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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1984)
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, January 30, 1984 Opinion Theories are not absolute truths Once again the East Coast is snub bing its nose at the state of Texas — and this time it is justified. “Deep in the Heart of Ignorance,” an editorial published Jan. 23 in the New York Times, referred to the Texas Board of Education ruling that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution need not be in biology textbooks approved for Texas public schools. The Battalion has received letters both in support and against the state’s ruling, but most of the writers have re lied heavily on faith, either in the Bible or science, rather than hard evidence to prove their points. But the validity of evolution shouldn’t be the determining factor in planning curricula for the public schools. Disclaimers stating “Evolution is a theory” would actually be redun dant if science classes were taught cor rectly. All science is theory. Some theories are more readily verified than others. All theories are based on assumptions. And the science of the Western world is based on the philosophy of the Western world. Before relying on faith in either sci ence or religion, all Americans should examine as many “theories” as they can. Schools should be the best environ ments for this sampling of ideas to take place. If our schools would stress this point, instead of trying to teach “absolute truths,” there would be no need for biology textbooks to make the distinc tion between “facts” and “theories.” And if Biblical or scientific concepts aren’t strong enough to stand up to valid questioning, then they are prob ably not worth clinging to. — The Battalion Editorial Board Letters: Death penalty isn't murder Editor: The Battalion Editorial Board printed an editorial Jan. 26 entitled “Execution Another Form of Murder.” The Board is obviously confused. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines the word ex ecution as “a putting to death in accord ance with a legal sentence.” Webster’s de fines the word murder as “the unlawful and malicious or premeditated killing of a person.” There is clearly a distinction between execution and murder. When a person murders someone, he has taken it upon himself to judge the other person’s right to life. The people that represent the law, however, judge the convict’s right to life. Capital punishment is definitely needed. With no death penalty, convicts could only be given life sentences as max imum punishment. These convicts might have a chance to be paroled and could again be a threat to society. These same convicts would have no thing to lose if they tried to escape and did not succeed. No time could be added to their life sentences. The only deterrent would be the death penalty. These con victs, knowing the possible results of failed escape attempts, would not be as eager to escape. The Board also wrote, “But what if the man or woman on death row is inno cent?” If the death penalty was not given as a punishment, this person would have been given some other punishment, Would it have been fair for that same “innocent” person to spend life in prison? I believe not. The problem of an innocent person being convicted does not lie with in the punishment given, but within the courts that convicted that person. These courts are run by humans, and are there fore fallible. The Board finished with the question, “If abortion is murder, what do you call executions?” I would call executions a necessary part of legal system. Some peo ple say that it is unfair to execute a con victed criminal, but I ask you, would it be fair for a child to. come home and find his mother splattered all over the kitchen floor? We must use capital punishment to deter these would-be murderers. Patrick Kane Class of ’87 God condones death penalty Editor: I would like to address the editorial by the Battalion staff affirming execution as a form of murder. Is, then, incarceration a form of kidnapping? What distinguishes imprisonment from kidnapping is not that human life is involved in one but not the other or that the will of the person is violated in one but not the other. Human life and human will are involved in both. These are not the defining characteristics of murder, either. The reason that the Battalion staff and many people find it “impossible to deter mine right or wrong in such a case as this (execution)” is that they don’t under stand what issues are involved. The staff judged correctly that execu tion, as well as abortion, are moral issues, and a moral issue implies responsibility to God. The key issue is that the life of man is owned by God, not man. If one person WT WAN & Aim AND dINU£ALL7 WILL REALU TALK ABOUT... -A ...Is Rea? a feaoan nuTP r ...Do you think there will be a nuclear freeze p r . Do vou live near a bomb shelter p Is Andropov "a nut ? r Do you think they'lldet the START talks Did you see "The Election li By anc i Sore Are and Ciau the 1 flue rath an < victi (or group) determines to take the life of another, the focal point is not whether the other person is a human being — it is whether God, the creator and owner, agrees to it. God not only agrees to the execution of murderers, he requires it. In Gen.9:6, God said to Noah, “Who so sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man.” If that isn’t clear enough, consider Lev.24:l7, “And he who killeth any man shall surely be put to death.” Rom. 13:4 says that rulers don’t bear the sword in vain. This is what distinguishes the abortion of the unborn from the execution of the murderer — God is the owner of the life. An expectant mother does not own the life of her baby; the choice to have that baby killed is not rightfully hers. God owns the life of the murderer as well and has required the state to take it. Debbie Gilliam Math Graduate Student Jeans Day a joke Editor: A question: To whom does The Batta lion refer in your “Is it in the Jeans?” section of the Bad Bull