The claim that evolution is fact is interesting (and somewhat deceptive) because it is both true and false.

The biological adaptation in bacteria and fruit flies mentioned in the May 14 editorial is certainly a demonstrable fact. So are other types of adaptation and speciation in birds, fish and mammals. However, that kind of adaptation is a potential already built into the DNA of all life forms. It is known as “micro-evolution.”

An entirely different matter is the extension of those facts to the theory of “macro-evolution” (major changes from one phyla to a completely different one, or the chance beginning of simple cells from lifeless chemicals). That theory was unproveable in Darwin’s day, and is even less likely to have occured according to the advanced knowledge of leading scientists today.

The universe would have to be eternally long (an assumption of Darwin and all naturalistic philosophers) for such vast evolutionary change to be even conceivable. But astronomers and astrophysicists have conclusively shown that the universe is finite in time, having its origin approximately 14 billion years ago.

Although that may seem a very long time to us, it is impossibly brief in macro-evolutionary terms. Not only that, the fossil record shows that all major phyla arose nearly simultaneously during the same geologic era (Cambrian).

The big question is: Why is the naturalistic bias of many scientists and educators allowed to continue to blur the lines between micro-evolutionary fact and an increasingly indefensible macro-evolutionary theory?

Bill Carsley, South Paris