Editor,
In a letter published last Friday in the Daily Lobo, Carolyn Johnson spoke out against the teaching of evolution as a fact and gave some reasons to support the theory of creationism instead. However, while I neither agree nor disagree with Johnson, I can't help but point out that the reasons given by many supporters of creationism are just as insubstantial as their reasons for condemning evolution.
For instance, Johnson claimed that the process of carbon-14 dating used to determine the ages of fossils is inaccurate and flawed. She then went on to cite the book of Genesis in the Bible as support for creationism. While I'm not an expert and cannot refute such claims about carbon-14 dating, isn't Genesis, a book written thousands of years ago by an anonymous author who was obviously not present at the event in question, just as unreliable if not more so than the science of carbon-14 dating?
One also cannot ignore the fact that evolutionary evidence has been found in fossils, regardless of age, showing the slow and steady progression of species adapting to their environments. The evolution of horses, in fact, has been so well-documented that many of the fossils discovered to be part of equine evolutionary stages are on display in the American Museum of Natural History. One only needs to visit the museum's Web site to learn that "since the early years of this century, their exhibition has represented a classic demonstration of evolution."
Perhaps many textbooks teach evolution as a fact not because they disagree with creationism, but because there simply is not enough evidence to support creationism when compared to the evidence for evolution.
While I neither support nor condemn the theories of creationism or evolution, I do believe that facts like these need to be addressed when searching for the true answer to the question of where we all come from.
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Elena Creamer
UNM student