awards? The terribly witty comment on the reprint was “Need more be written?” Rather nebulous, that. All of the Brazos Valley gay organizations know full well that Jeans Day made fools of many last semester, but whom from the multitude do you award? The bus driver who wore an olive leisure suit to work that day? The jeans-clad teaching assistant who could not convince his students of his quite ex tant non-gay proclivity? My effeminate friend H—, deep in his closet, who wore pinstripes so “no one would suspect“? All the world-class univeristy students who have no idea that places like LSU and Central Michigan have Jeans Day every semester, who seemed to assume Mr. De- Palma got the idea as he buttered his toast that morning? The intellectuals who could only fatuously mimic our attempts at explaining our purpose and goals with Jeans Day? Ms, Paasch, formerly of Bat talion fame, who ex post facto consistent ly ignored our many success stories and letters of follow-up in favor of fun damentalists’ ravings? Truthfully, we at Alternatives/GSS/ MCCBV/“News and Views” hae been laughing about Jeans Day ever since then. You are 101 percent right in dis cerning that somebody deserves your esteemed award, but I certainly hope it can be stretched to extend to every homophobe and closet-case who earned it. To quote the inimitable Rev. Jon Mil ler paraphrasing Bette Midler: “Love ’em if they can’t take a joke.” Jaye McShawney Abstinence, not abortion Editor: I would like to add my comments to the recent letters on abortion. There are other choices, as was pointed out by Dawn Wright’s letter of Jan. 25. I think that there is one more thing to bear in mind. Any couple who willingly enters into a sexual relationship should realize that sex has a purpose other than personal gratification. Procreation is also part of the process. There are ways of preventing pre gnancy today. We aren’t stupid as far as unfairly Si contraception is concerned. Okay, so the methods aren’t foolproof. Two consent ing partners should accept responsibility for any consequences and not take the easy way of escaping the problem. Too often we shirk responsibility for chioces we freely and knowingly made. When another life is at stake shouldn’t we look at other alternatives? The child is not unwanted by any except those who created it. There are families who would love and care for it. We all know the risks, and if you can not stand to face the consequences then the best solution is to abstain. Joann Vredenburg Class of ’85 schedule Both theories can be true bers By GRANT SWARTZWELDE1 gion On Jan. 24, Gov. Mark! ^ arranged three special elections.It set for April 7. The third, thecoM p isc ^ Bill Presnal’s seat on the state legist is scheduled for March 10 ini County. to see March 10 just happens tobeai 13 pe day during Texas A&M’s spring: ipenc The majority of students and facui 1 have left for the week. IfWhitei L cerned about voter participation,!!! ■ j0n f : counterproductive to scheduler )LIC ^S' tion when one-third of the cot Usua population will be out of town. v White is claiming that an earlydi ■ j )ers date is imperative to ensure repte vVedi tion for Brazos County assoonasj the ti ble. I’m glad to know we’ll getouri rint. sentation. It’sjust toobadournew sentative will have to wait to rep rK - Al — the Legislature will not until June at the earliest. Editor: I can’t believe that two advanced stu dents of science (Dan Eggers, computer science, and David Baker, biology) can have such a poor understanding of scien tific method and the difference between a theory and a hypothesis. It seems Mr. Baker must not have paid much attention in freshman biology or comparative ana tomy. If he had, he might have a better understanding of what evolutionary theory means. proie man; ‘port bers ( prote reader’s forum Brazos County’s representation A little more Bible study might also prove enlightening. The order of appearance of the groups in Genesis is almost identical to the scientific account. Also, the word “day” as used in the Old Testament could mean any period of time, not just 24 hours. Finally, as a born-again Christian be liever, I find it impossible to believe that my God would lie to me, and so I feel that the great mass of fossil evidence simply cannot be ignored. Keeping the above points in mind, I find no difficulty in believing both in God and evolution. The Bible just says that God created this world; it doesn’t say how. I believe that he used natural forces (i.e. natural selection and evolution) to accomplish this. Ml vital that White avoided combiniri special election with a municipaleis already scheduled for April?.Hi combined the two, he would havei the county approximately $22,00) If the welfare of Brazos CounF really at stake, why didn’t Whitepfi a March 3 election? This would given us an additional weekofrepn tation at the out-of-session legist A March 3 election date wouldpn one problem, however. This date* have allowed the student bodyandl ty of Texas A&M to partidpate. A turnout of 10,000 voters cof :pected, judging from past eh' nnsiderintr that between 4.0® ex{ Considering that between 4,( 6,000 students are registered ini County, Texas A&M’s studeni !> Richard Barnett Class of ’85 Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences could exert considerable influent! Voter registration only lasts uni day. Registering to vote inBrazosG would allow you to vote in thes election and the upcoming primary. A good student turnoui best way to show Austin thatlexai 1 will not tolerate political manipi* and injustice. (Grant Swartzwelder is a jun»| roleum engineering major and i Vice President of Academic Alf The Battalion USPS 045 360 Editor Rebeca Zimmermann Managing Editor J°bn Wagner City Editor Patrice Koranek Assistant City Editors Kathleen Hart, Stephanie Ross News Editor. Tracey Taylor Assistant News Editors Susan Talbot, Wanda Winkler Editorial Page Editor Kathy Wiesepape Sports Editor Bonn Friedman Assistant Sports Editor. . 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