Body: | On the Right Side by George V. Caylor
"The Biologist"
One of the best aspects of my wife JoAnne's Bed and Breakfast is the chance
for a great conversation with an interesting guest. People fascinate me,
and the laid-back atmosphere of the bed and breakfast allows me to get to
know our guests well. I was with a congressman the moment the Monica
Lewinsky story broke, and discussed the possible impeachment. I enjoyed
visiting with a Russian attorney who wrote the post-communism Russian
Constitution. But all our guests have good stories, and I like to hear them
all. I 'replay' them later, and I have the ability to remember
conversations nearly word for word. That memory skill comes from either
thirty years as a financial planner, or six years as a touring musician.
One of the most interesting, and disturbing conversations, was with a
molecular biologist working in genetic research. Jeff and his wife were in
from New York to celebrate the 2000 New Year. I think they just wanted out
of New York City, and Lynchburg is about as "out" as he could get! Jeff
described himself as a "secular Jew," which meant that he was not into
practicing his religion. (There seems to be a lot of secular Jews and
secular Christians around these days.) I asked Jeff about his profession
and he told me that he was a molecular biologist, specializing in genetic
research. He and his team were scientific "detectives" tracking down the
cause of disease.
Our conversation went something like this:
G: "Sounds like pretty complicated work."
J: "You can't imagine how complicated!"
G: "Try me."
J: "I'm a bit like an editor, trying to find a spelling mistake inside a
document larger than four complete sets of Encyclopedia Britanica. One
hundred volumes, thousands and thousands of pages of small print words."
G: "With the computer, you can just use 'spell check'!"
J: "There is no 'spell check' because we don't know yet how the words are
supposed to be spelled. We don't even know for sure which language. And
it's not just the 'spelling error' we're looking for. If any of the
punctuation is out of place, or a space out of place, or a grammatical
error, we have a mutation that will cause a disease."
G: "So how do you do it?"
J: "We are learning as we go. We have already 'read' about two articles in
that encyclopedia, and located some 'typo's'. It should get easier as time
goes by." G: "How did all that genetic information get there?" J: "Do you
mean, did it just happen? Did it evolve?"
G: "Bingo. Do you believe that the information evolved?"
J: "George, nobody I know in my profession believes it evolved. It was
engineered by 'genius beyond genius,' and such information could not have
been written any other way. The paper and ink did not write the book!
Knowing what we know, it is ridiculous to think otherwise."
G: "Have you ever stated that in a public lecture, or in any public
writings?"
J: "No. It just evolved."
G: "What? You just told me ---?"
J: "Just stop right there. To be a molecular biologist requires one to hold
on to two insanities at all times. One, it would be insane to believe in
evolution when you can see the truth for yourself. Two, it would be insane
to say you don't believe in evolution. All government work, research
grants, papers, big college lectures - everything would stop. I'd be out of
a job, or relegated to the outer fringes where I couldn't earn a decent
living."
G: "I hate to say it, Jeff, but that sounds intellectually dishonest."
J: "The work I do in genetic research is honorable. We will find the cures
to many of mankind's worst diseases. But in the meantime, we have to live
with the 'elephant in the living room'."
G: "What elephant?"
J: "Creation design. It's like an elephant in the living room. It moves
around, takes up an enormous amount of space, loudly trumpets, bumps into
us, knocks things over, eats a ton of hay, and smells like an elephant. And
yet we have to swear it isn't there!"
I didn't use Jeff's family name, although I doubt many New Yorkers read the
"Ledger." After all, Jeff is a good man who deserves to earn a good living.
I am just a bit angry that we allow him to be bullied by evolutionists. It
makes me yearn for the day when all molecular biologists will be able to
say: "Hey, there's an elephant in our living room! Maybe we can make
friends with it!"
Caylor is a syndicated writer with Press Media Group, LLC.
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