To the editor:

A while back (in the 17th century) a fellow named Galileo Galilei publicized a crazy theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Up to then, even the learned and educated people actually believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth.

Why did all these people believe something so crazy and wrong? Because they were ignorant and because their religious leaders told them to.

At the time, the Roman Catholic Church decreed that the “geocentric” view of our universe was the “truth.” They based this decree primarily on a literal, fundamentalist interpretation of their Bible. Sound familiar?

Other early scholars had already been burned at the stake (murdered by the church) for expressing belief in a truthful, natural view of the heavens. Luckily, Galileo came out of it with just house arrest. Now, we know without a doubt that he was right.

How could the church and all those people have been so wrong? Their attitudes were/are based on unreasoned, emotional beliefs (faith) and not on reason and evidence (science), that’s how.

Let’s keep the religious belief in creationism, packaged as “intelligent design,” in perspective. It’s a belief system, not science. It derives from the myths and legends of ancient peoples and is not supported by or supportable by any scientific methods.

Creationism does not belong in science classes. It belongs in churches.

And let’s forget neither the long-proven folly of allowing religions to dictate natural reality, nor the evil perpetrated by those who would force their beliefs on others.

Mike Cuenca,

Lawrence