Evolution simply is more plausible

The diversity of plant and animal life on our planet has grown immensely over its 4.5-billion-year existence - interrupted several times by massive die-offs of as much as 90 percent of all species, only to resume proliferation. Darwinian evolution explains this by mutations, controlled by survival only of those changes that improve the ability for each species to compete, whether it is man or bacterium. Some think that living things are much too complex for this explanation, and believe actions by an intelligent being - God - have directed evolution. This is simply a matter of faith, as it cannot be proved that the wonders inside the tiniest cell, for example, or of our wonderful eye, could not have evolved over the hundreds of millions of generations without the hand of God.

Those who want to believe that God acted billions of times to direct evolution should consider the evolution of disease organisms. Because of their short life spans, the evidence for evolution in viruses and bacteria is far more obvious than in higher life forms. We all know that the flu virus mutates to different strains almost yearly. HIV was not a disease for humans even 50 years ago.

Almost every decade, a new disease arises to threaten our existence. Two years ago, it was SARS. Diseases such as tuberculosis, that we thought we had under control, have mutated and have become new threats. Malaria, a terrible killer of innocents worldwide, did not exist before mosquitoes came to be. Do the supporters of intelligent design recognize that they are implying that their God knowingly stepped in to create these terrible plagues?

Intelligent design simply is a new name for creationism, and it has no place in science studies. Keep God out of the details and learn more about Darwinian evolution.

Victor Reilly

Aiken, S.C.