to the living room. I know that’s abnormal, but there you go. I did just finish a really interesting book (nonfiction even!), and that always excites me. The book is entitled The Unlikely Disciple and written by Kevin Roose, a young journalist from Brown University who spends a semester at Liberty University. I appreciated the nuanced view; it wasn’t LOLXtians at all. I finished that much quicker than I expected to (nonfiction tends to languish in piles until I can’t take the guilt anymore and just return them, unread, to the library), so maybe I’ll start on my Newsweek Top 100 books challenge earlier than I though. I believe that I shall ease myself into it by rereading Pride and Prejudice tomorrow while I’m at work.

This afternoon, though, I’m going to hang out with my parents, and just generally enjoy this lovely day!

Please stop laughing

Sadly enough, this article is real, and not something thought up by the good folks over at The Onion. That’s right, folks: more Liberty University/evolution class silliness, this time brought to you by the Washington Post. Because it wasn’t embarrassing enough when the local Lynchburg paper was doing the reporting. Professor DeWitt, from the earlier article, takes his Advanced Creation Studies class to the Smithsonian, and complains how only one side is presented. Please explain to me how advanced any theory can be that essentially boils down to “A wizard did it.” If I went to Liberty, though, I would definitely take that series of classes. Sounds like an easy A for sure, as long as the words creator, infinite wisdowm, and divine plan figure prominently in all responses to essay questions. The Washington Post article’s subtitle makes me so sad: Creationist Students Take Field Trip to Hotbed of Evolution: The Smithsonian. When your real life would make a suitably humorous Onion headline, it might be time to reevaluate the road that led you to that point.

Things that do not surprise me

I haven’t lived in Lynchburg, VA for six years (man, the years have flown by!), but I haven’t forgotten what it was like to live there, either. Every now and then I catch up with what’s going on there by visiting the web site of the News and Advance, the local newspaper. I was saddened, but in no way surprised to see this article about Liberty University’s position on evolution (hint: not favorable towards). I know a lot of people who I respect and think the world of who do not believe in evolution either (we agree to disagree), but I think that a whole institute of learning should probably know better than to endorse an untestable, untried, unprovable theory based on the an account written when people still believed that offering sacrifices of animals, vegetables, and PEOPLE could appease the gods.
My kind of alma mater, Randolph College, comes out looking infinitely more reasonable here.