More Scientific Drivel

Our local newspaper, the North Kitsap Herald, published a letter to the editor with the typical misconceptions of a person who obtains her science information from a traveling pastor, Dr. Tony Hoyle. Her letter follows:

India has its Sacred Cow. The United States has its Sacred Ape. Few people remember the Scopes Trial didn’t prohibit teaching about life origins from creation, merely allowed local communities to include evolution, if desired. Now our tax dollars are used to censor research of scientists who believe it required intelligence to create this complex universe and its population.

Few people have read the Humanist Manifestos, which declare evolution to be the basis for the Humanists’ man-centered religion. Revisionist educators have failed to teach students that evolutionary beliefs were essential to both Communism and Nazism.

Are evolutionists united in how evolution happened? No! In 1980, the New York Times covered a four-day conference where leading evolutionists battled about how evolution took place.

They admitted there were very few, perhaps no examples, of one species gradually becoming another, or that “there seemed little agreement on how anybody could establish with some certainty that it happened one way and not another.”

One proposed alternative to Darwin’s theory was Jay Gould’s punctuated equilibrium, very reminiscent of another theory, which was laughed to scorn a few years ago.

Numerous evolutionists are now admitting there have been no transitional fossils found which establish their theories.

The late scientist, Dr. Henry Morris, penned the irony of evolutionist thought, “Thus, primeval unknown life forms which no longer exist were derived from unknown chemicals by unknown processes which no longer operate, in an atmosphere of exotic and unknown composition in contact with the primitive oceanic soup of unknown structure!” Pupils are taught this remarkable construct without one single scientific observation that it ever happened.

For open-minded or close-minded individuals, opportunity to learn what has been censored from the public debate was presented at the Poulsbo Nazarene Church July 16. Dr. Tom Hoyle presented Adam vs. the Apeman.

Using both humor and scientific accuracy, Dr. Hoyle has addressed public, private and home-schools, as well as radio and television, across the nation and abroad.

Isn’t it time to recognize we are not “Our Monkey’s Uncle,” and do away with the United State’s Sacred Ape? Darwin’s worn-out theory of “survival of the fittest” has created a jungle of our streets and homes.

The are so many things wrong and muddled in her thinking that it is hard to know where to begin. I fired off a reply. It says:

Ms. Shardelman’s letter to the editor perpetuates several misconceptions regarding evolutionary biology and demonstrates astonishing ignorance of science in general. What’s so unfortunate is that there are a number of excellent popular books on the subject, many by the man she quotes in her letter, Stephen Jay Gould, which could educate her on the subject. Dr. Hoyle, whose doctorate is in Christian Apologetics, not biology, is hardly a source of credible information.

Within the scientific community evolution is considered fact; the evidence is overwhelming. Sixty-seven countries national academy of sciences (including the US National Academy of Science) signed the Interacademy Panel’s Statement on the Teaching of Evolution in support of this. There is still rigorous debate regarding the mechanisms that drive evolution (i.e. the theory part of it). This is normal for any scientific enterprise. The result of this is a healthy level of research and investigation that continues to lend scientific support to modern evolutionary theory. Transitional fossils abound complementing our growing knowledge of genetics, development, comparative anatomy, and molecular biology.

Our students deserve to be taught the fact and theory of evolution, not substituting it for pseudoscientific and unsupported intelligent design arguments. Rest assured, the international community is sticking with the science.

I'm curious if they will publish it.