In the August edition of the NZ Baptist there was a letter by a Melissa Scott in which she stated that science backs creation by God, and she also recommended the site Answers in Genesis.

I attend Glen Eden Baptist and am a biology teacher. I am also co-author of Continuing Biology, a textbook for Year 13 biology, and co-presented a paper at the recent Biology Educators conference in July on Molecular Biology and Primate Evolution.

It is easy to make an assertion that science backs creationism, but no evidence was offered. I am familiar with the Answers in Genesis website, but I think there is little of scientific value there. In my opinion “Answers” tends to look at gaps in evolutionary theory, and often presents a distorted view of what evolutionists actually believe.

The trouble with “gap theory” is that gaps are continually being plugged as evolutionary theory moves on, so gap theorists are continually on the back foot. This is not to say that no biologists are creationists; in fact John Sanford, the inventor of the gene gun, moved from atheism to conservative Christianity.

I would like to make three points:

• I do not believe that Genesis is a rigorous scientific account
• All theories have anomalies. Sometimes they are the result of faulty experiments or sometimes the theories need to be expanded and adapted. For example the theory of relativity did not invalidate Newton’s laws, they are just a special case. If indeed objects can travel faster than the speed of light, Einstein’s theory of relativity will need to be modified, rather than being scrapped.
• There is evidence that two ape chromosomes have joined together to form one human chromosome.

Being a teacher I am interested in young people. Christian schools that do Year 13 Biology choose not to teach the Standards of Evolution and Human Evolution. My concern is that Christian young people interested in a scientific career will avoid biology if they think it is “anti-God.” Actually science is neutral, although there are some militant atheists like the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

– David Layzell
Auckland

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