1980_11 The Daily Collegian November 1980

              Pag«2
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
Wednesday. ?iove«aber 12,'
12,1
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
Editorial
Being pragmatic
Candidate Ronald Reagan made some awfully
simplistic and ridiculous remarks during the camp¬
aign season. In one interview, he said mat air poll¬
ution was "substantially" under control. In another,
he suggested sending American troops to Cuba to
counter the Soviet Union' s rape of Afghanistan.
The most surprising thing about these remarks is
not that he said them, but that he seemed to believe
what he said.
A Reagan administration based on such narrow-
minded remarks would be a dangerous one which
might polarize world opinion against this country,
at a time when flexible policy is needed to deal with
the crucial foreign and domestic issues at hand.
But if the current Carter-to-Reagan transition
efforts are any indication, there's hope that a Reagan
presidency will be tempered by pragmatism rather
than shoot-from-the-hip rhetoric.
It was good news this week to hear Reagan aides
talk of the need to form a coalition government of
sorts- one that would be responsive to a variety
of political views, rather than right-wing religious
groups like the Moral Majority.
The Reasan team also supports the nomination
of moderate Republican Howard Baker, R-Tenn.,
as the new Senate majority leader. It was also
reassurins to hear that Reagan is considering sever¬
al politically middle-of-the-road figures like Sen.
Henry Jackson tor administration posts, rather
than right-wing extremists.
With the campaign season over, Reagan can now
settle down to the business of governing. We can only
hope that President-elect Reagan will continue to
show more common sense than candidate Reagan
did. By Steve Schmidt
K
Letters to the Editor
Existance of God
To we Editor:
it a nice to get a response at last from
as intelligent and knowledgeable a letter
writer as Professor Haas of the biology
department. In many respects I agree
.vmi much of Haas' letter of Nov. 4, al-
uwjgn ne seems to assume, understand-
aoiv out incorrectly, that I might be more
in opposition to his position than I am.
i agree with Haas that the evidence of
UM natural world is insufficient to consti¬
tute 'proof* of the existence of God. Cer-
uuuy not with absolute Euclidian logic.
My point has been, though, that there
ivave oeen numerous intelligent and sen-
wuve men who thought the evidence was
very good. I have mentioned Newton,
fCatm, and von Harnack. The former two
ieii tne evidence was so strong that it
was sutficient proof for themselves, al-
► uwugn Kant said that he could not prove
a to another person who did not admit
tne validity of the evidence.
it seems to me that the soundest sden-
tino position is ignoticsm. I shall repeat
—iot tne third time—'The scientific
method is primarily based on an attitude
01 scepticism.* That has been my un¬
varying position in all my letters on this
suoiect. Scientific evidence neither
proves nor disproves the existence of
God, and it is very unlikely that it will
ever do so.
i also believe that a theist position
manes more sense than an atheist one.
eiiner theism or atheism can be held
only on the basis of a certain amount of
laitn. The theist, however. Is usually
mucn more aware and more honest
aoout that component of faith than is the
atneist. If I have interpreted Professor
r-'iscner's remarks correctly, he believes
mat science gives evidence—perhaps
even proves—that there is no God.
Tnat, however, is both inaccurate and
illogical. It is illogical because empirical
means can never prove the universal
non-existence of anything—including
unicorns. It is inaccurate in its concept of
scientific method and .what science is try¬
ing to do. Science is probably unable to
provide information about the First
Cause of to answer 'why* the universe
or anything exists.
Perhaps, as Mr. Hurtt implies In his
! letter of Nov. 3, there is no teleology and
no reason for us to strain to invent one. I
understand that position, but what I do
not accept, and what probably neither
Professor Haas nor Mr. Hurtt would ac¬
cept, is the simplistic notion that science
proves there is no God and there is no
teleology or purpose in the universe.
Science does not—and probably can not
—prove anything on that score one way
or another.
I think that a theistk position has more
evidence to support it than does an athe¬
istic one. There is after all an extraordin¬
ary degree of order and uniformity in the
universe, and many feel it is unlikely
that such a degree of order and uniform¬
ity came about by accident. Indeed it
should be noted that the concept of uni¬
versal laws was developed almost exclu¬
sively in monotheistic cultures. Neither
the Chinese, with their marvelous tech¬
nological inventiveness, nor the Hindus,
with their highly developed mathemati¬
cal skills, quite got around to developing
'the notion of universal physical laws the
way they were developed in Christian
See Letter* page 3
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Letters
Continued from page 2
Europe by Christian astronomers and
physicists.
