European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 5, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and Stripe letters evolution Issue gains attention of readers i would like to respond to a statement from the first letter of Quot readers ofter thoughts about  the statement was. A science and christianity Are compatible. Evolution and christianity Are  i am a Christian a person who believes the words of Jesus in John 14 6. A i am the Way the truth and the life a a and who gives up his life Nis ways and his will in order to live cod s will i do not see a conflict Between the above and the belief that life has evolved. The incompatibility lies in the Way the author of the statement views the Bible. The Bible is the inspired word of god but what docs that mean i have received inspiration from god and i have followed that inspiration in my own particular Way a another person would do the same thing i fluently based on his her life experiences cultural influences and personality. I believe the same thing occurred when the Bible was written. Men Felt inspired to write Down their understanding about god and his relationship to Mankind As god revealed it to them. However god s inspiration was filtered through their humanness As they wrote. Think of All the scientific knowledge we now have. Many people believe evolution because they understand something of ecology genetics and geology. God explained our origins to people 3,000 years ago in a Way they could understand the real truths in the Bible Center on gods attributes and How he relates to us. The deep truth in genesis is that god is our creator. He is the life source and we should Praise him for our existence. Genesis says god spoke. God May have Many voices but i believe he Speaks through the Laws of nature such As Gravity the forces which hold atoms together and natural selection. It matters Little to me whether the Bible is an accurate historical document or not. But i do know that it is accurate in the Way it reveals god. Focusing on a discussion of the literal Ness of the Bible lakes our eyes and hearts away from the deeper meaning its writers were trying to convey. It reminds me of the pharisees who were so focused on Law and detail they missed the real meaning behind the Laws. It is also Good to remember that it was t until a few Hundred years after Christ that men got together and decided what should be declared Canon. I am sure they did their Best but human beings arc not perfect. Evolution geology physics and astronomy which All Point to the universe being very old All strengthen my testimony of the existence of god whose ways arc very much above ours. These sciences allow me to glimpse the Light of god s complexity and creativity. It is my conviction then that evolution and christianity arc compatible. . Marker Munich West Germany enough i have had enough of this evolution is. Creation tripe that has appeared recently in this paper. Between these various opinions i counted six lies numerous exaggerations and at least three instances where something an author said was taken out of context and twisted to face the opposite direction. 1 would like to think this was done accidentally but i have my doubts about that. If you wish to be a Good sheep evolutionist or creationist and be led around with a ring in your nose baking contentedly while others do your thinking you May Stop Reading Here. I have nothing More to say to you. If you care to use your brain i have some advice. You arc going to have to read the Bible and origin of species by Charles Darwin. If the victorian English of Darwin proves difficult a substitute would be to read the Blind watchmaker by Richard Dawkins a new darwinist. Once you have read these books and several related works which your curiosity will naturally Lead you to you will be in a position to have an informed opinion about which theory meets and accounts for the observable and known facts and therefore has the higher probability of being True. If you have not done this you have no right either intellectually or morally to argue either position. Finally. I would add the following caution. Whichever Side you choose to support do not lie exaggerate or use the words of others out of context. Each time you do this at the least you weaken your Case at the worst you make yourself and your cause a laughingstock. Truth will prevail. A David t. Doerffel Leine Brogel Belgium i offer these facts which would be disputed Only by the most die hard Jit Carlist 1. A literal Reading of the Bible could show the Earth to be about 6.000 years old. This is simply absurd. 2. Most scientists in America Are christians simply because most americans Are. Most scientists support evolution and Sec no Basic conflict Between their scientific and religious beliefs they View teaching creationism As a useless attempt to inculcate a particular form of Christian beliefs on Young people. 3. There arc virtually no islamic hindu or atheist scientists who support ideas such As a 6,000-Ycar-old Earth or a flood causing the deaths of All the dinosaurs. The reason for this is that such ideas arc not scientific. A Rob Hardy Raf Lakenheath England As Many of your readers have indicated by their letters on creationism is. Evolution it is much easier for Many of us to Appeal to the Bible and a the word of god than to look to science for explanations of our origins. How sad. Although the theory of evolution cannot be proved it is still based on More evidence than creationism. The creationists want us to believe the genesis version which was written thousands of years ago and is based on legend. It is difficult for me to imagine Why there arc so Many people among us who believe literally everything in the Bible is True. A capt. Robert j. Delleg Sigel West Germany i must add my bit to the evolution controversy. Simply stated in Darwin s evolution theory he thought the cell to be As Complex As a Ball in a room and yet the chemical composition of the Dan molecule is so Complex that it would take a whole basketball Arena full of interlocking balls to produce the Dan compound. Chalk up another Point a a scientifically to god s theory. A Chris fadness Buckden England. Theories do not occur prior to hypotheses and hypotheses arc formulated to be disprove. Not proven. Secondly the second Law of thermodynamics states that All things tend toward an increased state of entropy. However anyone who has had a Basic biology course could explain that biochemical reactions Are coupled to harness Energy and decrease the amount of entropy. 