Forum
Of readers Yook
all around believe
and their
“1 think
are the nonI ~-as in the Environnwntnl Studies smoking lounge a couple weeks ago, and came across an old Imprint. Flipping through it, I found the words “Fuck you” scrawled across a piece I wrote about the Blue Jays after they won the Series. Not one of my more eIoquent critics. But by far the most interesting comments are the ones simply oirerheard -around the Campus Centre, in my classes, or wherever. Sometime last year, for exampie, a staff member came down and warned me that he had overheard a couple men saving they should go dowrn to the Imprint office and “gun down Dave Thomson.” That definitely takes the cake m the category of most violent reaction. As ii nears the end of another year, we often take some time to reflect. And since I’m in my fifth year on campus, much of lvhich has been spent volunteering for this paper, there’s a lot to reflect about. What follows is a selective look at readers’ opinions on various things I’ve written about during that time, but mostly deals with responses to my thoughts about Even-more
interesting
responses.
November
opinions
Mr. Thomson
wrote
his article
with a closed mind and preconceived notions firmly in place . . . . As for morality and religion -- religion should help people make decisions they feel comfortable with . . . I (Dave) has no conception of everv day people such as myself who study theology and practise religion, not as a psychological crutch, but as a way of life which is enriching and rewarding.” Early in 1990, the urge to tackle to topic struck me once again, as did the readers’ compulsion to write letters to the editor. . . “Look
all around
you,
look at nature, to is no explanation for
look at the stars and sky. If you want believe
that there
them, then do so. But wouldn’t it be so much easier to believe that there is a God that is so much greater than any human and that He is responsible for all these things that can’t be explained by man?” “God reveals Himself not only through the Bible, but also through creation and humanity. It may be harder to see the revelation, but it is there.” Over a year ago, in response to a piece I wrote supporting feminism, Mr. Salovaara (one of this week’s letter-writers) wrote the following: “Dave Thomson thinks that all politically incorrect men are either threatened males or religious types that ought to be ignored. Why, Dave? Why malign
religious types? Did not religious zeal teach you artsy, intellectual, and politically correct types how to preach?” Late in 1991, the urge to attack organized religion overcame me once again; and I wrote a two-page feature on the subject of atheism. As I recall, we received an extraordinary amount of letters to the editor -about 50 if memory serves. “Although Mr. Thomson claims that his world view is based on observation and logic, very little logic is used to state his opinion. “ “Thomson makes the mindboggling (and quite fallacious) claim that, ‘either god is omniscient and omnipotent and humans do not have free will, or we do have free will and god is a little less than all-knowing. ” “The third aspect of God, His all-lovingness, prevents Him from interfering with free will. I’ “Would you call Hitler or Stalin logical just because they were Atheists?” “Atheists never look for external causes to explain a crisis? Tell that to the millions of Jews who were killed under Hitler and Stalin. ” If. * . society has progressed to where we can safely point out the stupidity of religion without being tortured to death in the name of brotherly love, otherwise Dave Thomson would only be only a pile of cinders by now ” “It’s about time atheists went on the attack against the superstition that still lingers. Reasoned argument is a waste of time since believers in religion have constructed a system of evasidns, halftruths, rationalizations, and flat-out lies that couldn’t be demolished by a nuclear explosion. Our best response is to simply
11
Imprint 27, 1992
mmI
you, look at nature, look at the stars and sky. If you that there is no explanation for them, then do so. ‘I religion. In 198Y, 1 wrote a short opinion piece about religion. Naturally, believers felt they had to write so as to steer me in the right direction . . .
\-erbalized
Friday,
want
to
laugh in their faces.” “Only the weak feel the need to believe in God -- there should be no further dilemma.” The dozens of letter writers also provided a list of recommended reading for me, such as C.S. Lewis (three times), the Qur’an, The Encycloprdia of Philosophy, and Evidence That Demands A Verdict. One fellow even gave me a book, which attempted to demonstrate the pitfalls of
atheism. After co-authoring the Student Life Centre
a piece criticizing referendum . - . “I would like to applaud Dave Thomson and Peter Brown for standing up for student rights. I’m glad to see someone is keeping an eye on the Fed people.” Former Fed Prez John Leddy wrote that “I challenge you to finlll ally councillox or student who has been involved in OUR Federation who could honestly say we have been anything but open and honest in our actions and initiatives.” What is it that motivates one to write a letter? Granted, everyone has an opinion on religion, but nobody wrote in response to my assertion that drinking and driving is basically alright, or a feature advocating the legalization of marijuana, or other politically incorrect opinions. If you can’t be bothered to give us feedback by writing a letter to the editor, at least try to find time to offer an opinion on the entire paper, via the Reader’s Survey on page 12.
Dave
Thomson
RELIGION & FAITH In the
20th
Century
Presented by the UW Student Christian Movement
Institutionalized by Ken
Craig
“The structural purpose of the modern university has little to do with the traditional quest.” - Ivan Illich As I walk around the grounds of the University and its surrounding area, I can’t help but realize that overwhelmingly the majority of students are between the ages of 19 and 26. Seeing such a “lump” of youth, I must ask myself, “where does the experience and wisdom of past ages come from?” For many of us at university, the only wisdom from ages past will come to us from Aristotle, the Bible, the Koran, or some old traditional folk tales -- in other words, wisdom from a book. For some of us in more restrictive programs, we wun’t even receive that. Many of us in this institution for higher learning will never come across anyone old enough to be our grandparents, and hence we will never have the opportunity to come face to face with a person who has experienced for themselves: a World War, a land suffering under economic depression, or days before television and rock and roll. In Canada, we are so god-damn “fortunate” to have the money to have our elderly “taken care of” by trained professionals in sanitized and institutionalized living
accommodations.
We are so fortu-
nate that we can’t see how unfortunate we are. In our search for Truth and self-knowledge (if students even care of such things today) how can we not look to our roots for
Wisdom identification? How can we segregate and cut ourselves off from those people who have gone before us and who have within them countless stories to tell us about the multiplicity of life. Recently, I visited a friend of mine who is 76 years old and who has been deaf since his childhood. When I visit, he tells me what it was like to live in a neighbourhood when a young man went off to fight in a war and would never return. He would relate to me how the young man had a name, a family, and a history, and in a short time, it was all gone. My friend also tells me of how his brothers and he would play games outside all day which required creativity, for they weren’t satiated by a television screen, and their imaginations weren’t stifled and pacified by the Bart Simpsons and Ninja Turtles of this world. And best of all, in our friendship and trust, my friend shares with me his acquired experiences of God, and life, and death. As I walk around the grounds of the University and its surrounding area carrying my dialogues of Plato and my William Butler Yeats poetry book, I can’t help but realize that the segregation of past experienceandwisdomintosanitizedand institutionalized living accommodations is one of the greatest tragedies to come upon the Western world. I know that wisdom does dwell in a least one institution in this country. I am just not sure it is the University. The views expressed in this column are thoseoftheauthor and da not necessarily rqre-
smt those ofevery member of fhe UW Student Christian Movement or those ofImprint’s staff or editorial board.
Make a Run k For The Border.
Now open in the Festival
South Campus Hall.
Room,