The teacher was partly right. The atmosphere of the early Earth was a reducing one, consisting of ammonia, nitrogen and carbon dioxide; no free oxygen at all. Protists were autotrophic, getting energy from these compounds and others, like iron sulfate. Some of these still exist today, living in hot springs and deep ocean volcanic vents. Because of the low energy available, organisms were not able to evolve above the single cell stage. I’m not sure it’s correct to call them “animals,” tho. At some point protists developed chlorophyll and began pumping O2 into the evnironment (these were phytoplankton, not terrestrial plants). With this new and better source of energy (oxidation), other forms were able to grow more robustly and evolution of animals took off. So the first really successful organisms were plants, but plants didn’t evolve into animals, other protists did.

Did he finish with "and then the 3 magic beans were planted in the ground and the next day there was a giant towering beanstalk through the clouds" ?? because I may know what textbook they were using hahahahaha

WTF!!??

Didn't go to Catholic School, but in my 7th grade public school life science class, my teacher (also a football coach) decided to throw an aside into the evolution discussion. He wanted to point out how small the habitable zone is for a planet to have life like ours does. That if it was just a little closer or further from the sun that life wouldn't be able to exist on Earth.
It was obviously a veiled attempt to say that somebody must have put the Earth right where it needed to be in order for us to have a place to live.
I really don't understand why people feel like the universe was created FOR us and not that in all the massive space that is the universe, the right conditions happened and we are the outcome.
But then, I'm also a nihilist so I don't find any great reason for our existence anyway.

You know, I don't really remember the nuns addressing evolution in Catholic HS science. Creationism wasn't really something people promoted back then, and I know evolution was mentioned. Anyway, your poor addled teacher shows some basic science confusion, even if he was trying to do the right thing. You can't learn surgery from a butcher, or rocket science from a pyrotechnician, even though they might have some slight familiarity with the subjects.

That explains it...

So much contradiction.
SMFH

Ahahahaha.

facepalms

I need a WOW emoji.