Letter: Evolution is science fiction

Editor:
In regards to Joel Hammond’s letter to the editor concerning evolution as science fiction, I would like to offer the other side to the argument. It is true that science is based on induction, deduction, rationalization, experimentation and investigation through empirical evidence. It is because of this methodology that there is a theory of evolution. Science is about using our intellect and senses to further our knowledge. No other theory of creation so far imagined satisfies the requirements of sound science. As humankind increases in knowledge, so will our understanding of our origins increase accordingly.
Fact: No evolutionist is embarrassed by the fossil record. The fact that there is a fossil record at all is miraculous. The chances of an organism befalling the conditions in order to fossilize are remarkable indeed. Compounded to this the probability of discovering what fossils we now have is extraordinary. No. No evolutionist is embarrassed.
Fact: There are actually a multitude of transitional fossils. Better yet, all fossils are transitional, for evolution never truly stops. Current species have changed, and as long as the environment changes, so will the organisms therein. Our wisdom teeth are throwbacks to a time when we had larger jaws and less dental care. We needed new teeth in adulthood and had the room for them to grow in straight. Now they are for most of us a hindrance. Most modern day whales have beneath their skin, small, underdeveloped pelvises and hind limbs. These vestigial appendages pretty much validate them as transitional, that is, from land based animals, back to the water.
Fact: Peking Man and Piltdown Man were indeed fakes. But not Australopithecus afarensis, Kenyanthropus platyops, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo georgicus or Homo antecessor. I could go on, but what a boring read it would make!
Fact: Random chance is not an impossibility. Are there not lottery winners and lightning strike victims? The eye evolved from organisms exhibiting rudimentary light-detecting cells (eye spots) to more advanced specimens. This process is not far-fetched and a simple surf of the web will garner papers summing it up nicely. Just remember, the human eye is far from a perfect design and is quite distant from the top in the animal kingdom. Due to the placement of blood vessels across the retina instead of beneath it, a proliferation of vessels or a leakage can easily hamper human vision.
Fact: The theory of evolution violates no law of thermodynamics. Once again, a web search for such information is easy to come by. The problem arises out of a misunderstanding of the laws. The second law, concerning entropy is based on an over-all, or a complete or closed system. Order may flourish so long as an equal or greater disorder arises elsewhere within the same closed system. For example, a flower grows and its cell structure and DNA exhibit profound order, but for this to ultimately come about, the sun, within the same closed system, had to burn volumes of hydrogen, helium, etc., thus greater overall disorder.
Evolution is not a theory to be afraid of. We grow as a society, as a people when we embrace challenging concepts in order to further our knowledge. Evolution is not only physical though. I believe it is also mental. Our society may be in a transitional phase now, moving from the areas of hazy belief to a further stage in which knowledge may prove and accentuate new ways to believe. And as far as evolution being termed science fiction, I think that is a fitting metaphor. So were cell phones, space travel and robotics science fiction before we grew in knowledge.

I agree with anonymous. I and my religious beliefs have no problem with the theory of evolution. No level of knowledge that we gain through science will exclude the possibility of a creator. I take comfort in that. As I learn, I allow for updates within my personal theology: I do not want to be an old man with the same beliefs I held as a child (I may have to go back to eating apple sauce and baby food though!). I see humanity as truly "in the likeness" of God and I hope we are developing into likenesses even more so