From: Keith Miller (kbmill@ksu.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 14 2003 - 17:27:35 EDT
Here is the letter from Jerry Coyne on Wells' reference to Coyne's
critique of Pepper Moth studies.
Keith
______________________________________
<http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/icon.cr.html>
Letter to the Pratt (KS) Tribune from Jerry Coyne: December 06, 2000
Criticism of moth study no challenge to evolution, according to
evolutionary biologist:
I have learned that the Pratt school board, apparently responding to
creationist pressure, has recently revised its tenth-grade biology
curriculum to include material that encourages students to question the
theory of evolution. In reading the standards, I see that one of my
articles - an article constantly misrepresented by creationists - is
included as a supplementary reading used to cast doubt on evolution.
Except for a few creationist dissenters, the community of professional
biologists has long accepted evolution as an essential theory supported
by innumerable pieces of evidence. To make students think otherwise is
as harmful as urging them to question the value of antibiotics because
there are a few people who believe in spiritual healing.
My article appended to the Pratt standards is a re-evaluation of a
classic evolutionary story in which rapid changes in the proportions of
color forms of peppered moths occurred in only about 100 years. This
evolutionary change is thought to be a response to air pollution,
changes in the colors of trees, and increased bird predation. My only
problem with the peppered-moth story is that I am not certain whether
scientists have identified the precise agent causing the natural
selection and evolutionary change. It may well be bird predators, but
the experiments leave room for doubt.
Creationists such as Jonathan Wells claim that my criticism of these
experiments casts strong doubt on Darwinism. But this characterization
is false. All of us in the peppered moth debate agree that the moth
story is a sound example of evolution produced by natural selection. My
call for additional research on the moths has been wrongly
characterized by creationists as revealing some fatal flaw in the
theory of evolution.
In reality, the debate over what causes natural selection on moths is
absolutely normal in our field. It is not uncommon for scientists to
reexamine previous work and find it incomplete, or even wrong. This is
the normal self-correcting mechanism of science. Textbook examples may
be altered as additional data are found. Creationists, on the other
hand, neither air their disagreements in public or admit that they were
wrong. This is because their goal is not to achieve scientific truth,
but to expel evolution from the public schools.
It is a classic creationist tactic (as exemplified in Wells' book,
"Icons of Evolution") to assert that healthy scientific debate is
really a sign that evolutionists are either committing fraud or
buttressing a crumbling theory. In reality, evolution and natural
selection are alive and well, with new supporting evidence arriving
daily.
I strongly object to the use of my article by the Pratt school board to
cast doubt on Darwinism. And I feel sorry for the students who are
being misled by creationists into doubting one of the most vigorous and
well-supported theories in biology.
Jerry A. Coyne
Professor of Ecology & Evolution
The University of Chicago
________________________________
Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
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