Free Speech
News Media
Better Letters
A couple of letters to the editor caught my attention this last weekend, one in the Salt Lake Tribune and another in The Advocate in Baton Rouge, LA.
The Salt Lake Tribune letter is interesting because the writer takes the Tribune to task for the editor’s unwillingness to have the paper’s editorial pages engage in a dialogue.
All persons must agree with your own limited scientific knowledge and your own biases or they are not to be listened to or even considered as a part of thinking society.
The one sides opinions expressed in the paper have resulted in a monologue that I bet will turn readers to other sources rather quickly.
The Tribune recently refused to publish an op-ed by CSC senior fellow Jonathan Witt. We submitted it to the paper for consideration because of a recent state senator’s comment that he might propose legislation for the teaching of something he calle “divine design.” Naturally, we wanted to clarify the issue for readers and provide a different and unique point of view.
Unfortunately an asst. editor on the Tribune’s editorial staff didn’t want any other viewpoint appearing on their pages. In a phone conversation she called Witt a “liar” and said she wasn’t going to run the piece because she had read all about us when she “researched Discovery Institute on the internet.” It’s good to see that Tribune staffers use premiere research tools and sources such as “the internet.” It’s even nicer to see a letter writer who noticed this independently and pointed it out.
The second letter makes this important point:
Evolution as practiced today has become a right-wing, close-minded fundamentalist religion. If you do not convert you will be persecuted. If evolution is a real science I could question it without persecution. In academics, if I question established ideas, I am considered intellectual, except for evolution. …
The reason you are losing the debate is you have taken the science of evolution and turned it into just one of those old, prehistoric religions of worshiping stones, animals, celestial bodies etc.
It is encouraging to see letters from educated readers who understand the issue and are willing to take the time to set the record straight as needed.