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Thursday, October 6, 2011
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Issue 34
Vol. 118
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Debate raises questions on faith’s origins Jasmine Jensen Staff Writer If a person was not raised to believe in one thing or another, would he still find something similar to believe in as he grows older? One might be raised to believe in one god and as one grows older he may start to question the beliefs that he once took for granted. Dr. Justin L. Barrett and Dr. Gordon M. Burghardt touched on this issue in their talk, “Faith, Psychology, and the Origins of God,” presented in the UC auditorium. “Various features of the mind — mental tools evolved to solve problems unrelated to religious gods — collaborate to produce natural receptivity to belief in one god,” Barrett said. Barrett’s meaning is simple. From a very young age, people can tell the difference between an interactive object (people, animals, etc.), and one that is not, as well as between something that is moving compared to something that is not moving (water, ball, toy, etc.). Therefore people can find belief in something that does not physically exist and may exist solely to them, i.e. an imaginary friend, with whom one can interact, just as he or she would interact with a deity at an older age. The notion of whether a person’s beliefs are truly psychological or were just drilled into him was discussed at the event. If someone was not raised to believe in any kind of god, would that person believe in one later in life? Not every person believes in a god, but every person at one point in time will try to question the idea. Does the Christian god exist? Does any god exist? These were a few of
the various themes and questions discussed at the lecture. Barrett took these ideas and placed them into juxtaposition with a figurehead of popular culture: Harry Potter. Barrett quotes “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in an attempt to help create a possible correlation for his listeners. Barrett’s chosen quote comes from the scene in which Harry questions Albus Dumbledore about the state of reality by asking, “Is this real, or is it all happening inside my head?” To this Dumbledore replies, “Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” He uses this example as a way to explain that we believe what we believe because we are all individual thinkers and question individual things. Even though an idea of a god, any god, is instilled somewhere inside the brain, no matter how little or large that idea or belief is, it is an idea open to that individual’s interpretation. Barrett makes the point that the reality of one’s belief comes from the individual’s perception, as opposed to a global one. This idea of individual faith rings true with many UT students, including John Ward, a junior in electrical engineering. “I think individual faith comes from perception,” Ward said. “So I feel that one’s faith comes from one’s idea of faith.” Barrett and Burghardt went on to discuss the deep-seeded relationship between science and religion. • Image courtesy of thetarotroom.com Both Barrett and Burghardt made strong arguments on the matter of faith, psychology Dr. Justin Barrett spoke on the issue of faith in, “Faith, Psychology, and the Origins of and the origins of god, and hopefully fostered God.” Barrett and Dr. Gordon M. Burghardt explored the idea that people, independdebate about this controversial and critical ent of their upbringings, have a natural propensity to believe in a higher being. subject.
Joy Hill • The Daily Beacon
Students in a fiction writing class take the opportunity of a nice day and hold class outside of the Humanities building on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The recent cooling is the first sign of fall, ushering in mild temperatures and the changing of the colors in nature.
Tomblin retains gubernatorial seat in W.Va. The Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president’s health care plan. Tomblin, who has been acting governor for the past year, will finish the final year of a term left vacant by Joe Manchin, a well-liked governor who stepped down after he won a U.S. Senate seat. The race was fraught with negative ads from both sides and narrowed in the final weeks. The national parties spent millions of dollars on each campaign. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Tomblin had 50 percent of the vote compared with Republican Bill Maloney’s 47 percent, according to unofficial results. Tomblin campaigned as the rightful heir to Manchin. He said together they helped shape policies that created pain-free balanced budgets and revenue surpluses at a time when other states continued to struggle during the recession. “We tried to stay on message as much as possible,”
Tomblin told to The Associated Press before addressing his supporters Tuesday night. “We do have a stable budget and a stable economy in West Virginia. That’s what people are looking for.” A veteran state lawmaker, Tomblin fended off questions about his mother’s greyhound breeding business and efforts to tie him to Obama. Republicans were upset Tomblin didn’t join a majority of other states who sued the administration over the health care plan. Obama lost West Virginia in 2008 and remains wildly unpopular there, but Tomblin got a replay of last year’s U.S. Senate special election, when Manchin beat back efforts to tie him to Obama. Democrats outnumber the GOP by nearly 2-to-1 in West Virginia, but they are considered more conservative than their national counterparts on both social and fiscal issues, supporting gun rights and cutting taxes. Maloney called to congratulate Tomblin before conceding the race at a gathering of campaign backers in Morgantown, where he has been a drilling engineer and became a millionaire businessman. The political newcomer said he started the race with “zero name ID, zero traction and zero chance.”
“All along the way, the insiders were lined up against us, but that didn’t matter to me because I wasn’t running for them, I was running for you.” The Obama ads featured images of the president floating on the screen with Tomblin. One spot asks: “What’s Gov. Tomblin doing about Obamacare? Absolutely nothing.” Of at least 21 spots that aired, 15 were attack ads. The negative ads turned Dushyant Shekhawat against Maloney. “He’s not fighting against Tomblin; he’s fighting against Obama. That I don’t like. He should concentrate his run against Tomblin,” said Shekhawat, a federal employee at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The link to the president resonated with Mark Gingerich, who voted for Maloney. “I think it’s important right now to have a conservative Republican governor because the states are going to have to do something together to do away with Obamacare, the socialized medicine,” Gingerich said. Tomblin, meanwhile, used ads to blame Maloney for sending jobs to Pennsylvania when the drilling firm he co-founded moved there. But the relocation came four years after Maloney sold his shares in the company.