16 Terrace Review — “Wedkesday: May: ™, i9e7

Jon Cl sholm said i in the May, 15 issue of the Sentinel,
“In the

totally without example. ”

I wish to take exception to his remarks and point out
a tiny portion of the massive amounts of evidence. .

The most fundamental evidence for. organic evo- |
lution, the evolution of living things, comes from the
genetic code, Alll living things have either DNA or RNA.
in their body cells, The only way it differs, perceptibly,
is in the way its base pairs sequence,

Thus, one can scarcely tell a reptile cell from horuad! :

without sequencing the base pairs or electrophoresis.
comparisons of enzyme differences which result from
the genetic differences.

All living things are thus related in their most fun-
damental structures, How then do they differ and by

what process? Is it in their genetic make-up and is the |
process one of genetic change by natural selection acting .

on mutations in populations or evolution as this process
is better known?:

In the development of the individual organism, "there
isa re-enactment of the evolutionary history of the
organism. Thus, the human embryo goes through a
stage where it would be very difficult to tell it apart
from a reptile, frog or fish.

Why should we go through a reptile looking stage in
the womb, unless we have the genes for reptiles within
us? In fact that is what happens. We have conservative
genes that give us our primitive aspects like respiration,
sex drive, jealousy, parental care, anger, fear, five
fingers and five toes, and we got many of these many
millions of years ago when we were probably fish-like
organisms. .

Why we differ today is because we have changed.
That process of change i is evolution.

‘That horses in the fossil record show increasing
molarization of teeth, reduction in number of toes,
change in tooth structure from low browsing to high
grazing as one studies the change in: geological strata
where these are found from primitive to more recent, is-
strong evidence for evolution.

resent world, there is no evidence for evolu.
tion. The change in form from one group to. another:i is a

c V [i
~ Evolution —
"COMMENTARY ~

- Darwin postuilated the following to explain varieties,

-From extensive study and collection and looking at the’
fossil record, he concluded that (a) varieties exist, (b)

there are excess numbers of organisms, (c) not all sur-
vive, (d) competition occurs for survival, © nature
selects the fittest to survive.

Thus, those varieties with adaptations that. confer i in-

creased survival and: passing on.of traits will dominate
the populations,

Gregor. Mendel provided strong evidence for the eX-
istence of. genes to. -explain the source of variation or
varieties. “Numerous . ‘scientists since then’ have

‘demonstrated that genes determine traits and species,
.and that genes can change, though there are some that
‘are conservative, that is, they perpetuate old traits.

Kettlewell showed that genes -were under. natural
selection by studying the Peppered moth, Biston

belutaria in’ England, being preyed upon by birds. He —

showed, by rigorous statistical study that light moths in

a dark. forest had a lower likelihood of survival than
dark onés and that genes for light color were therefore
present in lower numbers in dark forests. He showed the
converse ‘in light forests, .Thus changes to a single
-genetic trait, could alter the course. of evolution for an
’ organism, These : experiments” have since been cor-

roborated for other species as well.
Other scientists showed’ that. genes ‘can change by

changing base pair sequences in the DNA by mutation’
‘ which can be induced by chemical means, or by radia-
‘tion exposure or spontaneously, or by a phenomena.

known as crossing over during meiotic prophase. where

Lies, deceptions prevail —

Commentary

It seems Christians in
this town are quite satis-—
fied to sit back and accept
the lies and deception of
some groups against fun-
damentalists. If some of
the things that were said
against fundamentalists
were. said against Jews,
Keegstra would probably
be behind them,

Has the anti-life forces
become so dejected by
the advent of . Pro-Life
successes that they must
now spread their hateful
disinformation campaign
against the Salvation
Army, Baptist Church,
Evangelical Free, Gospel
Alliance, and others so
named in this campaign?

It is absolute Nicolai-

_ tanism to suggest that only

pastors can become in-

volved in such a debate.

while accusing Christians
.in the above mentioned
churches of being respon-
sible for all the sins of
humanity from the slave

owners in pre-Civil War -

_Atmerica to the rascist
“fascism of South Africa’s
apartheid system.

I suggest that people
who are serious about
learning the real facts
about evangelical fun-
damentalism read the
book by secular humanist,
Jeremy ~ Rifkin,. called
“The Emerging Order’’.
The book ‘is out-of-date
and suggests that Falwel-
lism was on the rise in the

U.S. In fact.since its pub-

lication the opposite has

proven true as such so-—

Options open

TERRACE — Canada

‘Employment Centre for
Students is expected to as-
sist many students in the
Terrace area over the sum-
mer months,

by Daniele Berquist

According to placement
. Officers Annette Canute
and Sherri Oman the cen-
tre has already placed 70
of the 200 applicants,
. since their opening earlier
this month,
. The centre was first in
~ operation in 1968 with the
name Teen Power. Some
‘10 years later, the
present theme was adopt-
ed throughout British Col-
 umbia.

_ Last summer in the pro-
vince; 39,000 jobs were.

filled out _of 64,000
students who registered
with. the employment cen-
tres.

For Terrace, the success
of hiring a student . de-
pends on the enthusiam of
employers in all sectors of
business including non-
profit organizations and
home owners, stated Can-
ute and Oman, ‘‘These
employers provide stu-
dents with an opportunity
to gain practical exper-
ience in career-oriented
work,”® added Canute.

