He calls it devolution. Professor Maciej Giertych, dendrologist and politician, has been waging war on the theory of evolution for years, but only now the scientific community has so openly criticised him.
A page from Giertych’s book
Prof. Giertych is a dendrologist, that is an expert on trees. In his book he describes his critical views on evolution.
All evidence points to the fact that we are dealing with the opposite. I call it devolution. Extinction of species, and not the creation of new ones – says prof. Maciej Giertych.
The book did not appeal to the scientific community, however.
[A teacher] might think that this is something up to date, something that they should use in their class – explains Dr Szymon Drobniak, an evolutionary biologist at the Jagiellonian University.
He adds that the views of prof. Giertych are controversial. In his book he mentions, among others, the Deluge, he also believes in the young Earth theory, which is the notion that our planet is only a few hundred thousand years old, not a few billion years, and in creationism.
Those are all theories that do not have any support in the modern scientific knowledge – explains Dr Drobniak.
Biology teacher Jacek Graff got the book prof. Giertych has sent out. He says that the views contained therein go far beyond biology.
Evolution itself is blamed for the fact that it underlies such social, political phenomena as racial segregation, racism, concentration camps, human experiments, in vitro.
During the PRL times (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa – 1952-1989) prof. Maciej Giertych worked in the Council of Advisors for general Wojciech Jaruzelski. A few years ago his booklet “War of civilizations in Europe” aroused controversy in the European Parliament, perceived as racist and anti-Semitic. When his son Roman Giertych held the position of the Minister of Education (2006-2007), Maciej Giertych fought with schools about Darwin’s theory.
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