Letter: God and Darwin

Sir: Thanks to Steve Connor ("Man of the Millennium", 24 August) for reminding us that Darwinism is not a theory of pure chance. But then nor is it an adequate theological response to Darwinism to insist on divine design.

Indeed, ironically, it is evolutionary theory itself that exposes the chance/design alternative as a false one. For Darwin did not claim to account for the origins of life, rather he demonstrated how contemporary life-forms evolved from earlier ones. In turn theologians will want to insist that, nevertheless, nature's order raises a fundamental question - though it is not whether the world is designed but whether it is intended. And that question Darwin did not presume to answer.

The Rev K C FABRICIUS

Bethel United Reformed Church

Swansea