Opinion
2
Wednesday, April 7, 1999
TT he CI ac I camas P rint
Scopes dichotomy
The clash of Faith and Reason,
of Religion and Science, has cap
tured the imagination of this cen
tury, as evidenced by the 1925
“Scopes Monkey Trial” and the
that when you create a straw man
to tear down, his defeat is likely to
become a hollow victory.
The famed critic H.L.
Mencken’s caricature of Bryan,
the “old buzzard” who
“has been oozing
around the country
since his first day
here,”
has
been
soundly humiliated.
The real William
Jennings Bryan, the
Great Commoner, that fi
ery crusader for the rights
of the masses, the resonant
orator whose faith en
riched his life and inflamed
his sense of justice, has
been left untouched and
forgotten, lying under inches of
dust that few care to uncover.
A wide brush is always danger
ous, no matter who is painting with
it, and bigotry has two faces on its
coin. If it is a danger to distrust
science as heresy, it is equally
deadly to discount religion as idi
ocy. The fact that so many scien
tific innovators throughout West
ern history have been Christian in
either profession or paradigm is a
significant clue.
One of the most famous of these,
Galileo, is known for having been
tried and persecuted by the
Church for his views in an affair
ostensibly similar to the Scopes
Trial. But Galileo in fact was tried
not for science which challenged
Biblical doctrine, but for attempt
ing to demonstrate that
Copernicus’ discoveries were
compatible with Scripture! The
Church was threatened because he
contradicted ideas of Aristotle and
Ptolemy which had entered Chris
tian dogma through Thomas
Acquinas.
Hie basic dichotomy between
science and religion often leads to
confusion. Hie two disciplines are
not opponents, because they deal
with different things. Faith must
accept that the study of workings
of the physical world is healthy
and good in a universe created by
of AN.
IhkNOWN Cod
TI he AI tar
JOEL P. SHEMPERT
Copy Editor
1951 drama it inspired,
Jerome Lawrence and
Robert E. Lee’s Inherit
the Wind.
With last term’s pro
duction of Inherit the
Wind by the Clackamas Theater
Department, this issue has been
dragged to the surface of our con
sciousness once again. I take the
play’s bias, that devout Christian
ity is ignorant and oppressive, to
be a grievous and prejudicial er
ror.
This is not a slight against the
play, or its stellar performance by
Clackamas’ students and faculty.
Indeed, I contend that the very ex
cellence of craft in Inherit the Wind
is a part of its danger.
Inherit paints the picture
Lawrence and Lee intended, and
paints it masterfully, in fact. But in
so doing, an entire point of view,
along with one of its greatest cham
pions, is left by the wayside.
I allude, of course, to Christian
Fundamentalism and Scopes pros
ecutor William Jennings Bryan.
Though the play makes no claim
to accurate representation of the
facts, the damage is done for those
millions who saw “the movie”
without ever reading “the book,”
ironically enough given the play’s
message. Bryan, in the person of
“Matthew Harrison Brady,” is now
a raving bigot and Fundamental
ism the oppressor of reason.
The attacks against Bryan and
Fundamentalism in the course of
the trial are too numerous to be
dealt with here, but suffice to say
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a reasonable God, and Reason
must realize that no amount of
physical discovery will ever ne
gate the presence of a higher real
ity.
In C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the
Dawn Treader, third in the Narnia
Chronicles, the heroes meet an old
man who is a retired star, for in
Narnia stars are living beings.
Eustace remarks in puzzlement, “In
our world, a star is a huge ball of
flaming gas.”
“Even in your world, my son,”
the star replies, “that is not what a
star is but only what it is made of.”
In other words, things are more
than they seem. Physical reality
does not negate metaphysical re
ality.
I serve a God who is unafraid of
science because He has set in mo
tion the processes which it stud
ies. Christianity suffered a terrible
blow at Dayton in 1925, which I
hope to have some small part in
setting right. I humbly ask the
reader to consider a relationship
with a God of both Faith and Rea
son. I show you a more excellent
way.
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. U S
The true face of war
Joel Shempert’s March 3 piece
on Iraq and the atrocities of war
was absolutely great. To know
that Dean Darris is continuing to
present the facts about this na
tion is out
standing.
We have a
charge to
educate
and
en
lighten
students.
No one does that better than
Dean. However I find it very
alarming that we have to put war
in its proper context. Bruce Willis
wracks up the body count and
there are no children. Sly
Stallone surfaces in a swamp and
saves half the world. Steven
Segal breaks the limbs of anyone
pointing a weapon of destruction
at him. Arnold has saved America
from a hostile world. He has even
conquered a few aliens when he
is not busy being a bad ass. Demi
Moore can cause the best of the
Navy SEALS to clutch their fam
ilyjewels. Geena Davis is a won
derful housewife by day and a
trained assassin by night. Meg
can just flat fly that chopper.
Isn’t this how war really is? In
this nation we certainly wouldn’t
glamorize war then feed it to the
youth of America.
The atrocities of this nation in
the last 40 years go way beyond
George Bush. He was only one
member of the class of'46. That
class had some of our greatest
leaders. LBJ, known for the Great
Society, which included the use
of napalm on children, is one
striking example. The leader of
the free world’s strategy of draft
the kids from our ghettos was
pure genius. Protecting the
middle class white boys with
school deferments is another
stroke. Or is it a form of ethnic
cleansing? However, this is the
greatest nation on ehrth. Doesn’t
everybody know that? Our citi
zens surely adopted all those de
fleshed children and gave them
good homes and the finest of
medical care. Just like we do our
own. I must be stupid to think
we would let our poor and un
derprivileged fight our wars. Iraq
wasn’t about the price of gaso
line. It was this
nation’s state
ment about hu
man rights.
I hope I am not
coming across
as some draft
dodging anti
war activist of the sixties. I am
simply a guy who has had to
wrap a towel around someone’s
head because their brains were
leaking out and they still had a
heartbeat. Spending Christmas
Eve changing bandages and I Vs
on a double amphtee who hadn’t
told his wife about his injury, is a
wonderful way to get into the
holiday spirit. Everyone should
get a chance to dangle from a he
licopter cable and try to get to a
downed pilot as Charlie is trying
to use your red cross as target
practice. This nation loves to la
bel and name things like Rambo,
Terminator or Top Gun. Other
names that come to mind are Tet
offensive and My Lai massacre?
"So simply label me," and those
I served with, as VICTIM OF
L ehers to
t I- ie EdiTOR
THE UNITED STATES CON
GRESS 1970-1974,
So, gentlemen, keep getting
the word out. As this nation
passes out of the barbaric hold
of the class of'46, maybe there is
hope. Who knows? The life you
save may be your own son or
daughter. If your students and
readers really need to see a war
movie for entertainment, can I
suggest Saving Private Ryanl I
really like the scene on the beach
when Tom Hanks is towing a
young GI and a mortar shell
blows him in half. It brought
back such wonderful memories.
Respectfully Submitted on Be
half of a New Generation,
Tom Laugle
Faculty President