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A Letter to a Father

This letter was written by John A. Morrow Jr. to his father.   John sent me a copy after visiting this web site.  He has graciously given his permission for its publication
on this site.

Dear Dad:

Creationism is a philosophy, not a Science. Creationism was cooked-up to counter what fundamentalists perceived as a threat to their beliefs by the theory of evolution. Creationism was spawned to defend religious beliefs, it did not arise out of independent scientific inquiry. Creationist theories must always pass the litmus test of the Bible.

Science and religion are two separate things. A true scientist starts with a hypothesis then formulates an experiment to test his hypothesis. The scientist uses the outcome of the experiment to either reinforce, modify, or discard his hypothesis. Repeated and varied experiments will change, strengthen, or weaken the hypothesis over time. Hypotheses are further strengthened when other scientists can repeat the experiments and verify the results. True scientists do not require their theories to pass a litmus test, if the facts do not fit a hypothesis, the hypothesis must be changed, not the facts.

Religion, on the other hand, is not subject to challenge of fundamental texts or beliefs. Nobody proposes to modify books of the bible based upon experiments! Religion is based upon faith, the evidence of things unseen, while science is based upon what can be observed and measured. What we have then, are two different ways of looking at the world. Or, we have two different tools, one for looking at the physical world, one for looking at the spiritual world. Religious texts are not science books, nor are science books articles of faith. They are just different subjects intended for different purposes. One should not try to use science to substantiate religion any more than one should try to use a mathematical formula to prove that the works of Shakespeare are great literature.

Fundamentalists get hung up on the Bible being the literal Word of God, and every passage in it, including the Creation story, is literal truth. I for one, do not feel that each word of the Bible has equal importance. I place a higher importance on the Ten Commandments, and on the Gospels. The most important message in the Bible is that Jesus died for our sins, how the world came to be is far down the list. I also do not buy the Creationist argument regarding the importance of original sin. Man is sinful and we need Salvation to be reconciled to God.

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