MADAM – The Christian Comment in the February 18 issue of the SNJ was deeply unsettling.

I was flabbergasted by the gross misconceptions put into print.

I was shocked that the Rev. Penny West described herself as a scientist as she unnecessarily mystified the laws of physics and biology in order to incorrectly justify the existence of a creator.

When she speculated how specialised cells perform their function (ignoring the couple of billion years of unicellular life completely), and linked evolution by natural selection to ‘chance’, the matter needed to be rectified.

Natural selection favours the few variants of genes that are successful for survival.

Many variants over geological time were unsuccessful.

The accumulation of small-scale changes over significant periods of time can result in dramatic changes overall, as evidenced in the fossil record.

This process is not however, random and by stating as much, she has unequivocally proven that she doesn’t understand how evolution works.

Mr C Watts

Stroud