Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Final Presentation: Our Story of Evolution

Submitted by Poppyflower on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 3:10pm

Tibetan Sand Mandala Video

www.youtube.com/watch

"The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms."

-Laozi

“

Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. And this is all very natural and organic and in tune with mysterious cycles of the cosmos, which believes that there’s nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fiber and, in some cases, backbone.

”

-Terry Pratchett

"Essential to the theory of evolution is the premise that everything has come into being by itself."

-Walter Lang

"In the span of my own lifetime I observed such wondrous progress in plant evolution that I look forward optimistically to a healthy, happy world as soon as its children are taught the principles of simple and rational living."

- Luther Burbank

"Evolution is fascinating to watch. To me it is the most interesting when one can observe the evolution of a single man."

-Shana Alexander

"I'm still my parent's child, I'm still me, but I made a choice. I evolved into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think it has to do with evolution."

-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“

The goal of evolution is self - conquest

”

-Elbert Hubbard

"There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation."

-Carl Sagan

"Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not the things that enslave us."

-Guy Debord

"Evolution, of course, is not something that applies to life here on earth; it applies to the whole universe."

-John Polkinghorne

Our presentation chronicled our own perspective and interpretations of what we perceive to be evolution. From the beginning of what we were taught, to the realizations about what evolution "is," we felt that the story is not yet over, and that the process is continual, not just with humans, but with the universe as a whole. We also chose to incorporate a video of Tibetan Sand Mandala to represent the passage of time, and the question of what is death, and how people make decisions surrounding a new step of evolution. So while it might seem as though the monks are destroying the sand art, they are actually returning it to nature, thereby forcing the question of what the "end" really is.

Groups: