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2 'A law written on the human heart1 I have claimed that one needs an absolute standard in order to pro nounce moral judgment, and as yet no objections have been made which Tkt e AF tar of to apprehend truths about God, and draw logical conclusions from what he observes. Through arguments and observations, we can gain intel lectual knowledge of God. The second source of divine knowledge is through supernatural ex perience. Mystic en counters such as those of Moses, St. Paul, or Joan of Arc, provide unique knowledge of something beyond human under standing. They have gazed into Deep Heaven, and returned to tell the tale. Yet neither of these sources is infallible. Reason is a powerful tool, but a person’s logic may be flawed, or the result of false premises. And the experience of the mystic is not to be dismissed, but such revelation often defies de scription, and is quite subjective. God works through different indi viduals in different ways. Such knowledge of the divine is not al ways conclusive. The third source contains a star tling and controversial claim—that the Eternal God has chosen through out history to reveal Himself through an inspired and written Word. The debate over this Word’s authentic ity is a deep and complex issue, but if this claim is true, then there is con crete knowledge of God’s attributes which man can obtain. The moral debate has moved beyond guess work and opinion. We now have a collection of thoughts which we can test against reality and determine if its principles best describe the universe that rea son and observation reveals to us. The moral claims made by this Word, the Bible, can be judged our reason and our consciences for va lidity. This Book states in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, for instance, that the “fruit of the Spirit” (that is, the qualitites produced in our behavior by God’s Spirit dwelling in us) is “love, joy, peace, gentleness, faith fulness, goodness, and self-control.” That these qualities are self-evi dently good by the light of con science is summed up beautifully by Paul: “Against such there is no law.” These are the absolutes of which I have spoken. / show you a more excellent way. OpMcc TI-tE CkckAMAS P rìnt an U n I< nown Cod JOEL P. SHEMPERT Copy Editor did not themselves appeal to absolute principles. But I have said little of what that absolute might be. In the most basic terms, the Absolute is that to which we appeal whenever we call some thing “good” or “bad.” It is what “good” means. So, the question is before us. What is the Absolute? What is this “good” that we refer to as we judge the actions of dictators, presidents, and even, one hopes, ourselves? Is it like the Christian claim, or is there some other standard? How can we know what is right? The most basic knowledge of right and wrong we have is our con science. That is, we feel we should take certain actions, and that we should not take others. Paul put sim ply that we have “a law written on the human heart.” This “natural law” is a good start toward determining morality, but it is imperfect. We differ greatly on moral views, and seem hardly ca pable of obeying even our own con sciences. C.S. Lewis wryly ob served that the uniqueness of hu manity is that we have a law by which we feel we ought to behave, yet so often we do not follow it. There is, of course, a point of view which suggests that a Being, a Per sonality, an Ultimate Reality called God, is the source from which hu man understanding of right and wrong flows. If this is the case, then we come to the question, “How can we discover this Absolute?” We must determine the ways God, if He exists, has revealed Himself to man kind. There are three ways by which we can obtain knowledge of the super natural. The first is through pure reason. Our intelligent mind is able We're getting off to a quick start I would like to start off this week by apologizing to Religion Instructor, Bill Briare for the mess we made of his letter to the editor that we ran in issue No. 5 TI he S acrec I & TI he P ro F ane ROBERT SCHOENBERG (Nov. 4, 1998). We left two words misspelled, and in one sentence, left out a word entirely. Needless to say, mis takes like these can make a drastic change in the meaning of the text. Again, I am sorry for the errors. The letter is repeated this week on the next page, error free. Please, everyone, read it again. Also in the our previous issue we had a commentary by Karl Katzke on the purchase of a sculp ture by Oregon artist Devin Laurence Field. Nothing like tak ing a stick to a hornet’s nest to see what will happen when the nest gets knocked to the ground. We have g an excellent art depart ment here at CCC and they responded to Karl’s argument with enthusiasm. Some of these letters are printed today, too. There have also been other responses to the commentary about Paul of Tarsus that Mr. Shempert wrote three weeks ago. I’ve been hearing rumors that in structors and their students have been discussing Mr. Shempert's remarks in class. I then received an e-mail from Diane Averill that some of her students decided to each write a response to the com w T .*» «LJ.fr --- mentary. I am very glad to hear that these discussions are going on. The discussion, the responses, the attention around campus to is sues presented in the paper are some of the effects a newspaper is intended to have on its reader ship. Some of the letters from the students in Diane Averill's class have been included in this week's letters to the editor. I also want everyone to know that responding to our group of commentators is not the only chance to have a favorite issue published. At any time, anyone, student or faculty, administration or classified staff, can bring in an opinion on whatever issue they feel needs to be brought to the at tention of our readers. Keep it un der 300words and we can see that it gets in the paper. (As for those whowrite more than 300 words, and we know who you are, bring it in anyway; we can always edit the magnum opus to a mere mas terpiece. *5 IF*" 1^ -W Editor in Chief: Feature + A&E Editor: Robert Schoenberg (x2576) Jeremy Stallwood Sports Editor: The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, profes- sional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not neccesarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty, or The Clackamas Print advertisers. Products and services advertised in The Clackamas Print are not neccesarily en dorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The advertising rate is $4.75 per column inch. All signed let- ters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be considered for publi- cation if submitted by 1 pm the Friday prior to publication. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication and is dis- tributed every Wednesday except dur- ing Finals week. John Thorbum Business Manager: Kristina Brooks (x2578) Copy Editor: Staff Writers: Kara Alexis Kevin Naumann Angie Daschel James Khosravi Mandi Linstrom Eric Eatherton Staff Photographers: Joel P. Shempert Photo Editor: Toni McMichael Amy Parrish Timothy A. Bell Advisor: Graphic Design: Linda Vogt (x2310) Karl Katzke Advertising Design: Megan Oldenstadt Secretary: JoAnne Gale Cartoonist: Joel "Israel" Gunderson Announcements: Leah Chapin 19600 S. M o I a H a A ve . O reqon CiTy, O reqon 97045 (505) 657-6958 ext 2509 • ccc p R i NT@ c 1 Ac kAM As. cc . O R . u s
