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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 5

| Sir,-The claim of your correspondents "G.H.D." and "Sincere" that Evolution is a discredited theory is plain nonsense. It never had d@ wider acceptance than it has to-day, and it is doubtful if, outside of a sectarian institution, a single professor of biology could be named who rejects it, although it is true that there are differences of opinion as to its. causes. Among the several hundred Fellows of the Royal Society, the late Professor Ambrose Fleming (who was a physicist, not a biologist) alone opposed evolution, and he is accordingly much quoted by fundamentalist die-hards and other special-creationists as though he were the mouthpiece of science on the subject. The controversy over evolution is now nearly a hundred years old, and although we may expect the defenders of Genesis

to cafry on the fight for a long while yet, their case is hopeless. Writing as long ago as 1852 in his prophetic essay "The Development Hypothesis," Herbert Spencer said: "Those who cavalierly reject the theory of evolution as not being adequately supported by facts seem to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all. Like the majority of men born to a given belief they demand the most vigorous proof of any adverse belief, but assume that their own needs none." There can be no real freedom of the air so long as the scientific viewpoints regarding man’s origin are banned as broadcastigg matter. In New Zealand as in Britain the churches exert an influence in directing broadcasting policy that is out of all proportion to the support accorded them by the public, and it is mainly for this reason that the present policy of --_- =e. 4

etl Mi lili haan el i, i i a A ae i "hush-hush" exists. How long is this farcical position to continue? The cause of truth demands freedom of expression and we will continue to linger in the dark ages so long as the use of broadcasting as a medium to this end is denied

uS:

C.H.

P.

(Invercargill).