Letter: Putting faith in the scientific method

Saturday, Dec. 31, 2005 | 7:39 a.m.

Regarding Frank Musaraca's Dec. 28 letter, "With faith, proof isn't necessary:"

If the description of the "overwhelming majority of humans" offered by Mr. Musaraca in his apology for faith is correct, then we have evolved into a race of beings who, only with great difficulty, are capable of grasping the simplest facts, entertaining basic concepts and exercising the most rudimentary powers of reason.

Mr. Musaraca differentiates between science and "just a theory." He misses the key point that science is theories based on repeatable observations that lead to provable facts. And, as far as why there are still monkeys, do we really need to point out once more that monkeys and humans exist because they share a common ancestor? One did not evolve from the other.

He then asks the question: "Are we just an aberration of superior monkey genes?" As is obvious from the above, the answer is no. However, from various experiments done over the years, some monkeys have been shown to have the ability of simple conceptualizing and reasoning. As we develop our ability to communicate with them, it will be interesting to note what kinds of things they have faith in.

One of the aspects of evolution that is not often dwelt on is that it does not always lead to improvement. Very often over the eons it has lead to dead-ends and extinction. The real question, which Mr. Musaraca's example presents us with, is: Will distant future generations of intelligent beings -- perhaps evolved monkeys -- look back with awe and sadness and wonder just whatever became of all those humans?

Bob Hannah

Henderson