song for theme #4: Global Vision

                                                   “Evolution Row” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “Desolation Row” by Bob Dylan

I like to start with the big bang¹

And chronicle a great story

The billons of years it took to make

Minds to contemplate the glory

Of the connectedness of it all

And struggle to figure it out

Piecing together a puzzle

So it fits without any doubt

Consider how one man suffered

In his great quest to know

A human highlights film we watch

Here on evolution row.

His telescope revealed its wonders

But churchmen refused to look

The foundations of a worldview

His discoveries badly shook

He said Earth moved round the Sun

Churchmen said it stayed put

With God their side had power

They could turn people to soot

They tried to silence him

But it moves said Galileo

He ended up in prison

Here on evolution row 

If curiosity lets you go there

I know you’ll eventually see

The universe is awesome

As is how it came to be

Your body contains atoms

Once inside ancient stars

And rocks now found on Earth

Once rested peacefully on Mars

Slow change or God’s instant creation

The fittest survive, what do we know?

That scientists side with Darwin

Here on evolution row

You say God provides life’s vital spark

I speak of reduction oxidation potential²

I cite electronegativity³ differences

You’re positive about God and reverential

You say mindless random process

Can’t gift us with the human eye

From the foot to top of mount improbable⁴

God’s the explanation that can fly

But slowly climbing the gentle slope

Accumulating change started long ago

And we value geologic time

Here on evolution row

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—Theory that the observable universe began with everything in an incredibly compact, hot, dense state, after which an event (the

      Big Bang) occurred that began the universe's currently observed expansion.

2, 3—These terms relate to atoms losing or gaining electrons and the attraction an atom has for an electron.

4—Climbing Mount Improbable is the title of a book about evolution by biologist Richard Dawkins.

Comment: Carver and Connor-Smith (see Part Ia note) link “breadth of perspective” with personality factors of agreeableness and conscientiousness, and suggest the latter often implies “broad time perspective.”