I read Erik Bussa’s column, “Evolution fine to teach, even for creationists” in The Lantern. First, I am glad to hear a creationist understands that the intelligent design theory should not be taught in school, and I’m glad Bussa said he believes in evolution. However, claims he made in his column are misinformed.
In response to Bussa’s question as to if it “is really that big of a deal” to teach evolution in school: The answer is an obvious yes. It is like asking if the school curriculum really needs to teach history or English.
Science plays a huge role in people’s lives. By studying evolution, a person gains knowledge of themselves and where they came from, as well as knowledge of the processes of life.
As for the comment about Bussa’s biology teacher, Charles Darwin: Evolution does not tell anyone they serve “no purpose in life.” If you’re concerned with your purpose in life, in evolutionary terms, your purpose is to pass your genes on to the next generation. But how does a god or “higher power” tell you what your purpose is? Maybe the reason Bussa is feeling “forced” to be taught evolution by his biology teacher is really because he doesn’t want to hear the truth.
Like I said before, I am very happy to hear he recognizes the separation of church and state; I don’t think many creationists would ever say that. Bussa claims to believe in evolution, but I am confused as to what exactly he believes evolution has acted on. Again, I am glad to hear him say he believes in evolution, but he is just as misinformed and uneducated as the creationists he speaks of in his column.
Bussa’s statement, “I just don’t believe that if I were alive a million years ago I would be a monkey,” is a very uneducated one. If he were to pick up any science book or listen to Charles Darwin about the evolution of man, he would find that statement to be wrong on many levels.
First, we are not monkeys, we are apes (if you have a conflict with that, you will have to change our classification system).
Second, 1 million years ago, members from our own genus (Homo) were thriving on earth. Our genus has been around since the late Pliocene Era, which was 2 million years ago. One million years ago, Homo erectus was occupying the earth, so 1 million years ago not only would we not have been monkeys, but we would still need 1.5 million years to evolve into the Homo sapiens sapiens we are today.
Also, between 5 to 10 million years ago there was a separation of apes and humans. I say this only so that maybe Bussa will think about evolution a little bit more and really grasp that evolution takes millions of years. It is important to know a little bit about evolution — that way you don’t make uneducated claims saying that we’re monkeys, because that is far from the truth.
I agree with Bussa on the point that evolution should be taught in schools. However, one just can’t pick and choose what aspects of evolution to believe.
Kristin Smithsenior in anthropology
