Carlton Betts: Assumptions and faith

Regarding the Aug. 23 Point of View “Berger’s right: Most UNC professors are Democrats. Here’s why”: Dr. William Snider states, “The life of the university depends on rational discourse.” OK, let’s discourse.

Where is the reproductive process that creates new genetic material? Simple rearrangement of existing genetic material, which is observable, is not verification that over time a chemical reaction became modern man. Where are the thousands of transitional life forms in the fossil record necessary to evolve life that extracts its oxygen only from water to a life form that extracts oxygen only from air? Yes, tadpoles become frogs. Still for reproduction, their eggs are hatched back in the water. Where is the fossil record of thousands of life forms over millions of years that shows somewhere along the way some frogs decided to reproduce without going into the water?

Since evolutionary theory sees similarity of body structure as a process, can you show that this conclusion is a logical necessity? Certainly there are many other explanations for the similarities. How do the myriad assumptions necessary to the evolution construct differ from “faith”?

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Carlton Betts: Assumptions and faith."