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Theory part of curriculum

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I WRITE in reply to Chan Sing-Lai's letter headlined, ''Test students only on the facts'' (South China Morning Post, April 6).

Nowhere does anyone claim that evolution is a scientific law.

It is a theory - the theory of evolution, as is the theory of divine creation. A theory is a set of rational arguments used to try to explain observed facts.

To prove a theory and make it a law, you have to experimentally repeat it from different starting points.

To do this with evolution is impossible, we cannot re-run the earth's history from different starting points to test the theory.

Neither can the theory of divine creation be tested and made a law. As for evolution violating scientific principles, well, all theories violate scientific principles. That's how new scientific progress is made, by challenging existing conventions. And evolution violates a damn sight fewer scientific principles than divine creation does.

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