O Come All Ye Faithful
The HMS Beagle’s
Captain, Robert Fitzroy,
Invited Charles Darwin on board his ship.
Learned companion, specimen collector;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board.

The Beagle left England
Late in cold December,
But made South America by February’s end.
There Darwin found the bones of megatheria;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board.

That five year voyage,
The second of the Beagle,
Led Darwin to see the flaws in Paley’s approach.
Evolution! That was the solution;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board

Away in a Manger
Natural selection,
No maker required;
The little life forms
Passed on traits they’d acquired.

Darwin showed us how animals,
Fungi and plants,
Arose from nature’s laws --
Not from God, nor from chance.

Medieval theologians
(And later ones too)
Assumed some interpretation
Of the Bible was true.

But though Hume and Spinoza
And others did scoff,
The truth was undiscovered
By any philosophe.

The great innovations
Of Buffon and Lamarck,
While worthy of note,
Still were shots in the dark.

But then came Charles Darwin
Who clearly explained
That we don’t need final causes –
As we’ve since ascertained.

The Twelve Days of Christmas
In the Archaean Eon there first came to be... prokaryotic cells.
In the Proterozoic Eon there first came to be... eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Ediacaran Period there first came to be... marine arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Cambrian Period there first came to be... brachiopods, marine arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Ordovician Period there first came to be... land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells."
In the Devonian Period there first came to be… spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Carboniferous Period there first came to be… reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Triassic Period there first came to be… bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Jurassic Period there first came to be… conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Eocene Epoch there first came to be… horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Miocene Epoch there first came to be… hawks and higher primates, horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.
In the Pleistocene Epoch there first came to be… bisons and humans, hawks and higher primates, horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

~All carols written by Justin Kalef