thinkforpleasure.com

Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How can we get there? These questions have tormented humanity for at least 7000 years. Do I have the answers? Yes I do.

When I was eleven, in 1950, blissfully unaware that any of those questions existed, I started on a small quest. My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Kaukenon, told us, rather wistfully, that evolution existed, but that we knew precious little or nothing more than that.

I loved Mrs. Kaukenon, and I resolved to learn all I could about evolution. Unfortunately, (or probably fortunately,) that was the last of my academic education for all practical purposes, and I was forced to study evolution on my own, through newspapers, magazines, and television. It took me, as I lived my varied and eventful life, thirty years.

At that I was really lucky. Those were the years of the Leakey discoveries, and the public was ravenous for information on evolution. In 1980, when I finally reached a full understanding of evolution, I figured everyone else, including Mrs. Kaukenon, had also reached a full understanding of evolution, so I felt no necessity to reiterate my findings. When someone would say “evolution,” I would nod Knowingly and say “evolution,” and we would continue our conversation. I laughed along with them when they mentioned young earth creationists, assuming they knew as I did that evolution explained exactly what happened 7000 years ago, and they were just being ridiculous.

Around ten years before I completed my study of evolution, I began also to study my psyche. This study I also completed around 1980, and found I had developed an understanding of the mind and all of its ramifications. Here I felt that I was in the forefront, but knew of no way I could put my knowledge to work.

Because I enjoyed thinking and reading I continued to refine my understanding of the mind and its ramifications as I witnessed the birth and growth of my two youngest children. My wife, Susan Remmers, an exemplary natural mother, enabled me to understand naturally raised children, which allowed me to fully understand the mind.

I did all of this without recording any of it. I left it all in a jumble in my mind until around 1993, when I realized that I was living a different life from everyone else, and I needed to write down what I was living. The result was my essay on the structure of human beings. I showed it to some friends, all thoughtful but none degreed, and to two doctors. No one responded, and I felt at a loss, but I continued to think.

One day my doctor, with whom I wished to be friends, gave me a young earth creationist tract. I gladly took it home to read, and when I reached the forth page, the tract posited what I thought to be the most ridiculous concept of evolution ever presented. I immediately re-read the tract to see why they would present something so far from evolution as to be laughable, and when I couldn’t, I went to my encyclopedia. It agreed with the tract. Science had decided that evolution was the result of random change and natural selection.

I was flabbergasted. I realized that young earth creationists were not ridiculous, but had simply, along with everyone else, misunderstood what had really happened. I began to, as I continued to live my varied life, put my thoughts in order. This book is the result of that.