Creationism and Evolution

In response to “Fossilization of Darwin’s Pet” by Jessica Reynolds Shaver and “Science Is Science, and Faith Is Faith,” by Michael Hudson, Op-Ed Page, Oct. 24:

As a Christian author, I am happy to accept Hudson’s proposition that “science is science and faith is faith.” I have no desire to see even “creation science” taught to the next generation by faithless science teachers who, if forced by legislation, would present creation in a less than credible light.

As a Christian lawyer, however, I join with Shaver in calling for fair treatment of the available evidence. Why do we insist on truth in advertising when used cars and toothpaste are the issue, but refuse to insist on truth in education when life’s origins are the issue?

Let Christian parents teach their children about how God made us in his image. But let secular scientists have the intellectual honesty to teach the difference between evolution within a species (which obviously can be proved) and macroevolution from one species to another (which is a worn-out theory teetering on the brink of collapse after more than a century of futile search for transitional forms in the fossil record).

What irony that Hudson’s People for the American Way, a constitutional liberties organization, would insist that only one view of life’s origins be permitted in institutions dedicated to the search for knowledge. Freedom of thought, but only for those who agree with conventional wisdom?

F. LaGARD SMITH

Malibu