Undergraduate / Stanford - not believing in evolution [NEW]

I also wanted some advice on the supplement essays for stanford

for the first question:
Stanford students are known to possess intellectual vitality. State one idea or experience that you had that you find intellectually engaging.

I wrote two, any comments would be helpful

Like most testosterone filled teenage guys, I have always been fascinated by speed. I remember being in awe when I first starting understand light and how fast it travels. And this amazement has never died down, even in my senior year of high school when I was first introduced to Einstein's theory of relativity. I was thrilled to learn that nothing can go faster than light. I immediately tried and am still trying to poke holes in the theory that has been the basis of modern physics. What about something that doesn't seem to have a speed such as gravity? After all it's only a force as opposed to a wave. If the sun suddenly ceased to exist, light would continue to reach the Earth for around 10 minutes but would it still keep revolving around a now-nonexistent sun for those 10 minutes or would it just float through space? And what about a when you shine a spotlight into one section of the sky and then swing it to the other. Didn't the light move across the sky faster than light itself? And what if Person A is on Earth and holds one end of a stick and Person B is on a planet more than a million miles away. If person A shakes one end of the stick, Person B should feel the movement instantaneously which means the stick moved faster than the speed of light. I was dismayed when I realized my attempts at taking down Einstein were futile since light and sticks are both made up of particles which individually are obeying relativity. I then started thinking about what the implications would be if light speed could be surpassed. Moments after the Big Bang if everything had traveled faster than light, we would never be able to witness any of these galaxies, solar systems or stars. They would be traveling faster than light and thus the light waves would never reach us. And what if light could be slowed down to below the velocity of a car? There would be a lot more accidents for sure since it's pretty hard to avoid a car that you can't see.

My jaw almost hit the floor as I heard a guy in my class casually tell our teacher that he didn't believe in evolution. My hand went up so fast; I might have torn a tendon in my shoulder. I then proceeded in a half hour rant about why evolution is obviously what has created out species and anyone that thinks otherwise would be foolish. But I was amazed by how stubborn and unconvinced people in my class were. They couldn't accept fact and instead tried to promote their religion's theory as much as they could while trying to shoot down evolution. They complained about little evidence there is in support for evolution while their own theories had absolutely none. It made me wonder about how religion plays such a huge part in so many people's lives that they can't even accept scientific fact. When we talk about gravity, everyone readily accepts it as truth but when we talk about evolution which has no less proof than gravity, people start arguing since their respective religions say otherwise. In our day and age, with all our technology and scientific knowledge it's extremely surprising that people still put their unconditional faith in their religion's theories even though they are being proven wrong with more proof accumulating by the day. You would think that with the advancement in society, people would be educated enough to give up medieval beliefs and accept proven facts. But instead, people still shut their eyes to anything but what their religion tells them. If tomorrow, their leader says that evolution is a fact, then all of a sudden everyone will accept it and people will retract everything they have ever said about it. This is extremely ironic since what they said earlier was supposed to be their beliefs. The scariest part of this is that this trend doesn't look like ending at all. No matter how much technology advances and how much knowledge we gain, these people are going to stay firm in their beliefs which raises the question: how will society ever advance with people like these?

thanks

Undergraduate / "I have never had a musical bone in my body" - common app essay [6]

I have never had a musical bone in my body. I listened to music just like the next angst-filled teenager but I never had any inclination to learn to play music. This is primarily because I didn't think it possible. How could I, a tone-deaf teenager, learn to kill a solo like Jimi Hendrix or play at a mile-a-minute like Lynard Skynard? To tell the truth, I was intimidated and scared of failure. A lot of my friends are in bands and I often used to visit their homes and watch them 'jam' with their bands. I was in awe of the delicate intros and solos and the rough and heavy riffs. I remember my jaw hanging for minutes at a time as I watched them fill the room with the sounds of angels. I also remember listening to my favorite songs and imagining myself on stage with thousands of adoring fans at my feet. I aspired to be like my friends but I always let my aspiration remain just that.

But I needed CAS hours for the IB diploma and I had been planning on learning something new for a while. When one of my friends suggested I pick up the guitar, I initially scoffed at the idea. Yeah right, like I could play the guitar. But after hours of persuasion, I reluctantly gave in. I was going to learn to play the instrument that had brought me so much joy in the past. I was going to tread into unknown waters. A couple weeks later and I was on the verge of giving up. I knew about the dexterity and the practice it takes to learn the instrument but I had no idea about the actual physical pain involved. Every half hour, my finger would start throbbing and I could see the huge grooves that the sharp, metallic strings had made on them. And the physical pain couldn't even compare to the mental frustration that I was going through. The book said to play this chord with these finger, but why does it sound like the bawling of a child? Why can't I play a simple tune? Never mind my family, even I could stand my own music. I could take a derivative, solve the most complex of conservation of energy problems but I couldn't keep a simple rhythm. My friends told me to stick in there and that the pain would go away and I would be able to play like them soon. Firstly, I didn't believe them. And even if I did, why would go through all that trouble and spend so much time on this six-stringed monster? Einstein didn't play guitar. I was about quit, just like I had done so many other times in my life.

But I decided to stick with it for just a little while more. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. So many others could, what separates me from them? If I gave up now, I would never start again. Besides, I had already spent so much time on it and learned practically nothing, if I quit now, it would all have been a waste of time. But more convincing than anything was the image in the back of my head of me 'melting' people's faces off with a solo that transcends normal human ability. This image had faded but, like an old faithful dog, it persisted. The old saying that it gets harder before it gets easier has never rung more true. My fingers still hurt every chord I played and I didn't seem to be getting much better. But then, a transformation slowly but steadily occurred. My fingers started developing calluses which made me immune to the pain. Being able to play freely without having to feel the throbbing was exhilarating. I began playing more and more and my chords started sounding more like music than plates crashing. It was the perfect release after a tough day of school and it helped me gather my thoughts and have a few moments of calm and sanity in this ever-changing world. When I picked up my guitar, I was in a world of my own. Everything else, grades, conflicts etc. seemed irrelevant. I had done the hard work and now I was reaping the rewards. While I might not be playing in front of millions of fans, which I can now accept is probably not going to happen, I can say that I persevered and gained a lot from it.