Warning Labels

Bill Payne (bpayne@voyageronline.net)
Tue, 11 Nov 1997 19:52:42 -0600

Sun, 09 Nov 1997 10:34:22 -0500 (EST) Moorad Alexanian wrote:

> That is the problem I see with evolutionary explanations. We will never know
> the answer but in the meantime we may be misleading people away from God. If
> ever an answer is found to the question of origins, which I don't think it
> will ever happen, most of us will be dead and many in their sins. What good
> is then the theory? If a surgeon general warning should be on any textbook,
> it should be on those that advocate that evolutionary theory explains the
> origin of man. Such ideas are more deadly than smoking, drinking, etc. Why
> then not a warning?

Good idea. The State School Board of Alabama adopted the following
statement which is now placed in the front of all public school science
textbooks in Alabama:

A MESSAGE FROM THE ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some
scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living
things, such as plants, animals and humans.

No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any
statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact.

The word "evolution" may refer to many types of change. Evolution
describes changes that occur within a species. (White moths, for
example, may "evolve" into gray moths.) This process is microevolution,
which can be observed and described as fact. Evolution may also refer
to the change of one living thing to another, such as reptiles into
birds. This process, called microevolution, has never been observed and
should be considered a theory. Evolution also refers to the unproven
belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of living things.

There are many unanswered questions about the origin of life which are
not mentioned in your textbook, including:

- Why did the major groups of animals suddenly appear in the fossil
record (known as the "Cambrian Explosion")?

- Why have no new major groups of living things appeared in the fossil
record for a long time?

- Why do major groups of plants and animals have no transitional forms
in the fossil record?

- How did you and all living things come to possess such a complete and
complex set of "Instructions" for building a living body?

_Study hard and deep an open mind._ Someday, you may contribute to the
theories of how living things appeared on earth.