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Letter: Creationism is symbolic story

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 10:02 a.m.

As a Catholic, I am surprised by the resurgence of controversy about evolution. I honestly thought this argument had been settled. So now, the Republican so-called "religious" right gets to dictate what is taught in public schools, even though they have not done enough research to understand scientific theory.

The word theory does not mean that evolution is just a guess. In science, it means a set of ideas based on observations about nature that explains many facts. It does not mean we believe we are apes, as one letter writer suggested.

Evolution explains a branching process that took millions of years, and one process of evolution is called speciation. An easier way to explain this is to say that 4 to 10 million years ago we had a common ancestor, or progenitor.

And to this religious Catholic, I believe the "story" of creation is symbolic, not literal. If it were not a story to explain where we came from, there would be a shrine over the graves of Adam and Eve.

PATRICIA KEASLING

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