Quote: Mathematician J.W.N. Sullivan


In the Jehovah's Witnesses book on Creation/Evolution, we find the paragraph:

"The hypothesis that life has developed from inorganic matter is, at present, still an article of faith."

Life: How did it get here?, 1985, page 52
Reference to: The Limitations of Science, 1933, page 95

As support for Creationism, this quote is simply ridiculous. Of course it was an unproven hypothesis in 1933. Back then, we didn't even know that genetics involved DNA. What has this got to do with the state of knowledge today?

Perhaps the idea was to make science look like a faith. But Sullivan had reasons for the hypothesis - reasons based on evidence. He did not have "faith" that he was right: he had "faith" that the progress of science would illuminate the problem. As it has.


Last modified: 23 December 1997

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