AS an engineer, I was, with most of us, taught that evolution was it. I never doubted it or thought about it.

Until I heard a lecture by Dr Duane Gish, a marine biologist, whose job for years had been to irradiate fruit fly larvae to cause mutations. They created literally millions of mutations -- some blind, some with four wings on one side, none on the other...but they never made a better fruit fly!

If we all arrived by random mutations, where is the fossil evidence of all the ones that went wrong? Where are all the transitional species? There simply aren't any -- none -- anywhere!

So, it comes down to this, the natural selection process that we all can observe -- white polar bears and brown bears everywhere else, etc. -- is a result of loss of genetic information, not a result of new genetic information. In other words, natural selection always remains within a species, and supports the creation arguments.

So why is evolution still taught as fact? I've concluded that if one believes in creation, belief in a creator is automatic.

Judgment Day is, therefore, inevitable. Therefore, rebellious mankind has to have an alternative, however ridiculous -- and the theory of evolution is.

The real issue is, as ever: Is there a God who is more able than mankind? Yes, this raises more questions, but there are godly answers to all of those as well.

MARTIN SMITH, Langham Road, Blackburn.