For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 20, 2013

Let’s go with grandma’s story…it’s fuzzier and warmer.

I like the retreating levels of chlorophyll and varying amounts of sugars in the leaves explanation better. I like to know how god arranges his pallet.

Grandma’s great.

Well they both work together somehow

I like Lizzy’s explanation better.

Very cute. God paints the leaves one by one, and God makes the snowflakes one by one so no two are the same. A lot of people think God could be busy doing more important things, but that limits God, and really God can do anything and everything, He is not limited to one thing at a time like most of us.

And she’s right…

We try to explain, using science, what the Master Planner did when He built the universe and everything we see.

And we fail. Why? Because we cannot scientifically explain beauty.

Science does a fair job, but Grandma is right.

Teach children the truth, not some myth.

the child’s answer is much simpler

Grandma’s explanation is wrong on so many levels!

God is The Master Artist!

Elly’s answer is exactly right for a 4-year-old – it gives the basic scientific overview without getting too technical at this juncture. It’s just enough to whet Lizzie’s interest and promote further discussion at home as they look at the leaves they’ve collected against a nature book. Now more than ever, it’s critical to teach kids about science early and show them how much fun and exciting it is – this is especially true for girls! So well done, Elly!

Both are true.

there both right and two rights don’t make a wrong

As the great Taoist philosopher Pooh said, “It’s the same thing.”

But Elly’s explanation was correct, so there shouldn’t be any “My mommy says.”

So now how does Elly explain that Grandma’s answer is part of a fictional story? Elly obviously gave the much better answer, teaching how things work in nature instead of falling back on fiction if she didn’t know the real answer. Kids should not be told stories if parents or grandparents don’t know the actual answer, because then they will believe that to actually be true. Sorry Grandma, but do your best at explaining what actually happens, or refer to Lizzy to someone who does know.

Time to put Grandma in a home, she is delusional and teaching the kid nonsense. Or at least have a talk with her about learning to say “I don’t know, let’s find out” when asked.

Knowing how something really works no more destroys the sense of wonder and beauty than knowing how to play the violin keeps you from loving music.

The more you know, the more there is be in awe about.

And telling a kid “god” is busy painting leaves leaves you in the difficult position of explaining why he is not doing something about child rape or people dying in horrible ways.

“I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is … I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.”

― Richard P. Feynman

Ellie too much information. As an adult I find you boring. I can imagine how lizzie sees you.

God has a neat way of painting.

names of the chemicals that replace chlorophyll and turn the leaves different colors.I’m not a biologist, but I copied and pasted the above phrase into Google, and the first result gave a rousing explanation

All this discussion reminded me of the stanza of a poem I was asked to memorize and recite for a ninth-grade assembly:

See second stanza, http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/each_in_his_own_tongue.html

The whole poem reflects the evolution/creation issue. I have no quarrel with both viewpoints, presented at appropriate ages, with a “some believe this, others believe that” framework.

That’s right, dear. And now you know HOW God paints them.

otterbyte and Gokie5: Thanks for the quotes – a Nobel laureate in physics and one of my dad’s favorite poems. He was a Methodist pastor with three Upper Cretaceous species to his credit, and so was fluent in both languages.

The God of the Holy Bible is the God of Science. In fact He create science and use it to create beauty. So yes God technically paints every leaf. Nothing is impossible for God. Appreciate and Praise Him with what you see out there.

“and why the leaves change colour” … wrong! The scientific explanation does not tell us WHY they change colour … it tells us HOW they change colour. And that makes all the difference in the world. Elly told the HOW, Grandma told the WHY. God paints His nature in different colours in different seasons, and He has His way to do it …

I can give a perfect explanation of HOW the water gets boiling in the kettle … but WHY it boils? I am preparing a tea for my wife …

All you God types up there…you realise that those God explanations are only compelling or meaningful or anything other than twaddle if you happen to believe in God already.

There are plenty of objective “whys” and “hows” which involve far more wonder, to me. Those are the ones which don’t come out of the human imagination.

Why wouldn’t Lizzie say, “But my Grandma says….” Most of the kids in my classes who had religious families always brought up the religious explanation.

Grandma’s answer is basically “I don’t know but I don’t want to admit it to this small child that looks up to me so I’ll just say it’s god. Phew!”. Thank goodness now we have such available information at our fingertips now & we can educate ourselves properly.

@Jim Guess!!! Amen, well said!

And here I thought “God” was too busy creating images of himself on random pieces of toast or starving children in Africa to hand-paint every leaf on every tree.