To the editor:

Concerning the anti-evolution letter of Oct. 25 from Stephen Fretwell, I would expect “a well-known theoretical ecologist” to know that a hypothesis proposing a supernatural explanation is not science.

Nevertheless, it is possible to test his idea without having to elect another anti-science school board. Assuming Mr. Fretwell is correct in believing a just God sent a drought because the Kansas Board of Education supported the teaching of science, then the punishment should not fall equally on the innocent and the guilty.

All Mr. Fretwell needs to do is to plot the rainfall amounts on each person’s property relative to how that person voted in the last school board election. The hypothesis would be that those who voted for the anti-science candidates received adequate rainfall and only the wicked were castigated for their pro-science votes.

I eagerly await the publication of Mr. Fretwell’s research in a peer-reviewed journal.

John E. Simmons,

Lawrence