It is not possible that the inspiration
tor conceiving of universal physical laws
in the work of Kepler, Galileo, and New¬
ton was due in large part to their as¬
sumptions of one creator Cod acting
intelligently and uniformalry throughout
the universe? If so, Mr. Hurtt might see
that "...a society In which the .people
are so thoroughly imbued with the
J udeo-Christian notions of vitalism and
determinism* might have been on the
whole more conducive to the develop¬
ment of science than a hindrance to its
development.
The order of the universe, the still un¬
explained peculiarities of gravity and of
the nuclear forces, the mysteries of life,
the mysteries of thought, memory, and
imagination—may all be reasonably
interpreted as evidence of Cod. So may
Mr. Kant's conscience. They do not con¬
stitute proof, but they may be evidence. I
am at a loss, however, to figure out what
evidence there is for the non-existence of
Cod.
Therefore, I would conclude there is
some tentative evidence for the exist¬
ence of Cod, although no proof. On the
other hand, there is neither proof nor
evidence for the proposition, 'There Is
no Cod.' Therefore, the theist position is
more in accord with scientific evidence
than is the atheist, which has been, all
along, my chief point. From the above I
think I can also argue that an agnostic
leaning towards theism has a more valid
scientific argument than an agnostic
leaning towards atheism.
The chief argument alleged against
theism by those of scientific mind is the
reasoning principle known as 'Occam's
riror.' Named for a sometimes dissident
Roman Catholic theologian of the four-;
teenth century, William of Occam, Itj
holds that you should slice away any un- '
necessary assumptions in a deductive
argument.
By extension it is taken by many of our
contemporaries to mean that you should
not allege the existence of Cod without
direct proof. Therefore, since there Is no
direct proof of the existence of Cod,
mention of Cod should not be made in a
scientific exposition.
There is, however, a contrary princi¬
ple, which, I believe, is at least as scien¬
tific. This principle holds that when the
causes are unknown, you mention the
various possibilities, and, where it may
be sensible to do so, you try assigning
tentative probability factors. Obviously,
in the creation of the universe, or the
creation of life, the workings of gravity
or of nuclear forces, one possible causa¬
tive factor is a conscious, purposive Cod.
Therefore, it might be better scientific
practice to mention that and to keep it in
mind. As I have said, Galileo, Coperni¬
cus, Kepler, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz,
and Newton did, and their procedures
may not have been worse than our own,
even if we now know a great deal more
about the physical constituents of the
universe than they did.
There is one other point in Professor
Haas' letter that I would like to comment
on. He asks, *|f someday human intel¬
lect is able to understand gravity as we
now understand infectious diseases or
the cause of floods, will we then have to
remove Cod as the proximal cause of yet
another phenomenon?* The answer, I
believe, is "No.-"
I chose gravity as an example because
although its effects are observable. Its
mechanism is one of the least under¬
stood things in physics. It is, therefore,
one of the greatest mysteries and at the
same time an obvious commonplace.
However, the postuUtion of Cod as Utter
Reality and First Cause is not logically
connected to our understanding of the
operation of any of the phenomena which
Cod may have created. Physicists may
feel they know a great deal more about
matter than they do about gravity, but
that does not negate the possibility that
Cod created matter jand keeps it orderly
through the effects of nuclear forces and'
gravity). To know that lightning Is an
electrical phenomenon may make Zeus'
thunderbolts or Thor's hammer seem
less probable—but not necessarily
Allah, Yahweh, The Trinity, or Aris¬
totle ' s First Cause.
f would also like to make a few re¬
marks regarding Professor Haas' state¬
ments on evolution, but this letter is
already too long and I will have to do that
in a separate one.
David N. Jones
Associate Professor of History
Racism
To the Editor:
I am directing this letter to white
people who are concerned about the
problem of racism, as an introduction
to a set of "Consciousness-raisers*
which hopefully will help in our efforts,
to end this terrible problem in our
culture. Institutions and ourselves.
What I'd like to examine here Is the
fact that racism exists on both a con¬
scious and unconscious level in all of
us. and that the unconscious behavior
will need some serious attention to un¬
cover.
