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Evolution isn’t anti-religious

To the editor:

During his time on Earth, men have invented thousands of spiritual belief systems to try to explain our existence and gain some advantage over the laws of nature. These attempts to bond with a benevolent supernatural force may have provided emotional comfort in a world rife with unforeseen danger. Yet, all benefits aside, were these not awkward attempts to explain mysteries with even larger mysteries?

The continuing debate between religion and science regarding life and its origin is remarkable in that the bible says nothing about biological development and diversification, and the theory of evolution says nothing about how life first came into existence.

Before assuming that supernatural forces are responsible for the complexity and diversity of life, it must first be demonstrated that natural processes can not do the job.

In his book, “Why Darwin Matters,” Michael Shermer, Ph.D., writes, “As a historical science, evolution is confirmed by the fact that so many independent lines of evidence converge to its single conclusion. Independent sets of data from geology, paleontology, botany, zoology, herpetology, entomology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology, genetics and population genetics, and many other sciences each point to the conclusion that life evolved. For creationists to disprove evolution, they need to unravel all these independent lines of evidence, as well as construct a rival theory that can explain them better than the theory of evolution.”

Teaching evolution is not anti-religious. It is anti-ignorance. Until the evidence is presented for supernatural creation, it will be regarded as a religious opinion.

Good scientists are skeptical while remaining open to all possibilities. That is why it is not so difficult to find a scientist who expresses faith in god. But look around and see if you can find a non-religious creationism scientist. They don’t exist.

For those who are still grumbling for the teaching of creationism in our public schools, I would ask why you can’t accomplish that job within your church. With our nation currently ranked seventeenth in world education, do you really want to introduce a highly contentious and divisive subject into the mix?

My advice: Let the preachers preach. Let the teachers teach. If you can not accept a religion-free school system then get busy constructing that rival theory that deconstructs all we have learned about evolution and makes clear the superiority of your own claim.

Michael Wiitala

Calumet

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