Creation or Evolution: Correspondence on the Current Controversy

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

On April 23, 1980, Howe (a fundamentalist Baptist and a professor of
creation science at Master’s College in Newhall, California) wrote a
letter to Dodson (a practicing Catholic and a professor of evolutionary
biology at the University of Ottawa), contesting some of Dodson’s
published comments concerning creationism as science. Thus began a long
and relaxed correspondence between the two, which ended on October 4,
1985, in a letter in which Dodson suggested the correspondence be
published.

Ostensibly, the book’s point is to shed light on the debate as to
whether God created the world in six real days, as Genesis indicates, or
whether He created it in a more leisurely way through natural processes,
including evolution.

In the world of science, this debate is often one-sided: creationists
argue for their view, while evolutionists—who believe creation science
is as academically responsible as flat-earth science—disdain to engage
in combat.

Why, then, does Dodson take Howe on? While this question is not
addressed, deducing an answer is still possible. In part it seems to do
with Dodson being a Christian who, despite his academic difference with
Howe, shares with him faith in Jesus Christ. In part it seems to do with
Dodson’s temperament: the book reveals him not only as a distinguished
researcher but also as a superb teacher who must have been challenged to
respond to the younger man’s questions.

I cannot say I found their debate entirely satisfactory. Despite a
short biographical dictionary that identifies the names the letters
mention, as well as a glossary that explains biological terms, some
material still cries out for elucidation—for example, a reference to a
tape transcript by Colin Patterson (a British paleontologist), which is
the subject of the only heated words the correspondents exchanged.

More seriously, a given letter often does not directly and specifically
address the points made in the preceding letter. Also, much material is
extraneous to the debate (for example, that Dodson was asked to join a
Baptist choir). These flaws no doubt reflect the fact that neither side
was writing for publication.

These caveats aside, I enjoyed the book not so much for what it says
about the creation-evolution controversy, but for what it reveals about
the two intelligent, civilized Christian academics who wrote it.