Where is laboratory proof of evolution?

In your editorial (Aug. 28) on Rick Perry and evolution, you gave a compelling argument for the fact that evolution is an established theory.

As a retired biology teacher, I was taught that a theory must be tested many times in the laboratory producing the same results, to be a theory.

The fossil record is punctuated by large gaps, and there are no fossils to bridge the large gaps between phyla. Evolutionists often use mutations as the vehicle that allows change. Most geneticists would conclude 95 percent of all mutations are harmful or lethal. Biogenesis or life from previous life is a theory Louis Pasteur proved many years ago.

In the Dark Ages, most scientists believed the Earth was flat, that the sun and planets rotated around the Earth and life could arise spontaneously. A few dared to swim upstream. We now know the Earth is round, the sun is the center of the solar system and life comes from previous, pre-existing life.

Would you provide for me and your readers when, where and how scientists have demonstrated over and over again in a laboratory the fact of the theory of evolution?

Today some scientists believe in intelligent design and don't follow the herd.

DAN BRUNER

Dalton, Ga.

'Must have' can't explain evolution

In an editorial in the Chattanooga Times, Aug. 28, Rick Perry is quoted saying that "evolution is 'just a theory.'" The editorial position is, "... most scientists now believe that evolution does occur."

An article in National Geographic, November 2004, attempts to explain the evolutionary steps that led to the development of complex living structures, including the human eye. The author essentially admitted they have no evidence that these steps actually occurred. But he said they "must have." That phrase was used repeatedly in the article.

These "scientists" would have us believe that evolution is not "just a theory?"

LOUIS MAHN