Freeing ourselves of racism will be
a difficult kind of challenge from that
of working to end sexism (another
very serious problem in our society).
Most of us have daily contact and com¬
munication with both men and women,
but this may not be the situation for
ethnic minorities and whites, since many
whites are sufficiently 'ghettoized'
(white friends, white neighborhoods,
white religious institutions, white music,
etc.) that we do not have much daily
contact with minorities (Third World
peoples).
I feel that it is this isolation which
creates and encourages fear and distor¬
tion, an awareness of Third World
people that is built on white-controlled
media and cultural stereotypes.
It is essential to start on this work
with a positive sense of ourselves as
white people. We should be aware of
the contradiction of benefitting from
white privilege while working against
it, but what is important is to sort out
the differences between rights which
should be available to all and privileges
which are available to white people
only and require the exploitation of Third
World people to maintain.
I know that some of us feel guilty
about this white privilege-but this guilt,
coming from a feeling of parson re¬
sponsibility, hopelessness and confusion
about radsm, can be overcome by ex¬
amining with others the source of the
guilt and how ft functions. (This is cur¬
rently being done on many campuses
in the form of discussion groups or
- classes - sometimes in Psychology
Departments).
The color of our skin-like exjr economic
class and whether we are female or male
was determined before we were bom.
We can take pride in who we an while
freeing ourselves to join with other white
people In the common effort to end rac¬
ism and other forms of oppression.
The following are some of the dairy
reminders I try to adhere to while
working on my struggle with racism.
Interrupt racist remarks and jokes
(pointing   out   how   they   encourage
racial stereotypes).
Use minority owned banks, shops,
grocery stores, supply companies,
music shops, contractors. Insurance
and real estate agents (check affirm¬
ative action programs of City of Fres¬
no, County of Fresno, etc.
There is no such thing as reverse
racism (Third World people In the
U.S. do not have sufficient economic
and institutional power to dominate
society; Third World anger against
racism is not reverse racism).
Celebrate other countries as well as
our   own    (music,food,    language).
Buy publications (California Advocate
Sentlmentos Magazine, etc.) and
listen to radio and TV programs
that are Third World owned or pm-
duced (KSJV Radio Bilingue-TV Xl„
KLIP   Radio,    KFCF   FM   Radio).
Point out the racist Implications of
assumptions that come up In everyday
conversations with people
Show white people that gains made by
Third World people do not hurt us
(every positive and progressive step
forward by Third World people
leads to the liberation of us all,
especially poor and working class
whites).
Help discourage actions that raise
property values by working with cit¬
izen rights and public interest groups
(Metro Ministry Low Income Housing
groups, MAPA, El Condlto Black
Political Countil, LaRaza Unida Party
Citizens Party, etc.).   .
Join and encourage others ot loin
with Third World groups in struggling
for the liberation of all people through
constructive   social   change   efforts.
In closing, I'd like to make It dear that
my objective in sharing this letter is
not to 'lay any trips* on anyone, but to
discuss a problem that must be solved.
If our society is to finally carry bout the
dreams and Ideals laid out for us in the
Declaration of Independence A Bill of
Rights. We have a long ways to go, so
let's not waste any more time. There's
much hard work to be done!
For more Information on the sub¬
ject I suggest: Reading the New Testa¬
ment (for Christians); writing to the
Movement For A New Society Racism
Task Force (4722 Baltimore Ave., Phil* ,
PA. 19143); and contacting the Human
Rights Coalition (see previous article).
Sincerely.
Larry Sheeny
Intramural
To the Editor:
Do Intramurals exist at California
State University, Fresno? By reading our
campus newspapers, the Csisglan and
Insight I wonder if any Intramural pro¬
gram exists at all I
Does anybody on our campus, besides
those involved, realize that the final
series of football playoff games are tak¬
ing placa these first two weeks in
November?
Of the more than 70 men's and
women's teams that began the football
season in earty September, 24 teams
now survive vying for their respective
league championships.
My point here is that newspaper
coveraee of intramural sports scarcely
exists, if at all. It seems to me that the
athletes involved In the sports deserve
credit and recognition for their efforts
andaccomDllshments.
Manv or the participants are members
active in other facets of college life. Inde¬
pendents dormitories, fraternities,
sororities, various dubs and organiza¬
tions are all involved in the intramural
program and should receive recognition
/
See Letters page 4
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