Lying back in the chair, with a mouth full of dental equipment, I tried to read my book.<\/p>\n
The dental assistant asked what I was reading; showing her the cover, I said the name of the book as best as I could. “Why Evolution is True.”<\/p>\n
She laughed a little too loudly, then said to let her know how it turned out.<\/p>\n
“Tell me if I come from a monkey,” she said.<\/p>\n
My first thought: “No, you didn’t come from a monkey. You and monkeys share an ancestor. Just like you didn’t come from your cousin, but you share an ancestor with your cousin.”<\/p>\n
Of course, she also shares an ancestor (though a far less recent one) with the pink scum that sometimes grows on my bathroom tiles. But I didn’t think mentioning that fact would help matters.<\/p>\n
It’s just that I felt ever so slightly vulnerable. She had all the power and hadn’t even started with the sharp metal nasties yet. Would she care at all about causing an infidel pain? Maybe she’d shrug: “You think this is bad? Just wait till you get to hell.”<\/p>\n
Point is, I didn’t think that I was in the best position to present the case. It was better than trying to do so during a prostate exam, maybe, but not by much. And most people performing prostate exams have taken a lot of biology.<\/p>\n
I punted. “Not with all this stuff in my mouth.” She let it slide. She probably didn’t want to explain to her boss why she was arguing religion with a patient (who, incidentally, was arguing science).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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