‘The Fires of Creationism’

Your editorial (July 10), “The Fires of Creationism,” does little to promote an understanding of evolution or the scientific perspective.

Evolution is not “correct” and creationist theories are not necessarily wrong. Evolution is simply the best conceptualization that critical reason and experiment can devise at present to account for the diversity of living organisms that inhabit our planet. Evolution is a theory and theories cannot be proven true (truths are demonstrated in logic and mathematics, but not the sciences).

Nevertheless, as evolution is the most powerful theory that we have at present to explain species diversity, it is the theory that should be taught in the science classroom. Science is concerned with establishing what we can know through observation and critical reason; not with what can be known by faith.

Ultimately, creationism may be true and evolution false. But science is defined by the procedures by which man attempts to gain knowledge, and these procedures do not admit creationism, as it is currently expounded, as a scientific theory. Perhaps if there were less talk of evolution as being the “Truth,” biblical literalists would be less interested in inserting creationist doctrines into the science classroom. Perhaps not.

However, creationists should also be aware that there is no single creationist theory but many. The Judeo-Christian tradition has no monopoly on the concept of creation. If creationists succeed in admitting the account in Genesis into the science classroom, they should be prepared to witness the entrance of Hindu, Buddhist, Navajo and other accounts as well. I am not sure that they will be serving their children as they intend.

They might be better off teaching their children that human reason, although God-given, is not the whole of the legacy that the Creator has bequeathed to his children. Science is science, but it is not the only way to understand the world.

ELLIOTT ORING

GLendale