Rebuttal -- Rick Rainey

I’d like to take exception with Joseph Bell’s column (“Censorship

deprives all students of full education,” Feb. 1) in which in one grand

sweep he “backhands” Wendy Leece and “clears up” the creationism issue.

Personally, I agree with Wendy Leece in the examination of the

viability of questionably controversial new books to the school reading

list.

There are many people in the local populace who would rather err on

the side of conservativism when it comes to keeping unnecessary sex,

violence or abuse out of the educational environment for our young

people.

It is not a matter of censorship. The kids should not have to get a

permission slip to study controversial material, rather they should not

allow the study of overly-salacious material in our schools.

As for Bell’s sage advice about the “exploding” of creationism, is it

not true that evolution is a theory and not actually proven?

I’d call it pseudoscience when the theory of evolution is taught in

schools as fact. Only 100 years ago, the prevalent world view was that

the universe and its life forms were the result of intelligent design

from a supernatural creator.

Darwin, in 1859, planted the seed for a paradigm shift in the world

view of creationism with his book, “The Origin of Species.”

Darwin stated that if his theory was true, there should be a large

number of “in between types” found as fossils. He also said that the

absence of such intermediates was the “most obvious and serious

objection” to his theory.

It is well known that any true transitional species has never been

found in the fossil record.

The famous fossil expert Stephen J. Gould and the American Museum

people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional

fossils.

In his book, Darwin sought to explain the origin of all life forms

without the benefit of intelligent guidance or a supernatural act of

creationism.

What about the Divine Watchmaker argument?

Bishop William Paley, in 1818, said of the watch “that its gears,

springs and other mechanisms could never arise by the actions of random

chance alone.”

Modern microbiology has revealed that the most simple organisms, even

cells, are incredibly complex machines beyond our imagination, with

“hundreds of factories” within each cell.

Evolution’s concepts of upward organization and system assemblies

violate natural law, such as the entropy laws and the Second Law of

Thermodynamics, which says that order always proceeds downward (not

upward) to disorder or decay.

Those who are artists or designers know the actual amount of thought,

planning and execution that go into the making of something simple, such

as a painting.

Why does it take such a stretch of faith to consider that we are all

here as part of a plan executed by an entity larger than ourselves, as we

consider the incredible myriad of systems and life forms, that seem to

work together, from our galaxies in space to the smallest cell on earth?

Personally, I’d like to see more open-mindedness on the part of the

evolutionists.

* RICK RAINEY is a Costa Mesa resident.