One Saturday afternoon, when all grown men should be watching sport or playing with electronic gadgets, Daughter number three,
the one who would always choose different clothes than those that mother had selected for her, asked me for some help with her homework. Have you noticed that most Saturdays don’t follow the plan you had set out in your mind for them?
Being a good and committed father I told her to wait until the next advertisement break. This she duly did and once I had taken the time to nip to the loo, get a drink and a snack and check the scores on Teletext, I sat down to give her my full attention.
I always feel with children, and with the teachers who provide them with ammunition, that most conversation is a trap. No matter how easy the question sounds at the beginning, it always, and I mean always, ends up looking like a tool to get you to confess your complete and utter ignorance of the subject that you have fooled yourself into believing you were once good at.
Today’s question was no different; ‘How did the world begin?’ Oh yes, right. Now that is one I can answer; hopefully before the sports music begins again and reminds me to move my eyes towards the screen. NOT!
To be honest, it is not that I don’t know at least a few of the various theories
available to any budding scientist. It’s not that I can’t talk about Primeval Soup as well as any top chef. The problem is that I am not sure that I really believe any of it. I know, I know, we live in a scientific rational age. Scientists have helped humanity travel to the moon, cure deadly diseases and build the
distortion pedals for electric guitars (a singularly impressive feat if you ask me). Scientists also change their minds like the rest of us change our socks. And they disagree with each other all the time; there have been opposing views on nearly every subject you could name, apart from the distortion pedal that is.
Then there is the God factor. Now I am not saying that it is a big consideration in this modern rationalistic age but perhaps it is best to hedge your bets a little. I mean, what if you were to stake your soul on Darwinian’s theory of Origin of what ever it was. What if then you were to find that, when you fall of this mortal coil (I love that phrase), the Deity in question takes one look at you and says, “credit where, credits due – you gave me non, now there’s non available for you”. It’s a thought.
With all this in mind I plumped for offering her an answer with certainty. I said there are lots of theories and they could either all be right or all wrong. There was more than likely a big bang and possible God was involved in the detonation process, just in case he/she is listening, Now how was that for being a helpful and caring dad?