IN response to Graham Lawn’s letter, humanity has a range of belief systems, and I respect and appreciate this.
However, when it comes to decisions that affect other sentient beings, and on behalf of the community, we need to be as objective as possible.
Evolution is not an unproven theory, but is grounded in vast amounts of scientific evidence.
Mr Lawn states that “no simple organisms such as bacteria are evolving today”.
Single celled organisms have successfully occupied niches for eons, with little requirement for evolution, however, when necessary are quick to respond, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Mr Lawn also states that science has no proof “that non-living matter somehow produced simple living organisms”.
While not proven absolutely, we have a very good understanding of how it was likely to have occurred.
Primeval conditions provided the right combinations of minerals, water, heat, and chemical reactions that created the first organisms.
This has been recreated in labs.
Humans today are essentially very complex arrangements of minerals and chemicals.
We produce and conduct electrical pulses and experience emotions, self-awareness, consciousness, and sense the human spirit.
Creationists argue that something must have started it all, and that God is omnipotent, has existed from the infinite past until the infinite future; beyond our ability to perceive.
I just as rightly argue that the universe itself is omnipotent, infinite, and is simply so vast, complex, ordered and chaotic as to be largely unintelligible to mere humans.
Either way, I have no reason to believe that a god gave humans responsibility for the plants and animals on earth.
Nevertheless, we do currently find ourselves in a position whereby we are indeed responsible for the wellbeing of many of the plants and animals, with a key role to play in the symbiosis of life.
Tom McAuliffe,
Kalgaritch
