I’M SORRY that Graham Hobbs has rejected the idea of evolution, especially as he seems to have done so as a result of misunderstanding the use of the word ‘fit’ in the expression (not coined by Darwin) ‘Survival of the fittest’.

‘Fit’ means ‘appropriate’.

To say that an animal is ‘fit’ is to say that it is capable of surviving in the circumstances in which it finds itself.

It does not necessarily involve violence or dominance.

Mice are highly successful animals – in their case ‘fitness’ is expressed in their ability to run for cover and avoid predators.

A mouse would not survive long if it decided it could take on a cat – that would not be a ‘fit’ thing for it to do.

To draw a conclusion that the Hitler Youth, doing their physical jerks, has anything to do with that, is totally mistaken.

An article in i, by Simon Barnes, (July 11), quotes David Attenborough on creationism as saying “...when a creationist talks about God producing every single species, they always cite humming birds or orchids... and beautiful things. But I tend to think of a parasitic worm that’s boring through the eye of a boy... in West Africa, that’s going to make him blind. And [I ask him,] are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you say is an all merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually... created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child’s eyeball? Because that doesn’t seem to me to coincide with a God that’s full of mercy.”

Roger Plenty

Rodborough Hill