Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utastro.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!zehntel!vlsvax1!qantel!dual!mordor!ut-sally!utastro!bill From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: A new voice. Message-ID: <299@utastro.UUCP> Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 18:07:42 EDT Article-I.D.: utastro.299 Posted: Sun Jun 30 18:07:42 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Jul-85 05:14:09 EDT References: <2156@ut-sally.UUCP> <347@scgvaxd.UUCP> <368@spar.UUCP> <349@scgvaxd.UUCP> Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX Lines: 65 > My difficulty with Evolution is that it is nothing more than a > theory yet many treat it as fact. A common Creationst misconception. It confuses THEORIES of evolution (Darwinism, neo-Darwinism, Punctuationalism, ...) with the FACT of evolution (attested to by the overwhelming evidence in the fossil and geological record). In the words of Francis Hitching, whose book *The Neck of the Giraffe* is much loved by Creationists because they do not understand its plain words, "Evolution and Darwinism are often taken to mean the same thing. But they don't. Evolution of life over a very long period of time is a fact, if we are to believe evidence gathered during the last two centuries from geology, paleontology (the study of fossils), molecular biology and many other scientific disciplines. Despite the many believers in Divine creation who dispute this (including about half the population of the United States, according to some polls), the probability that evolution has occurred approaches certainty in scientific terms. "We can be as sure about this as we are sure that ancient civilizations once existed on Earth but no longer function. The archaeological record tells us about these relatively recent times, and the fossil record about earlier ones. If you walk along the trails leading down to the depths of a great fissure such as the Grand Canyon, you can see some of the stages of evolution illustrated by the fossils in front of your eyes. The Earth is old, belongs to an even older universe, and life forms have been upon it for about three quarters of its existence. "On the other hand Darwinism (or neo-Darwinism, its modern version) is a theory that seeks to explain evolution. It has not, contrary to general belief, and despite very great efforts, been proved." > I asked for a reason to believe in Evolution. You did not give me one! > Perhaps if you had, I COULD see it! There is plenty of evidence, if you would only ALLOW yourself to see it. Go to the Grand Canyon. Read Scientific American every month. Read Nature every week. Read a good book about evolutionary biology, or paleontology. Take a course on the subject. It's all there. But, "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Creationists seem to have two standards of truth. The evidence that evolution happened is overwhelming, and almost everyone who has studied it deeply agrees. Yet Creationists reject the plainly obvious conclusion that evolution happened. On the other hand, they will grasp at any straw, even patently wrong or ludicrous ones, to maintain their preconceived, narrow, literal interpretation of a religious work that was written thousands of years ago by people who, wise as they may have been in their understanding of human nature and the relationship of Mankind to the Divine, were nevertheless scientifically illiterate. Well that is their privilege. But please don't try to call it scientific. Nor open-minded. -- "Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal Bill Jefferys 8-% Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail) {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bill (uucp) bill%utastro.UTEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA (ARPANET)