Egg came before bird with sharp beak

South China Morning Post Education Mailbag July 3, 2009

I refer to the letter by Gordon Truscott on June 19 ("Let science discussion on origins range free") on several of those worn-out intelligent design /creationism (IDC) arguments.

IDC proponents single out evolution/origins of life as the only topic to have "range-free discussion". This is clearly a front to pretend to have an open, fair and balanced theme because the discussion only reaches as far as the Christian versions of IDC, which are not even close to a hypothesis.

Scientific inquiry is by scientific methods, not by popular votes as in a political system or discussion. Any ideas remain ideas unless they are well supported by evidence.

What are those "extreme number of coincidences" that make life on earth possible?

Chemical and physical properties of molecules are not coincidences - these are natural processes that are well understood. There are billions of stars and systems like our solar system that also favour life forms of some sort.

There is also a very ill-informed question of "how a bird with a sharp beak arose at the same time as an egg with a hard shell" (or in the form of the famous Chinese enigma "chickens first or eggs first").

The question shows a lack of knowledge of the topic.

Paleontologists already have evidence that conclusively shows that birds evolved from reptiles (dinosaurs). Reptiles were the first animals to develop an egg with a hard shell, which could keep the egg from drying out and allow reproduction away from water hundreds of millions of years ago, long before the bird came along and inherited this feature.

The evidence that birds originated from reptiles is plentiful (in the form of transitional fossils like Archaeopteryx or, more recently, the June 2009 issue of Nature features a ceratosaur named Limusaurus inextricabilis).

So the answer is simple - an egg with a hard shell came before a bird with a sharp beak.

Paleontologist Kevin Padian once remarked that "intelligent design makes people stupid".

From the debates since February, we can see a lot of truth in that statement.

VIRGINIA YUE, Castle Peak Road