From the Wall Street Journal, Tuesday April 2, 1996 pA-6
Please Send in Photos of Alien Abductors
Thomas M. Olsen, in his March 15 Letter to the Editor, published in the Wall Street Journal, "Alien Abductions," compares the skeptical attitude of a Journal columnist to the French Academy of Science's insistence in 1803 that meteorites could not exist. Actually, the academy had good reason for disbelief until meteorites had been witnessed by reliable observers and authentic specimens had been examined. When the burdens of proof were met, the academy changed its position and accepted the existence of meteorites.
Those who believe in alien abductions have not met their burden of proof. No authentically identified alien artifacts exists, and there are no reliable objective observers of this phenomenon. Only the word of the alleged abductees and their "therapists" is given, and for something of this magnitude that isn't enough. In past centuries, people spoke of abductions by fairies and demons. We should no more believe in alien abductions than in abductions by fairies and demons. The "abductees" have been led on by the suggestive questioning of their "therapists." For objective background information on this phenomenon, read the books of Robert A. Baker and Philip Klass.
From The News-Journal of Mansfield, Ohio, May 11, 1996 p8A.
Contrary to a letter published on April 19, 1996, evolution is not a tool of racism. Evolution was used at various times to promote racism, but so were Christianity and the Bible. The Curse of Ham in Genesis 9:25-27 was used to justify slavery and segregation. Certainly, this was misuse, and in no way supports racism. But if you say Christianity and the Bible are still valid despite the misuses of them, then why not be fair and say evolution is still valid even though it has been misused?
What evolution says is that life has common ancestry and changed over the long existence of the world. By showing our common heritage, this explicitly refutes racism. How can you hate one race when all races are from the same source? And if evolutionary charts show early hominids dark, this shows that all people descended from an original black race. Hence we are all blacks in ancestry. If one is racist, one is belittling one's parentage. Only an already committed racist--or someone already committed to opposing evolution--could see these charts as promoting black inferiority!
The reconstruction of appearances from bone fragments is not wizardry or voodoo, but a recognized science called forensic anthropology. A whole body can be reconstructed from a few fragments, since they were part of a body with a pattern. This is commonly done in criminal investigation and is admitted as evidence in courts of law. Why should this be invalid in field archeology?
There are no deep seated racial overtones in the fact of evolution. Scratching an evolutionist will not produce a racist. Many pro-evolution writers, including Stephen Jay Gould and Carl Sagan, explicitly condemn racism in their writings about evolution. The existence of millions of superior black men and women upholds evolution and debunks racism.
And, evolution does not necessarily remove God from the equation. The mainline religious denominations of America have passed resolutions upholding both belief in God and belief in evolution. See Voices for Evolution published by the National Center for Science Education.
Copyright 1992-2005, The Association for Rational Thought