He was right to send out feelers

because Luther didn't like it. Calvin quoted from Psalm XCIII: "The

world also is stabilized that it cannot be moved," and asked: "Who

will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy

Spirit?"

Copernicus waited until his

death to have his complete works published as "Narratio prima de

libris revolutionum," which turned out to not be real popular with

the Inquisition either. The rest as they say is history ... or is it?

You published a Cal Thomas

article on your opinion page, so I can only assume that he expresses yours.

Cal uses the debaters' formula for his attack on the teaching of evolutionary

theory, by making some gross assumptions and painting the opposite side

into a corner it then has to defend.

Cal first assumes that all

people who teach or believe in evolution are atheists. He also assumes

that evolution and creation are incompatible. Later, by quoting a couple

of scientists, he declares that evolution is under attack and rapidly

being discounted in the scientific community.

So let me start with my own

attack. There exists no such discipline or academia known as "Creation

Science" nor can such a thing exist. My reasoning here is quite simple.

Belief in a higher being is

what we call "Faith." Martin Luther chose this as the centerpiece

of Christianity, and even the ancient Church of Rome has acquiesced and

agreed that a Christian is saved by her faith. This faith entails belief

in a God that is both omniscient and omnipotent.

So I pose the question: How

can we, in our puny human way, reason out, observe and test this all-seeing,

all-powerful God? The obvious answer is we cannot.

Science is based on observation,

hypothesis and testing, none of which we could hope to do with an entity

that has the power we attribute, by faith, to this God.

Now Cal's "evidence"

is just a little funny. He proposes that teachers present this balanced

creationist science in the class, but doesn't say just what that might

be. He quotes a 23-year-old Science Digest article which alleges that

this creationist scientific field is growing rapidly (you'd think it would

be pretty well established by now). He quotes Johannes (his real name)

Kepler, who ironically smoothed out the mathematics in Copernican theory

thereby cementing it in scientific thought.

Yes, Kepler believed in God,

but I can assure Cal he never heard of Darwin or his theory, having died

250 years too early. Cal even quotes the pious Werner Von Braun, also

the father of Peenemunde where untold thousands of forced slaves died

of overwork, deprivation and starvation. I wonder if Von Braun thought

about God's take on murder.

Lastly he pictures people who

espouse the science of evolution as some sort of religious anti-Christ

cult seeking to impose their beliefs on the poor put-upon Christians.

Again this mingling of the scientific and religious brings strong, misleading

and damaging assumptions to the fore, so let's not do it.

If you have faith, you don't

need a mathematician or engineer to verify it. If you believe in logical,

progressive science, those processes and beliefs cannot state any conclusions

about an all-powerful God.

Timothy J. Parker

Peachtree City