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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
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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)
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