1 will not Liy to argue the Issue. Instead my objective Here is to ask that All parties particularly the creationists become More enlightened. One should not argue so fiercely against evolution until one is truly informed of its nature. I studied evolution extensively in graduate school and it was never insinuated that Man evolved from a primordial soup Quot or apes. Those who stated no interim forms have been found should at the least read about archaeopteryx. Of the millions of individual living things that exist today Only a few will leave their remains in a permanent repository. The majority of scientists i have associated with in my 10 years As a professional biologist do believe that creationism and evolution arc compatible. This is because we Don t so literally translate either and we do make the attempt to see the other viewpoint. If creationists want to intelligently argue the theory of evolution i would suggest they take at a minimum the following courses genetics this is the basis of evolution evolution historical geology and perhaps systematics. They should also read Darwin s Quot on the origin or species Quot As Well As Georgc Gaylord Simpson s a the major features of evolution and the books a a Lucy and Quot Lucy s child Quot which detail works by the author Donald Johnson and also the Leakey. Take this Ini Breaton and reread genesis and exodus. Once this has been accomplished if one still argues against evolution As it is truly defined then it will be from an informed perspective and thereby Cam the respect of evolutionary scientists. A Marjorie e. Blaine Ramstein a West Germany. The prehistory of the human race is by no Means an open and shut Case. However there is Little doubt that Modem Mankind developed from Stone age ancestors. Contrasting what some want us to think there have been quite a number of 20th Century archaeological finds or remains which lend support to the 19th Century theories of Charles Darwin. For a list of names dates and places Sec an anthropology textbook or simply any legitimate encyclopedia of knowledge. Even though no a creationist Quot will admit it the real quarrel with evolution is that it puts the human into proper perspective As an animal and not As an intermediary Between god and the animal kingdom. After All the mentality that every Plant animal or inanimate object was placed on this planet solely to be abused As ail humans Sec fit is primarily rooted in traditional a a creationist doctrine. A airman 1st class David w. May Raf Mildenhall England several articulate and Well thought out letters showed a fundamental Lack of understanding about what science scientific method or a theory Are. A theory is an estimate based upon observations. I f an observation comes along that contradicts the theory the theory must be changed or modified. Quot scientific Quot creationism As taught is not a theory for Many reasons. There is one scientific creation theory described by Douglas Adams that docs meet the criteria for a theory. I think of it As the a big jokes theory. That is All of that tantalizing evidence for evolution Continental Drift ice Ages Etc., was created 6,000 years ago by our creator As part of a big joke. More seriously. I would like to explain Why i was disturbed after Reading the letters. Acceptance of Quot scientific creationism is mutually exclusive with the understanding Modem biology geology astronomy Etc. In other words a Good part of 2,000 years of human Advance that has brought us cars television computers and the space shuttle is denied. And this is by articulate and intelligent people. I would Hope the letters were not representative of the whole. A Steven r. Curtis Ramstein West Germany. The scientific method is the Issue Here not evolution or any other theory. The scientific method exists to serve the most Correct theory at any Given time. No one is telling you that you can t teach your children what you want at Home however any reasonable person would agree that if a fair Quality generic education is the goal of our country s school systems then evolution is in. Let me explain. Sometime soon we americans will have to decide the future of our nation. What i mean is arc we going to be a religious or a scientific nation if we Are going to be a scientific nation then we must teach our children the scientific method which for now favors evolution. If on the other hand we choose to ignore the dreams of our forefathers most notably those of Thomas pc Firson by becoming a religious nation then we will teach our chif Dren the Bible in Public schools. Science and religion Are two different animals. In science theories arc never set in Concrete. If proof of god Jehovah became obvious then the theory of evolution would be tossed aside like the a old shoes that it had become and the new theory of creationism would happily be accepted. Until that happens i will bet my paycheck on evolution. Museums full of Bones tip the Odds in my favor. Scientifically speaking i used to have More proof in the existence of Santa Claus than in god. As a child i used to leave out cookies and milk. In the morning they were gone and there were presents under the tree. Once i grew up however my parents levelled with me. My theory of Santa Claus had become outdated. This is How the scientific method works. The purpose of the Public schools is to provide our children a Good knowledge base through which they can Advance the human cause. Before they can do this they need to learn a method by which the truth will prevail and fallacy will fade. This is the scientific method. Why this alarms the fundamentalists so is easy to understand. Don t contribute to the recent fashion of making toilet paper out of our Constitution. Please teach your children lessons of spirituality in the Home where they belong. A it. Michael Friedrichs Hahn a West Germany. A scientific Quot creation is not a theory for Many reasons it is also not scientific but this is another argument. This theory As taught cannot explain evidence for ice Ages the Fossil record amphibian fossils in Antarctica stalactites and stalagmites an ice Core from Greenland Etc. For those who have never studied it there was a crisis in Chrisitian thought Many hundreds of years ago when Galileo and Copernicus were Able to present some pretty Good evidence that the Earth rotated around the Sun and that the Earth was thus not the Center of the universe. This idea was incompatible with christianity because after All if god had created the universe and we were his Only sons we must be the Center of it. There arc some very Good observations to support theories of evolution Continental Drift big bang. Etc. They Are not necessarily incompatible with Christian thought. A Steven r. Curtis Ramstein a West Germany. Fossils arc an incomplete record of evolution because fossilization requires special conditions. Earth a dynamic activities destroy Many Fossil sedimentary rocks. Therefore there wont necessarily be a missing links fossils though some have been found. Evolution cannot be compared to thermodynamics or watches. Thermodynamics Only work for Quot closed Quot systems and Earth is an a open Quot system a plants absorb energies from our Sun using gasses water and soil nutrients to grow a Energy is lost from the Sun but gained by the plants. Life forms Are not a mechanical devices they adapt or perish. Their primary goal is survival in order to reproduce. Where do they get an age of 10,000 years for Earth the Atlantic Ocean has been Rifting away from Europe at 2.5 pm year or for about 15 million years the most recent ice age ended about 10,000 years ago with glacial remains such As the Greenland and Antarctic icecaps. There Are Fossil Limestone former Coral reefs dating continued on Page 11