Published: June 27, 2007 10:38 am      

Scientific facts undermine 'righteous opinion' on Bone Cave

I admire Mr. Garrett Humbertson's passion in his article which appeared in the Writers Block feature, "Creationism best explains Bone Cave," which appeared in the paper's June 17 issue.

However, the article was poorly reasoned and full of factual errors and unsupported opinions. He aspires to someday be a journalist or politician and I'm sure that he will do well, neither occupation is noted for the correct use of facts or deductive reasoning, as they both get in the way of righteous opinion.

While I can overlook some of this because of his age, more importantly, it reflects very poorly on the Calvary Christian Academy's (CCA) quality of education and certainly would raise the question of whether they are in the education or indoctrination business.

Maybe the CCA has more in common with some of the fundamental Islamic religious schools than we realize. It is the fundamental religious schools, be they Christian or Muslim, that are responsible for much of the trouble in the world.

I noted that the CCA's Web page does not list the classes offered but none of the facility were listed as science teachers. Therefore, it can be assumed that Mr. Humbertson has not had a basic high school level science class such as biology, chemistry, physics, or earth sciences.

Therefore, he has not been exposed to the scientific method, has not learned how to develop or test a hypothesis, has not analyzed data or drawn conclusions, or been exposed to any of the great scientific thinkers that have made this modern world possible. This would explain, but not excuse, the many science and logic errors in his article. I thought that at least some level of science is required to receive a public high school diploma in Maryland. Then again, maybe religious schools are exempt.

Mr. Humbertson, there is no evidence for the Noachian Flood anywhere in the geologic record (read any college level geologic text book). Radiometric dating, as one of many lines of evidence, shows the earth is more than 6,600 years old (actually it is at least 4.5 billion years old - read any college level geology, physics or chemistry text book).

Modern maps as well as views of the earth from space clearly show that the earth is not flat with four corners but is in fact a sphere,

The Apollo landings on the moon showed no evidence for a firmament holding the water above our head and accounting for the color of the sky (read any college level astronomy or meteorology text book).

The Bible is not a book of science. The fields of biology, geology, paleontology, physics, chemistry and genetics have generated huge amounts of data that show that evolution is a fact that best explains the insurmountable evidence of the complexity of life and how humans arrived on the earth. Yes, one of your closer relatives is a slime mold.

Mr. Humbertson, I don't know if it's too late to free your mind or not. However, you are young and there is hope. Leave home, go to a nice non-church affiliated college, explore the world, read some different (better) books, join the military, live in another culture, think for yourself, write about what you know, learn what you don't know, be wary of absolutes, and try to avoid drinking the special Kool-Aid.

G.M. Schindel
Morgan County, W.Va.