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PRESS RELEASE | OCTOBER 16TH 2006
 

 

Teaching Evolution Theory in Europe



Hearing at the European Parliament
on October, 11th 2006



Zillmer speaks at the European Parliament,

Brussels

Maciej Giertych, Hans-Joachim Zillmer


»Evolution dismissed
at European Parliament seminar«

Wednesday, October 11th was a historic day in the life of the European Parliament.

Polish member of the European Parliament, Maciej Giertych, retired head of the Genetics Department of the Polish Academy of Science, and father of Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Giertych, introduced a public seminar on the General Theory of Evolution to fellow MEP's.

Professor Giertych questioned the value of teaching a continually falsified hypothesis - macroevolution - to students throughout Europe, as well as pointing out its lack of usefulness in regard to scientific endeavour.

Professor Giertych introduced the subject by relating how his children had returned home from school having been taught about the theory of evolution. They were told that the proof of macroevolution - the common ancestry of biological life - was to be found in the science of genetics. This was news to Professor Giertych who had spent his life working at the highest level of genetic research. He revealed to the meeting that such proof does not exist in genetics, only disproof.

This was reinforced by the speech of Professor Emeritus Joseph Mastropaolo who had travelled from the USA to participate in the Brussels hearing. He explained that the biological sciences offer no empirical proof of macroevolution, just insurmountable problems. The theory of evolution consists merely of interpretational evidences which by their very nature could be interpreted in many different ways. He told the audience that the theory, after more than 150 years, still lacked any empirical proof.

Hans Zillmer, a German Palaeontologist and member of the New York Academy of Sciences, told the meeting that the fossil record holds no proof for evolution theory either. Instead of showing gradual change from one species to another, as is often claimed in the classroom, it actually reveals the stasis and stability of life forms.

Amongst those helping to organise the historic seminar were Dr. Dominique Tassot, Director of Centre d'Etude et de Prospectives sur la Science (C.E.P). C.E.P. is an organisation consisting of 700 French speaking scientists, intellectuals and representatives of other professions, all of whom oppose evolutionary theory on scientific grounds.

Original version (Opens in new window)

 

Nature, Vol. 444, p. 679 - 679 (07 Dec 2006) Correspondence
CONTEXT: ...that the theory of evolution, after more than 150 years, "still lacked any empirical proof". The German civil engineer Hans-Joachim Zillmer told the audience that the fossil record does not provide evidence for gradual macroevolution. Zillmer was announced as an expert in palaeontology and evolution,... he is the author of popular books ...

 Nature (Password required): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/full/444679a.html


Maciej Giertych

Maciej Giertych
Nature 444, 265 - 265 (16 Nov 2006) Correspondence
CONTEXT: In your News story "Polish scientists fight creationism" ( Nature 443, 890–891; 2006 doi:10.1038/443890c), you incorrectly state that I have called for the "inclusion of creationism in Polish biology curricula". As well as being a member of the European Parliament, I am a scientist — a population geneticist with a degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Toronto — and I am critical of the theory of evolution as a scientist, with no religious connotation. It is the media that prefer to consider my comments as religiously inspired, rather than to report my stated position accurately. I believe that, as a result of media bias, there seems to be total ignorance of new scientific evidence against the theory of evolution ...

Nature (Password required): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/444265d.html