Adam's Height Poem by gershon hepner

Things that sound most horrible are sometimes true
and those that are familiar may be false.
In the dance of time the music that is new
may be an invitation to a waltz,
but by new harmonies we must not be confused,
or let new rhythms beat inside our mind:
cheek by cheek with truth let’s dance and be enthused,
and to what is fallacious be unkind.
Our minds should shrink from legends claiming Adam’s height
proves Darwin’s evolution has occurred;
what is false can never lead to something right,
but only make what’s false seem more absurd.


Inspired by Michael Slackman’s article about education in Egypt (“Harnessing Darwin to Push an Ancient Intellectual Center to Evolve, ” NYT, November 26,2009) . Discussing a meeting attended by some 150 scientists and scholars in attendance at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina this month, Slackman writes about how the ideas of Darwin are being received in the Muslim world:
While defending Darwin, it was this broader theme, the idea of at least listening to new ideas, that the library’s director, Ismail Sergaldin, emphasized in his opening remarks. He pointed to the Koran, which he said emphasized study and scholarship, as well as early Muslim scientists, to make his point. He cited the words of the pioneering 13th-century physician Ibn al-Nafis: “When hearing something unusual, do not pre-emptively reject it, for that would be folly. Indeed, horrible things may be true, and familiar and praised things may prove to be lies. Truth is truth unto itself, not because people say it is.” It was a message that seemed to resonate with the many Egyptian college students in the lecture hall. “I am not against the idea of evolution completely, ” said Amr Zeydah,23, a zoology major at Alexandria University. “I accept the idea partially.” Despite his major, Mr. Zeydah has never studied Darwin, and before the conference knew little about the theory of evolution. He accepted the Islamic account of creation, that God formed Adam from dirt and infused him with a soul. But after taking in the discussion, he said he had worked out a way to reconcile the two: that God created life, which then evolved to suit its environment. “God created Adam at 15 meters tall, ” he said, quoting what he said was a Hadith, or saying, of the Prophet Muhammad. “So evolution comes in because we are obviously not that height now.”

11/26/09