If theories of mankind's origin were music, then creationism would be an orchestra performing classical music: finely crafted by a single master composer, written and arranged in perfect harmony. Each note, each chord and rest and crescendo and decrescendo would be designed to go exactly where it would work best with every other note around it, combining and flowing from movement to movement, from a single attention-getting opening to a precise and well-attended fine.

Darwinian evolution, on the other hand, would be an improvisational jazz band: several instruments all come together to fill a space with sound and harmony and rhythm in whatever way suits them best. Each musician is listening to every other one, looking for a niche to fill with their own instrument, then stepping aside when another solo arrives. No one knows what the others are playing, and no one can predict exactly what's going to be heard next. But everyone knows how to fill their own space, make their own harmony, follow the beat of the drums and the bass and make music that works, spontaneously. It's uncontrolled, but as long as everyone follows the unspoken guidelines, every instrument and note comes together to make something wonderful.

But most interesting of all is the fact that both classical orchestras and nightclub jazz make splendid, beautiful music. The classical ear will sometimes complain that jazz is not "true" music, that it's too chaotic and random to be appreciated, while the jazz aficionado will maintain that classical is too slow, too dull, too uninteresting to stand. And both of those would be wrong, because they refuse to accept that the other philosophy can work, that it can produce excellent music under the right conditions. They can even work together, given the right amount of understanding.

You don't have to accept or even enjoy the other music to acknowledge that it can work.

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