I was disappointed with The State News' presentation of the article "Evolution of a theory" (SN 11/19). Creationism had no place in that story.

First, creationism is not a theory, it's a belief. It does not offer any testable predictions, which a theory does, by definition. Creationism's main tenets, such as the belief that the world was created by God less than 10,000 years ago, have been disproved by modern science.

Second, there is no debate in the scientific community that evolution occurred; the debate between creation and evolution occurs in religious and philosophical communities. What is debated in science are the mechanisms that caused evolution. This is where Doug Schemske's research comes in.

I think that it is wonderful that The State News featured the work of a prominent researcher on campus, but it shouldn't try to jazz up the story by making it part of a debate that doesn't exist within science.

Katie Lander
plant biology graduate student