To the editor:

In a recent letter, Curtis Bennett said, “The purpose of education is to teach one to think, to consider facts and evidence to form conclusions.” This is exactly what is not happening regarding the teaching of evolution. Students are force-fed evolutionist dogma and told not to question the “facts.”

The “facts” (evidence) are the same for evolutionists and for those who believe in intelligent design/creation. The difference lies in the assumptions made before interpreting the data. Evolutionists dismiss the idea of any higher power. When starting with this assumption, is it any wonder that they will never be able to discover intelligent design, even if the evidence plainly points in that direction?

Taken as a whole, Bennett’s comments reveal a clear anti-Christian bias with no real understanding of what that faith is all about or what its followers have accomplished in science and in society. Mike Cuenca’s letter is much the same. Had he actually read anything put out by the ID movement, he would know that their arguments are scientific, not religious, in nature. Instead, he attacks the ID movement based on certain ideas and events of long ago.

Cuenca says science relies on reason and evidence. However, noted evolutionists have admitted they believe in evolution in spite of the evidence, not because of it. This is reason?

Cuenca talks of “the evil perpetrated by those who would force their beliefs on others.” I suspect he would have no compunction about forcing his own belief in evolution on our school children.

Steve Larson,

Topeka