To Our Readers
AT a time when cloning human beings and harvesting stem cells from human embryos for research fill the headlines, it's staggering how many thoughtful people in Hawaii have chosen instead to revisit the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. Letter writers can’t
resist evolution vs.
creationism debateI can't remember an issue that generated more letters to the editor than this debate during my 14 years at the Star-Bulletin.
Should we change Hawaii public school curriculum standards to include teaching both evolution and creationism in science classes, or not?
The gist of the controversy appears to be that many people are confused about what is science and what is religion.
My dictionary says science is the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
The theory at issue is evolution, a gradual process in which something changes into a different, more complex or better form.
Religion, on the other hand, is belief in a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe, and creationism is, for many, belief in the literal interpretation of the Biblical account of the creation of the universe and of all living things.
In other words, evolution is a scientific theory appropriate to science class. Creationism is a specific religious belief.
Confusing science with religion is like mistaking economics for French literature, apples for oranges.
Pope John Paul II said, "Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." True enough, but that doesn't make them the same thing.
Charles Darwin himself had doubts about his theory of natural selection. "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree," he wrote.
But, right or wrong, evolutionary theory is science.
The rest? Well, it's politics.
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 529-4748, fax to 529-4750, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.