The Minister of State
for Youth, Honorable
Jean Charest stated the
centres would remain
open until August, Char-
est encourages com-
munities to use the Cana-
dian Employment Centres
for Students to fill sea-
sonal and temporary pos-
itions.

' - Jn 1987, 44 centres will

be operating throughout
B.C, and the Yukon Ter-

ritory Region,

called fundamentalists “as
Oral Roberts ammounices

God is going to kill him.
one month .and_his- wife -

holds ‘a press. conference
the next month to say she
found her husband being

‘strangled by the Devil in

their bedroom (I think she
‘beat him off with her
purse’). The book is avail-
able and points out a lot
of the falacies that came
out of both the malicious
meeting where Catholics,
Anglicans and Unitarians
condoned slanderous lies
in regard to the other
churches in the com-
munity.

One of these lies implies
that fundamentalists used
scripture to support slav-
ery and they are doing it
again in South Africa,

. First, as Rifkin points.
out in his book, such fun-

-damentalist reformers as
Charles Finney and John

Brown were militantly op-

posed- to slavery in the |
Southern U.S. In fact it.

was Finney’s preaching

and Brown's call to arms:

that helped. stir America
into its. North-South divi-
sions, which Jed to: the

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Civil War and ‘the aboli-
tion of slavery. Rifkin also
points out that the first

‘determined and corroborated by radio-active decay of:

kelihood of survival, are selected by nature to survive,

‘’ Those traits also confer a different appearance to-their | oS
" gwnars. This explains development of new. species, and.’ -

- over time with geographic isolation, founder effects and
. with genetic drift, and saltatory evolution with dramatic:
changes to gene numbers or structures, ' ‘higher groups

like genera, - “orders, classes ard even kingdoms : ‘of.

organisms.

Because. the. environment changes constantly and has

done so since the earth formed 4.6 billion years ago (age

uranium to lead, thorium to lead, rubidium to ‘stron-

tium,. _potassium. to. argon: and potassium: to‘calcium),
new genes are required for organisms to adapt to'that —
environment and to survive. . _
The evidence that.this sort of change or evolution has :
‘Been going on ‘and continues to do so is-staggéring and

there is even a scientific journal devoted entirely to this

subject, the Journal of Evolution: I suggest . Mr. .

‘Chisholm read the evidence before dismissing it.

_ The evidence for change over time.and.for evoltition
even today is. overwhelming, . and one.can only: argue

-. against it if they choose to ignore reality or warp it.as

creationists. must do. It is because evolution created

€

. gain credibility by saying that brilliant thinkers are like --
minded. With all due respect to Hinstein’s abilities'in

“physics, he was no expert in ‘evolutionary biology nor
- did he solve the most difficult’ questions in physics

humankind that we have this argument today.

the creationists’ viewpoint , exists because evolution

created many genetic varieties of humans, with different
perceptual abilities. The promise of creationists,-in fact

the myth it rides.on, is that it will confer the highest

‘degree of fitness to its followers - eternal life. No death. -
Evolution has } a better, more real, believable view to ~

offer. Passing on one’s genes can be warped into an
eternal life type thing. As long as one’s genes are alive,

so are they, hiding there amongst the conservative genes
within the living cell. Thus, one need not die. and have -

faith to find life after death, but only need have. family
or kids.
Mr. Chisholm’s: reference to Binstein is an attempt to

which still plague us’ ‘today, about the fundamental

feminists were fundamen- |

talist women whose moral
Biblical viewpoint were

being ignored by the male —

power brokers in Wash-

ington on such issues as

temperance.
South African apar-
theid. churches are hardly

‘fundamentalist. They: are

people who believe that
when a husband and wife

are saved, the children are z

structure of matter. - ~
An expert in evolutionary biology; Dr. I ohn Maynard

Smith said, ‘Indeed, everything that has happened dur-

ing my working life as.a biologist, and in particular the
development of molecular: biology, has strengthened

rather than weakened the neo-Darwinist . position,”

(The Encyclopaedia of Ignorance, ‘Pergammon Press,
Pg. 236).

With. all | due re respect, Mr. Chisholm’s comments are, |

in. my opinion, without substantive basis and he must

continue to rely on-faith which is in my view nothing but

wishful thinking, because the evidence overwhelmingly

supports evolution.

re Jorma Jyrkkanen, BSc.
es Ze a. wl Biologist

automatically saved be- ~

cause of their parents.
This is the same philoso-

phy that was touted in

some of the ‘mainline’

churches I attended as a. |

youngster. Because these
white South Africans
believe in inherited salva-
tion, they also believe they
have divine right to rule

over all blacks because

they are racially God’s
chosen people. It is the
fundamentalist churches
that preach individual
salvation regardless of

perlenced and speedy
“service.

‘race or sex in South

Africa. . ~
Brian Gregg _.
Terrace, B.C,

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someone you care for Is hurting and you want to help.
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hose’ penetic ‘changes. ‘that give-a: species. ‘8 a higher

Having studied the evidence, I can only. conclude that |

Terrace, 1 B.C,