By Mohamad Elfakhani ---

Students clashed on Thursday, May 10 in a Debate Club sponsored, creation vs. evolution debate at Ada Dodge Hall. The heated debate, which began at 12 noon, was chaired by Debate Club member Bilal Salem with Dr. Riyad Sadek, a biology professor at AUB, presenting evolution theory and Dr. Imad Al-Hout, an MD at the Lebanese University, presenting the side of creation theory. The debate began with Salem introducing the guests and the topics to be covered in the debate. He then read out the results of a survey of 88 students on campus about the issue of evolution. Asked what they believed in, 20% of the students said evolution, 29% creation, 43% said both creation and evolution, and 8% another mechanism. Twenty-eight per cent of the students polled said they believe that evolution contradicts religion while 43% felt that there isn't a contradiction, and 17% said there was contradiction on some aspects. Dr. Imad Al-Hout then argued for creation for around 15 minutes. Rather than being a pure creationist, Al-Hout took more of a creation followed by evolution approach. He addressed the audience by giving examples of proofs of natural selection but emphasized the fact that these proofs cannot prove that one type of animal can become another. Al-Hout argued, "Evolution does happen within one type of organism." Throughout the debate, Al-Hout also listed numerous incidents of fraudulent discoveries of fossils as well as missing links in the evolution chain. Dr. Riyad Sadek then discussied mutations and natural selection scientifically. "Evolution is not creation; it's not faith, and it is also not a conspiracy to attack religion. It is a scientifically backed theory." On the issue of missing links, Sadek explained to the audience, "If you're watching a television show and you get up and come back later, you can predict what happened in the time you left and just because you didn't see it, it doesn't mean it didn't happen." The floor was then turned over to the students. The debate heated up as students began to debate the issue between one another and with the guest speakers. Senior biology major Hussain Dimerdji argued that the proofs for evolution are overwhelming and that we can't possibly refute these proofs. Al-Hout responded by saying that he was not refuting these proofs but simply saying that they cannot be taken to prove more than they actually do. Debate Club member and biology major Mohamad Elfakhani named two examples of proof of natural selection, but then added, "Evolution is a creation and so there isn't a contradiction between it and religion. A cat became a couple hundred different species of cat. A bear became a couple hundred different species of bear. This is evolution. But a bacterium didn't become a cat or a bear or a starfish." Following the end of the formal debate, students continued to discuss with the speakers in an intense debate as they were leaving the room. The discussions even continued in front of Ada Dodge Hall.