Once, the wicked government [of Rome] decreed that the Jewish people were forbidden to study Torah. Pappus ben Judah saw Rabbi Akiva convening gatherings in public and studying Torah [with them]. Said he to him: “Akiva, are you not afraid of the government?”
Said [Rabbi Akiva] to him: “I’ll give you a parable.
“A fox was walking along a river and saw fish rushing to and fro. Said he to them: ‘What are you fleeing?’
“Said they to him: ‘The nets that the humans spread for us.’
“Said he to them: ‘Why don’t you come out onto the dry land? We’ll live together, as my ancestors lived with your ancestors.’
“Said they to him: ‘Are you the one of whom it is said that you are the wisest of animals? You’re not wise, but foolish! If, in our environment of life we have cause for fear, how much more so in the environment of our death!’
“The same applies to us. If now, when we sit and study the Torah, of which it is said (Deuteronomy 30:20), ‘For it is your life and the lengthening of your days,’ such is our situation, how much more so if we neglect it . . .”
Common Ancestral Envronment From the Mouth of R. Aqivah Phil from Thailand seems to have missed a subtle point in the fox's logic (wisdom known to our ancient Sages), which the fish does not deny: that the ancestors of foxes once lived together in the same environment with the ancestors of fish. Today, common ancestry of land creatures with fish (the mode by which Hashem created life) is a demonstrable truth revealed to us through modern science, and falsely decried by small minds as being contrary to Torah. And what discredit to evolution is he referring to? Discredit from pseudoscience?! Denial of solid science does not make you greater believer, and discredit by the ignorant is no discredit at all.