Letter to the Editor

One of my favorite rituals when I visit the family homestead is to peruse the unintentionally quaint and humorous local paper. The funniest part is frequently the Opinion page, which is filled with "letters to the editor". These are almost always some disjointed rant about religion in government/school (both for and against), liberals (always against), gun control (similarly always against), unruly livestock, and how all these things are causing the inexorable decay of western civilization and democracy.

One letter I read championed the cause of teaching creationism alongside evolution in school. And while the letter itself was sufficiently "out-there" to give me a chuckle, the fact that the letter was written at all gave me significant pause. I wondered, "Why are we having this debate at all? It's been 500 years since Galileo and 80 years since the Scopes trial. Why are some of the religious still threatened by science? Haven't we learned what science really is?"

I guess not.

Simply put, creationism is not science. The explanation of why I firmly believe this is more than I want to write this evening, but the words are currently forming themselves in my head. For now, let it suffice to say that I DO believe in creationism and intelligent design, but I still feel it has no place in a science class. Furthermore, as a religious person, I see no dichotomy in accepting scientific theory while simultaneously believing in a Higher Power.