Creationism and Evolution

In the 1930s, the Soviet Union rejected the scientific rules of heredity because they did not conform to communist dogma, and substituted an ideologically “correct” belief in the views of T.D. Lysenko. The result was a disaster for Soviet genetics, including crop breeding, since the Mendelian rules of heredity continued to operate in complete disregard for the dogma!

We should learn from history: It is unwise to ignore the truth about nature because it does not match ideological or religious dogmas. But this is just what Shaver advocates.

That life on earth has at least a 3 1/2-billion year history of hereditary descent with modification--i.e., that evolution has occurred--is a fact of nature with critical implications for all the life sciences. For example, an understanding of evolution and its mechanisms immediately explains the rapid development of resistance to chemical pesticides and antibiotics on the part of crop pests and bacteria, respectively.

The evolutionary history of life is a “fact” in the same sense that it is a “fact” that the earth is round, not flat. The “fact” of evolution is based on overwhelming evidence from geology, paleontology, genetics, molecular biology, physics, morphology and other sciences. The evidence is internally consistent, in spite of attempts by scientists to find inconsistencies (science is a process by which our understanding of nature is constantly re-evaluated in light of new evidence).

Shaver misrepresents the scientific process and the depth and richness of our knowledge about the evolutionary past and about the mechanisms that cause evolution. We would seriously mislead our children by withholding this important knowledge from them, and by teaching them that science and religious dogma are interchangeable.

NICHOLAS M. WASER

MARY V. PRICE

Associate Professor of Biology

UC Riverside