To the editor:

You dig up some bones and put them together. You stand back and look up at a skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and you realize, in your brain and in your gut, that life on Earth was once much different than it is now.

The theory of evolution is taught in our public science classes because it is the theory that best explains all of the geological, genetic and biological facts. The theory of evolution is not about Absolute Truth. Like all science, it’s about truth with a very little “t.” A kind of truth that, at its best, is constantly doubted and consistently questioned. Any competing theory of how life developed on Earth has to cogently explain the skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus rex that is standing before us.

As of now, no such theory exists. If such a theory is developed tomorrow, if it survives the rigorous skepticism of the scientific community, and if it advances our understanding of truth a bit beyond what is now known, it will eventually be taught in our public classrooms as “science.”

Why should we teach such an imperfect and approximate tool to our children? Because the modern world that we live in every day is largely a product of science. Science moves mountains, heals the sick, and stands on the moon. Science works.

Bob Smith,

Lawrence