I made my older children read the Gospel of Mark a few months ago. I'm not a Christian, and they're generally more skeptical of religion even than I am, so for the most part they hated it, and honestly I suspect it mostly cemented their sense that Western culture is crazy. Still, I wanted them to be exposed to the teachings of Jesus, the story of his life, and the messages that echo across Western society. However much they complained it was boring and crazy, I simply insisted the Bible is a historically and sociologically important book, and they were lucky the Gospel of Mark was not only the earliest gospel (and thus probably the most accurate, and the one that in turn had the most impact on the rest of the New Testament), but the shortest.
In the same vein, Sarah Perry brings a laser focus to the problems of the human condition that may not be sociologically important, but underlie the entirety of biological existence. We are beings who exist for evolutionary reasons, and the fact that we were created by the same blind process that made digger wasps - a species which are, essentially, real live xenomorphs (see https://theconversation.com/dna-analysis-reveals-that-there-are-more-species-of-parasitoid-wasps-than-anticipated-213828 ). And Sarah Perry points out things that paint a picture of evolution as a truly awful process that has trapped us all within it. For example, she argues that the way many people make their otherwise painful and meaninless lives more bearable by insisting that life itself has meaning and must be satisfying, yet this is for the most part an illusion that traps miserable people in the prison of their existence and denies them any avenue of escape.
You can probably tell I think Perry misses some of the nuances and complexity of existence that makes life wonderful as well as horrible! But most people miss the horribleness completely, they just insist "life is good" in spite of the many things that should make us question that claim.
TL DR: In my opinion grappling with ideas like Christianity, or Atheism, or utilitarianism, or Sarah Perry's antinatalism, is an important part of growing up, even if every single one of those things is crazy.
Also, the article you cited is exactly the work I engaged in during undergrad--except with rhopalosomatids instead of ichneumonids (an untrained eye might fail to distinguish them despite being far apart phylogenetically.) DNA barcoding to tease apart cryptic species was the name of the game. I don't quite know what to think about all the biodiversity we can find by turning over any stone. These species seem so nearly identical to us but have histories that diverged so long ago. Very very alien.
It's interesting to hear their reactions to Mark. I expect it was a combination of priming effects and really old books legitimately being pretty boring by the standards of modern literature. I don't know how old your children are, of course, but have you had them read other ancient works and gotten their opinions? Like the Odyssey, or Oedipus Rex, or Beowulf? I love those now but I wasn't a prodigy and would have begged to go back to my middle-grade fiction at age 11.
I did see this comment first and laughed at the parasitoid wasp reference, then saw your other comment. Man, I'd love to attend a dinner party where Ms. Perry conversed with Camus and Viktor Frankl. Unfortunately, some of those cradles have long ago become graves.
Being a Christian and studying evolution is difficult on a moral level. For millennia our thinkers have wrestled with the problem of evil, but this great grinding mass of organic creation and destruction we know so much about now is on a different level. Camus thought that religion, suicide, and hope were all foolish ways to escape the absurd. I disagree with him strongly on that conclusion, but we do agree that sticking one's head in the sand is even worse. I don't expect to aid my children in ostrich behavior, but I don't know best how to help them grow up wisely and healthily.
I always thought of suicide as a way of doing something. People always need to do something (otherwise they will give themselves electric shocks, as we all know). Some people just can't find anything constructive to do in their current situation. So they plan their suicide. Some of them go through with the plan and some of those really die from it.
I need to read that book. But not having done so yet, may I ask why it is important to you that your children have access to it?
I made my older children read the Gospel of Mark a few months ago. I'm not a Christian, and they're generally more skeptical of religion even than I am, so for the most part they hated it, and honestly I suspect it mostly cemented their sense that Western culture is crazy. Still, I wanted them to be exposed to the teachings of Jesus, the story of his life, and the messages that echo across Western society. However much they complained it was boring and crazy, I simply insisted the Bible is a historically and sociologically important book, and they were lucky the Gospel of Mark was not only the earliest gospel (and thus probably the most accurate, and the one that in turn had the most impact on the rest of the New Testament), but the shortest.
In the same vein, Sarah Perry brings a laser focus to the problems of the human condition that may not be sociologically important, but underlie the entirety of biological existence. We are beings who exist for evolutionary reasons, and the fact that we were created by the same blind process that made digger wasps - a species which are, essentially, real live xenomorphs (see https://theconversation.com/dna-analysis-reveals-that-there-are-more-species-of-parasitoid-wasps-than-anticipated-213828 ). And Sarah Perry points out things that paint a picture of evolution as a truly awful process that has trapped us all within it. For example, she argues that the way many people make their otherwise painful and meaninless lives more bearable by insisting that life itself has meaning and must be satisfying, yet this is for the most part an illusion that traps miserable people in the prison of their existence and denies them any avenue of escape.
You can probably tell I think Perry misses some of the nuances and complexity of existence that makes life wonderful as well as horrible! But most people miss the horribleness completely, they just insist "life is good" in spite of the many things that should make us question that claim.
TL DR: In my opinion grappling with ideas like Christianity, or Atheism, or utilitarianism, or Sarah Perry's antinatalism, is an important part of growing up, even if every single one of those things is crazy.
Also, the article you cited is exactly the work I engaged in during undergrad--except with rhopalosomatids instead of ichneumonids (an untrained eye might fail to distinguish them despite being far apart phylogenetically.) DNA barcoding to tease apart cryptic species was the name of the game. I don't quite know what to think about all the biodiversity we can find by turning over any stone. These species seem so nearly identical to us but have histories that diverged so long ago. Very very alien.
It's interesting to hear their reactions to Mark. I expect it was a combination of priming effects and really old books legitimately being pretty boring by the standards of modern literature. I don't know how old your children are, of course, but have you had them read other ancient works and gotten their opinions? Like the Odyssey, or Oedipus Rex, or Beowulf? I love those now but I wasn't a prodigy and would have begged to go back to my middle-grade fiction at age 11.
I did see this comment first and laughed at the parasitoid wasp reference, then saw your other comment. Man, I'd love to attend a dinner party where Ms. Perry conversed with Camus and Viktor Frankl. Unfortunately, some of those cradles have long ago become graves.
Being a Christian and studying evolution is difficult on a moral level. For millennia our thinkers have wrestled with the problem of evil, but this great grinding mass of organic creation and destruction we know so much about now is on a different level. Camus thought that religion, suicide, and hope were all foolish ways to escape the absurd. I disagree with him strongly on that conclusion, but we do agree that sticking one's head in the sand is even worse. I don't expect to aid my children in ostrich behavior, but I don't know best how to help them grow up wisely and healthily.
I always thought of suicide as a way of doing something. People always need to do something (otherwise they will give themselves electric shocks, as we all know). Some people just can't find anything constructive to do in their current situation. So they plan their suicide. Some of them go through with the plan and some of those really die from it.
Oh, of course - you're always so restless to get things done! That isn't the way I experienced life in the red.