Letter: Evolution theory proven in natural occurrences

Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

In a recent letter Ken Lucas discounted evolution because it is referred to as a "theory."

Critics of evolution use this argument and seem to refuse to accept that the definition of theory is consistent with the use of evolution in science.

Gravity is also a theory because some of the effects are not fully understood and still being studied, but we will not soon be flying off the Earth.

In fact, evolution is continuously proven. Examples are the ability of germs to adapt an immunity to penicillin, spotted moths to turn black in England when the industrial revolution turned their background black, and fruit flys to adapt to different environments over several short-lived generations in many lab experiments

Although genes and DNA were unknown in Charles Darwin's time, each of these discoveries has reinforced his theories.

Lucas states that Darwin found it hard to believe that the human eye could have come about by mere chance. In "On the Origins of Species," however, Darwin wrote, "The difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory."

He compared the fact that it is difficult to conceive of the eye being perfected through small steps over millions of years to the difficulty originally experienced when it was postulated that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

There are many examples in which religion and science have clashed and science has ultimately been proven right in all cases that I can think of. It is very difficult or impossible to know and understand biology without understanding evolution.

ROGER CHRISTENSEN