Atheist Armaments

In the local paper, my editorial was responded to by Kenneth Ridden, a local retired minister. I sent a letter to the editor in response to his editorial. Here’s that letter.

The article author severely misunderstands the scientific process. No one has “proven” evolution in the same way that no one has “proven” gravity or electromagnetic theory or quantum physics. Nothing in science is ever “proven” because science isn’t in the business of proving things. It’s in the business of DIS-proving. Much like a sculptor carves into a piece of stone, science improves itself by discarding bad theories and keeping those that withstand the culling blade of scientific scrutiny.

Evolution has withstood over 150 years of scrutiny. Scientists all over have attempted to disprove this scientific theory since Darwin postulated it back in the late 1800s. Is evolution unproven? Yes. But there is an overwhelming amount of evidence, both experimental and observational, that supports it. If the Creationists are wrong, then all of society suffers from having a crippled view of scientific process. If evolutionists are wrong AND God believes that evolution is indeed on contrast to His will, then the evolutionists alone will have suffered.

But there is plenty of room to have both a belief in the well-supported theory of evolution AND believe in the remainder of the Bible beyond the creation myth. Besides, there are plenty of portions of the Bible that are no longer followed literally. Why should this be any different?

The author further attempts to polarize, to divide, our society on this issue by appealing to your emotions and loosely associating evolution with the moral problems society faces today. Don’t buy into it. This is a common tactic of propaganda when people are trying to control you. Stick with the facts. Stick with observable reality. No one is telling you to give up your faith, but don’t give up your ability to think rationally either.