Retorts

Evolution Revisited

Renton Maclachlan [Retorts, July] exclaims at my "failure" to address his questions. Your correspondent has promoted in the creationist literature the notion that "if it can be proved that evolution could not have started occurring, then it could not have occurred. So, if it is impossible to get a first cell up and running naturalistically, as all the evidence to date indicates, then biological evolution is dead on the starting blocks." (Creation Ex Nihilo, 15, No. 3).

I suggest it is his adherence to this argument which explains his preoccupation with problems relating to the study of life's origin. But, difficulties in this and other areas cannot influence the status of evolution itself, which is based on highly convincing, concordant evidence from several scientific fields.

His argument is also flawed philosophically. Even if the non-scientific assumption is made that the first cells required divine input, this does not preclude the possibility of a subsequent naturalistic process of evolution.

Warwick Don, Department of Zoology, University of Otago