To the editor:

Almost 20 years ago, a student in my beginning biology course at Kansas University approached me a couple weeks before we were to cover evolution. He told me he did not believe in evolution and asked if he could do a special topic for credit as an alternative. What I told him in declining his request is as valid today as it was nearly a generation ago.

I pointed out that evolution is one of the central concepts in biology and that, for this reason, anyone seeking a rounded understanding of the subject must study evolutionary principles. I added that whether or not he chose to believe in evolution, I would expect him to learn, as a student in biology, why biologists accept the theory; that is, to understand the several mechanisms by which evolutionary changes can occur and what evidence supports each of them.

In other words, I feel that whether or not one believes in evolution, it is important to understand why — on what evidence — biologists as a whole accept it. And just as the principles of evolution would be out of place being taught in church or in a school religions class, religious beliefs have no place being taught in a science class.

Charles Wyttenbach,

Lawrence