David V. Matthews – 4/16/06

This page was last updated on April 16, 2006.

It’s evolutionary; David V. Matthews; Beaver County Times; April 16, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I salute The Times for printing the front-page article ‘Another link’ on Thursday.

[RWC] It apparently doesn’t take much to get a “salute” from Mr. Matthews.

“The new find in Africa of a 4.2 million-year-old fossil does more than fill in the human evolutionary chain. The find helps promote science and reality-based thinking in general.

“I expect The Times will receive letters from the religious crowd condemning it for promoting evolution and not mentioning intelligent design (i.e., creationism), for which no scientific proof exists.”

[RWC] There are two problems with this paragraph.

The first problem is with the “religious crowd” comment. I attended St. Titus grade school for eight years and CCD classes at St. Frances Cabrini during high school. I learned about both creation and evolution and none of my teachers, whether lay teachers, nuns, or priests, ever implied creation and evolution were mutually exclusive. It’s just my opinion, but I believe that’s a pretty “religious crowd.”

The second problem is Mr. Matthews claims no proof of the creation theory is reason enough not to mention it. It is also true, however, that there is no proof of the evolution theory. If evolution could be proved, we would not refer to it as a theory. There is evidence to support evolution, but evidence is not a synonym for proof.

Finally, unlike many writers apparently do, I don’t have a “WABAC (Wayback) Machine.” As a result, I can’t tell you definitively that creation and evolution are mutually exclusive or if our existence is the result of both. Again unlike many writers, I know what I don’t know.

“The Times should not let such criticism deter further coverage of genuine science.”