Creation and evolution

Press, 13 January 1987, Page 20

Creation and evolution

Sir,—Why are evolutionists so concerned with the doctrine of creation? Its doctrines can only lead to positive beliefs. It provides a basis for meaning and reason in the universe. It gives man (created in God’s image) significance. It provides hope that, as Bertrand Russell, describes it, the world , will not end by the “Sun growing cold, and life on Earth ceasing.” Creationism provides a cause for the observable effect. On the contrary, our evolutionist friends describe a universe ruled by chance. We are the product of random accidents and we can have no significance, meaning, or moral value based on the evolutionist presuppositions. It is time the veil was lifted off this holy doctrine of evolution so we can see it for what it really is. — Yours, etc., SIMON KERR. January 8, 1986. Sir,—Dr Viney (January 9) airs the creationist chestnut about evolutionary theory being unscientific because we have no time machine to explore the past. This is no obstacle to accepting evolution as a valid theory. Indeed, there is no other which comes remotely near explaining the nature of life’s complexity. A belief in creationism inevitably inhibits the quest for knowledge by invoking an uncritical faith in a creator. One might as well teach that the Sun and planets revolve around a flat Earth as teach that some supernatural being created the world with all its biological diversity a few thousand years ago. This totally ignores the enormous

amount of evidence supporting evolution — the great age of the Earth revealed by geologists, including phenomena like continental drift, the fossil record, especially complete marine sequences, homologous and also relic organs, the often-bizarre forms of mimicry, Are we to toss all this overboard, from some mystical Noah’s Ark? — Yours, etc., W. R. SYKES. January 11, 1987. Sir,—John Canham’s letters (January 7 and 10) are so full of misunderstandings that he must surely have disqualified himself, from offering an opinion on. biological matters. Science does not advance by appeal to authority, yet he commits this error twice. It is astonishing that the results of a Gallup Poll should be produced as evidence against evolution. Such polls taken at past times would have proved that the Earth is flat, and that malaria is caused by the fog rising from swamps. Also irrelevant to the validity of the theory of evolution are’ the views of an expert on material science, professor though he may be.— Yours, etc., (Professor) B. H. HOWARD. January 10, 1987. Sir,—John Canham (January 7), in attempting to press science into the fight against “evolutionist views,” uses the article of December 30 in a shoddy manner. He states that “the Gallup poll results quoted showed that the majority of people surveyed opposed extreme evolutionism” (but then quickly adds) “and this reflects the views of increasing numbers of scientists,” (unspecified numbers of course). “Quoted” out of context, he , leaves out the bits where “Public opinion sees the controversy with less clarity” (than the National Academy of Sciences, which views creationists as “beyond the scientific pale”). The results of Gallup polls have no relevance to honest scientific inquiry. Is the Earth flat if a majority believes so? If, however, one is inclined ’ to be influenced by bodies of scientific opinion, one should view Mr Canham’s unspecified “numbers” of scientific allies in their proper perspective. The article, “Why creationism is bogus” (January 5), is relevant here. — Yours, etc., DAVID SHANKS. January 8, 1987. Sir,—Take one human being, male. Skills: plays piano, sports, is a computer technician, knows how to tie his shoelace (quite complicated when you consider the movements involved) and loves his wife and children. The thought that this creature is the result of an accidental explosion in the cold and unintelligence of space is blindness in the extreme. The more I discover about the complexities of the human body and the intricacies of nature, the more I am convinced that the evolution “theory” is bogus and deliberate creation by God the only answer to our existence. There are hundreds of holes in the evolution theory.—Yours, etc., ALISTAIR SYMES. January 11, 1987.