A Letter From a Christian Biologist

The author of this letter wishes, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous.
I thank him for his permission to post the letter while deploring the
circumstances which make his anonymity necessary.

Dear Mr. Stear,

I visit your site at least once a week and I can spend hours reading through the various posts.  I hold a Ph.D in Developmental Biology from UC Irvine and have done postdoctoral research on developmental genetics.  Therefore, I can attest to the numerous times that the theory of evolution has aided research.

Genes that show a high percentage of homology and regions of genes that are under strong selective pressures to change very little provide the best probes for molecular biological experiments.  Cloning genes requires probes, and here again, the theory of evolution provides a priceless means of designing probes for cloning purposes.

I presently teach at a Christian College and I am trying to introduce a course on evolutionary biology into the curriculum.  I am meeting some resistance, but it is the valiant fight against Creationism by people like yourself and others who run "reeducation" sites that help me in my quest.  The countless lies fed to unwary students take endless hours of refutation and I am constantly having to pour over obscure sources to find the means to answer this or that claim.  I am getting better at answering such claims, but it is tiresome and I am beginning to lose patience.   When people like Gish or Hovind can spout lies and nonsense with every breath and I am required to document my every breath, it makes for a very unlevel playing field.   In one sense, I just want the Creationists to go away and let me teach my students and do research.

On the other hand, I have to enter this fray because these people are not going to go away and it seems to me that they are growing and gaining influence every day.

As I Christian, I shudder at the loss of credibility that such dishonesty and sloppy argumentation breeds.  How can Hovind spout numbers and figures that are so glaringly wrong and then patronizingly say that he is there to "straighten us out?"   How can Gish repeat the same nonsense about the fossil record after he has been corrected time and time again in print and in public, and keep a straight face?  How can Morris and his son argue that structures like varves are the result of catastrophic deposition and keep a straight face?  How can I present the claims of Jesus Christ to my fellow man when I know that these yahoos are hurting my credibility at every turn?

There are times when I retreat to your site for refuge.  Please keep maintaining your excellent site.  I appreciate it and hope that you will know that even though you have a pot full of derogatory and mean spirited letters from people who call themselves Christians, you now have one from a Christian who regularly visits and appreciates most of the material on your site.

Warmest regards,

(Anonymous)