Evolution and the Bible

* Re “It’s Evolutionary, and It’s in the Bible,” Commentary, Sept. 5: I have reread Albert Wachtel’s biblical quotes over and over and find no hint of any kind of evolution in his quotes, despite his taking some liberty with the words. The quote, “Let the Earth bring forth living creatures according to their species,” created a conflict for biologists including Carolus Linnaeus, Chevalier de Lamarck, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. All of these men originally were very religious and this variation of species presented no end of problems in classification for them but ultimately led to theories of evolution for at least the last three.

The Bible is a book of traditional religious legends. Its cosmogony is strictly flat-Earth geocentric. Its evolution of life is so naive that it hardly reflects any of the objectively verifiable facts that we find today.

ROBERT J. GARDNER

Sierra Madre

* I agree with Wachtel that the Bible makes room for both creationism and evolution. As a Christian, I believe in both. God expects us to use our faith in areas where we can find no explanations, not to dispute the findings of science.

DAVID CAVANAUGH

Long Beach