Evolution vs. Creationism

By August Berkshire

[The following letter to the editor / opinion piece was submitted to the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper on July 25, 2025. As of August 17, 2025 it had not been printed.]

The 100 year anniversary of the Scopes Trial has elevated, but only slightly, the ongoing debate in some religious circles as to whether evolution is true. I am not a scientist, but I am able to identify some bad religious arguments.

The Argument from Incredulity: The claim that because someone can’t imagine how natural causes could have produced something, that therefore they couldn’t have.
The Argument from Ignorance: A lack of knowledge as to how much evidence actually exists to support a naturalistic explanation.

God-of-the-Gaps: Concluding, without evidence, that because you can’t believe or are unaware that a natural explanation exists, that therefore “God did it.”

Special Pleading: Claiming that something is a solution to a problem, while exempting that solution from the problem. Example: “Everything needs a creator, but the ultimate creator, God, doesn’t need a creator.”
Explanations are supposed to provide us with information. We don’t know what a god is or how it operates. We don’t know what “spirit” is and we don’t know how “miracles” work. Therefore, “God” is never an answer because it provides us with no information. We are no wiser than when we began. “God” is just a more complex question and problem.

None of this, of course, disproves the existence of at least certain types of gods — especially those that are “undetectable” and therefore unfalsifiable. Still, it remains a leap of faith to believe in anything supernatural.

August Berkshire
Past president and current associate chair of Minnesota Atheists