THE letter of RH Aston (April 27) prompts me to submit the following: Dr WR Thompson F.R.S was asked to write an introduction to a new edition of The Origin of Species in 1963. In a devastating critique he faulted evolution in all its aspects, stating that he was not satisfied that Darwin had proved his point, or that his influence in scientific and public thinking had been beneficial.

In one passage he wrote that “the theory of evolution is unconvincing, and that the practice of seeking to prove it by circumventing the rigid rules of evidence has been corrosive of scientific integrity”. He also wrote that the theory of natural selection acting on random hereditary variations, plausible in Darwin’s day, was no longer so. From The New Scientist March 12, 1994, “Darwin’s principles have not been tested against observations in the same rigorous manner as physical laws.

“This means that there is no way of predicting the outcome of Darwin’s theory... it seems impossible to find a model of evolution that mirrored the real world without cheating.” I refer Mr Banfield to the letter of F Pearce published on August 23, 2005.

Tom McCarthy, Gaer Park Parade, Newport