Natural Selection Strikes Creationists

Natural selection strikes again! In nullifying its previous ruling, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has found John Peloza’s suit (to avoid mandatory teaching of evolution) unfit for survival.

Anyone who uses religious dogma to explain the workings of the natural world has no business teaching science. Students must learn that scientific truth is not based on faith, but on observation, hypothesis, challenge and re-evaluation. Old explanations are discarded when they are insufficient or unnecessarily complex.

As The Times has previously noted, evolution is a fact. It is supported by massive empirical evidence for which no other explanation seems possible. The theory in Darwin’s theory of evolution is the process by which evolution occurs, natural selection. Should a better mechanism be discovered to explain evolutionary events, Darwin’s theory, but not evolution, will be abandoned. Unlike faith and dogma, science is self-critical and self-correcting.

As for John Peloza teaching biology, how many of us want our children to receive a good medieval education?

ROBERT A. MOSS, Fountain Valley

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The solution to the teaching creationism debate is very simple: equal treatment.

First let the teacher teach the students everything they need to know about creationism. (This should take about 20 seconds.)

Then have the teacher teach the students everything they need to know about Darwin, DNA, evolution, genetics, mutation, natural selection, the survival of the fittest and so on. (This should take about 20 weeks.)

RICHARD SHOWSTACK, Newport Beach