Is There Truth in Religion
Like Truth in Mathematics
and Science?
Walter L. Bradley, Ph.D., RE.
Emeritus Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, Texas A&M University
It is widely believed today that all beliefs about religion and
morals are subjective and personal. If this is so, then all beliefs
about religion and morality are equally valid, and claims that
ones beliefs are true and others beliefs are false results in the
accusation of intolerance. But if all religious truth is subjective
and personal, it is also trivial. Is it possible that religious and
moral truth could be trans-cultural and objectively true, like
truth in mathematics and science? And if so, how could we
determine what religious truth claims actually are true?
Rudder 301: Wednesday
(not Tuesday)
April 12 th @ 7:00 p.m.
Christian Faculty Network @ TAMU
Spring Lecture Series
Science
Page 8
THE BATTALION
Tuesday. Ir,
Doctors urge thyroid test! oc
WASHINGTON (AP) — Feeling a
little fatigued? A tad forgetful or de
pressed? Put on a little weight lately?
They sound like run-of-the-mill com
plaints, particularly ifyou have a stress
ful job or are hitting middle-age.
But those also are some of the fre
quently overlooked early symptoms of
thyroid disease — and a new study esti
mates 13 million Americans may be un
diagnosed.
That’s a slightly higher estimate than
previously thought, and it comes as
some specialists are urging that a simple
$25 thyroid test become a routine part of
many adults’ doctor visits even if they
don't complain of symptoms.
Why? Even mild thyroid problems
might cause big consequences: Pregnant
women with an underactive thyroid risk
having children with lower IQs, and new
research shows even a little hypothy
roidism can raise cholesterol levels.
Yet thyroid disease is easily treated if
people know they have it. How to find
out: the TSH blood test.
“We have to get this message out,"
said Dr. E. Chester Ridgway, the Uni-
versity of Colorado’s endocrinology
chief. “We’ve been trying for many
years to get primary-care physicians to
use the TSH as a part of their screen
ings,” but people don't realize “it’s a big
problem.”
The bow tie-shaped gland in the front
of your neck, just below the Adam’s ap
ple, causes an amazing variety of health
problems because it produces hormones
that regulate metabolism and stimulate
almost every type of tissue in the body.
For unknown reasons, it can become
overactive and speed up certain body
functions, or become underactive and
slow body functions. Both cause a vari
ety of symptoms once the disease ad
vances enough, what doctors call
“overt" thyroid disease.
An underactive thyroid — hypothy
roidism — is by far the most common
problem. Symptoms are easily mistaken
for other conditions: fatigue, weight gain
as metabolism slows, depression, forget
fulness, a hoarse voice, mood sw ings, in
tolerance to cold.
Symptoms of hyperthyroidism, an
overactive gland, are usually more clear:
The heart beats fast, sometimes irregu
larly. Blood pressure rises. Patients
sweat easily, feel nervous, sleep poorly.
They lose weight without trying, be
come depressed and confused, develop
vision problems or bulging eyes.
Either condition sometimes enlarges
the thyroid, so the American Association
of Clinical Endocrinologists recom
mends checking your neck.
But you don’t have to feel a bump in
your neck to have a thyroid problem,
stresses Dr. Terry Davies of New York’s
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, editor
of the journal Thyroid and a proponent of
better TSH testing.
Overt thyroid disease raises people’s
risk of heart disease, bone-thinning os
teoporosis and infertility. The call for
more testing comes amid concern that
mild, even asymptomatic, thyroid failure
could be risky.
Ridgway wrote a recent study in the
Archives of Internal Medicine that gave
TSH tests to 25,000 people attending
health fairs in Colorado. Based on those
results, he estimated some 13 million peo
ple nationwide may have undiagnosed
thyroid disease, mostlyh)^ jop i' WOI
While thyroid failure went up ear i y t0
mainly a problem for olds A | onautics C o,
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ing thyroid tests tbrpregnr employees who
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roidism during pregnancy, many workers h
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roid stimulating hormone.' notably 80 pla
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Thyroid gland process
The thyroid is the body's regulator,
producing hormones essential to the
function of most tissues. Here is how
the thyroid gland is triggered
to release hormones.
Brain
Hypothala"
oQ
O Hypothalamus releases hormone
that signals the pituitary gland.
QThe pituitary gland makes a
thyroid-stimulating hormone
(THS).
QTHS causes the thyroid gland to
make hormones that regulate
metabolism and organ function.
PituitSf)
gland
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Thyroid disease results when
the gland becomes either
underactive - producing too
little hormone - or overactive,
producing too much.
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