God, Assumptions & Opportunity Part 1
My Dad’s wisest words were spoken to me at a young age:
“Don’t assume. It makes an ASS out U and ME.”
Some day I’ll write a post on all of the invaluable wisdom he has imparted to me over the years, but this one sparkling gem has been incredibly valuable to my Franklin Method® instruction.
What does God have to do with it?
In the FM, we discuss evolution a great deal. We look at how our bodies are similar (or different) in design or relate to not only our immediate predecessor, the chimpanzee, but also to other species like dogs, cats and even fish. Sometimes we really go out on a limb and relate our body’s structure to inanimate objects like bridges and obelisks. Having a discussion about how our structures have evolved over time is imperative to understanding why we are the way we are. Understanding the why is imperative to understanding how we function.
A chimpanzee’s sacrum is flat. A human’s is bent or curved. Why is it bent? Because it helps to get the base of our spine underneath our head. That’s how we stand upright! An important element of our design, no?
Evolution is a word that instantly puts people on high alert because your acceptance or rejection of it is widely assumed (uh oh) to be directly related to your belief in God or your adherence to a particular religion’s dogma. God can be a tricky subject for many and our defenses can get easily riled when he’s brought up.
Don’t assume a position.
I taught a couple private FM classes to an intuitive, curious and delightful Pilates instructor over the summer and just before we began she took a moment to inform me that while she loved Eric’s books, she had one concern: Evolution. She informed me that she was a Christian and she wasn’t sure about the evolutionary aspect of the method. I then told her my position on the evolutionary aspect which I will expand upon here.
Whether you believe you are, today, a direct descendant of a single celled organism created out of nothing billions of years ago or the descendant of a famous couple who were created in a garden several thousand years ago doesn’t matter. We are what we are and the similarities or dissimilarities between our bodies and those of other species exist without prejudice towards our personal beliefs. You can believe we evolved slowly over time based on what worked best or you can believe God took the best of every being he designed and put it into his most prize creation~ humans. Either way, we have an opportunity to gain invaluable insight into our function by looking back at what came before us. This, in turn, gives us new skills to move forward with a new appreciation for how and why we are designed as we are. And having that appreciation, could lead to deeper respect for our bodies which, I believe, can lead to an even deeper relationship with God.
I’ve more to say on this subject, so I’ve divided into 2 parts. Stay tuned for the second coming (Ha! Pun completely unintended.) later this week! In the mean time, what do you think? I’d love to read your thoughts on this.
You might also educate yourself, and your Christian students, that evolution does not contradict creation (small ‘e’, small ‘c’). Darwin’s evolutionary theory does, but Christians since the early 300′s have believed and discussed how we came to be what we are. True, there are fundamentalists who dispute this, saying that the universe was created in 6 days, but most of us know that Genesis was written using literary devices. Hope I catch your part 2.
David
October 7, 2010
David~
Agreed. My hope is that even fundamentalists recognize the value of examining how we came to be as it relates to improving our embodiment and preventing chronic pain or injuries. Thanks for stopping by!
Gini
Gini Martinez
October 7, 2010
I too have bumped into this phenomena in my own Franklin Method classes. I then took the position of “ok then, let’s look at this from the perspective of your own evolution. When you were an embryo you looked very different than you do now. How does your structure support or not support your function?” Embryology recapitulates phylogeny, anyway, right?
Donna (PilatesNinja)
October 8, 2010
Yes ma’am!
Gini Martinez
October 8, 2010
Brilliant, I love Donna’s perspective. We could even take it one step further and examine from that point on, how our surrounding and habbits further alters our bodies’s shape and function.
Hope you don’t mind me chiming in
Rachel Rose
October 9, 2010
I think that is another great way to enroll someone in the process.
Thanks, Rachel, and of course I welcome all thoughtful input!
Gini Martinez
October 10, 2010
[...] is a continuation of my last post which talked about the necessity of understanding the evolution of our bodies to gain greater [...]
How to Learn Through Ignorance « Pilate Your Body's Blog
October 11, 2010
Love this idea: “Having a discussion about how our structures have evolved over time is imperative to understanding why we are the way we are. Understanding the why is imperative to understanding how we function.”
Been thinking a lot about this idea lately, as well as how loaded certain words can be. As David mentioned, Creation vs. creation, Evolution vs. evolution.
Great post!
Danielle
October 12, 2010