I have been listening to some of the dialogue of the presidential races and reading a number of sources on religion. It took over 200 years to stop the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from dictating to the citizens of the commonwealth what their religious beliefs were to be. It took another hundred years to get the schools of the state to stop prescribing certain prayers. Now there is a great effort, at federal and local levels, to return to religious indoctrination by the state. The question is simple! Do you wish the state to dictate the religious beliefs of your family or do you wish to make that decision?

Among the disturbing things that I have heard is to have a presidential candidate comment - relative to the conflict between proponents of evolution and the most recent attack on evolution - that he couldn't believe that the emergence of the species could be "random." He fails to understand the difference between the general vs. the specialized use of the word "random."

Genetic variation is an orderly process. It is only random relative to the actions of the members of the species. One early version of the theory of evolution held that giraffes developed long necks by stretching to get leaves from trees. Evolutionary theory states that genetic change is not dictated by the actions of the members of the species. It is, nevertheless, regulated by the natural laws of the universe. The process is lawful. It is not random in the sense meant by the opponents of evolution or those that have little exposure to the science.

Evolution is a lawful, orderly process that is only partially understood. The real question for many individuals is the source of the order in the universe. For many, the order in the universe and the laws that govern the unfolding of the universe are God's laws. Evolution is not ungodly! It is just a different version of how God went about creating the universe.

Ronald Irving of Amesbury is an amateur historian.