Show Student Life — Utah State University Page 4 tudent Life The STUDENT LIFE's official edioiial position ' Other material expressed in the columns diiectl ) below the this the next page express on page and opinions of the individual writer and not necessarily the STliDENl 11 Eli's unless indicated ff Sometime during the Holidays the ice cracked Logan City Attorney Ted S Perry in a letter to Student Life Monday asked that students who received overnight parking tickets during Nov 17 and the 24 be notified that the charges would be dismissed (His letter is printed below) Although the ice cracked around City officials and they took a look at their ordinance and ticket books the ice certainly did not melt In Attorney Perry’s letter there is no mention of the fact those students and Logan citizens who can not comply with the law because of obvious physical reasons It was prudent on the part of Attorney Perry Logan Police and Judge Champlin to dismiss charges against the 100 who pleaded not guilty in City Court Nov 22 And it is a slap of good cheer on the backs of students who supported student leaders during the conflict with the City over the overnight parking ordinance We feel that Attorney Perry’s letter ice cracker (letter) is a step for cooperation between the City ASUSU government and the University Perhaps NOW through the efforts of the three the obvious obligation and responsibility can be enforced where the obligation and responsibility belongs with the landlords ASUSU can insist that student housing do not approve housing unless there is adequate parking provided Secondly Logan City Commission can make sure no licenses are granted for future apartment housing building unless there is adequate parking in the plans Lastly the University has a responsibility to those students who live on Greek Row Since the fraternity and sorority houses are deemed "University Housing” some parking should be provided for them We’re glad the ice cracked Now maybe it will melt off-camp- BY JACK SPENCE Until the of Galileo in one form time pro-vide- d his-tor- y g re-treat- “is Huxley) e Along with this victory of a new and more modest concept of the nature of truth has emerged No longer is it in any meaningful possible sense to speak of absolute truths as have the religions of the past (and many of the present) Truth has become a statement of prob sci-enc- ability a more or less reason able hypothesis that must be to continuing testing and which might be disproved tomor row but will never attain the sta-tu- s of an absolute In fact it is now clear that what were taken by men to be absolute truths sub-jecte- d their usual practice of making a notation their book as to the length of time they low in Logan Utah observed each automobile parked While the officers are confident that the automobiles receiving a ticket were in fact parked in the excess of one hour since they did not make notation and since it is difficult to remember the exact details with respect to twen-t- y or thirty cars the officers felt that with out the note they could not testify positively that they observed each car for one hour during the period in question The officers consider testimony in court as being a very solemn obligation and they did not feel that their memories of each car were sufficiently strong to make a positive statement as to the length of time each car was parked Since Logan City is required to sustain each charge beyond a reasonable doubt it was my opinion that if the students were willing to testify under oath that their cars in fact were not parked in excess of one hour between the hours of 1 and 5 am on the night in question as indicated by their “not guilty” pleas then the city would be unable to sustain a burden of proof because the officers did not have notes with which to refresh their recollection The police officers of Logan City as a rule always make a notation on their books indica! ting how long a car was observed to be park-eand the only reason they did not during the week in question was because of the great number of cars that received tickets I am sure the students would a notice in your paper telling them appreciate that do not have to appear at the time setthey for trial on the overnight parking tickets Sincerely yours Dear Sir: Would you please put a notice in your pap er for the benefit of those students who re ceived overnight parking tickets between Nov 17 and Nov 24 1968 After a careful review of overnight parking cases I have obtained the consent of the Mayor to have the same dismissed It will not be necessary for the students who received overnight parking tick ets during the above week to make an ap pearance in court at the times set for trial on Jan 9 and Jan 15 1969 Approximately one hundred students plead ed “not guilty” to the charge that on the night in question their vehicle had been park ed in excess of one hour on Logan City streets between the hours of 1 am and 5 am This “not guilty” plea made before the Judge is an affirmation by each of these students that they in fact were not parked in violation of the Logan City Ordinance on the night they received a ticket While it seems a little unusual to me that some one hundred s would rise at 2 am 3 am and 4 am and move their automobiles during this week I am required by law to consider each individual case separately from the others and so I had to assume that these students were acting in good faith when they made their “not guilty” plea and they were in fact ready to testify that they did move their cars each hour during the night in question Ordinarily there would be no reason to dis miss a parking ticket of this nature except the officers were required to write so many tickets on night in question they did not fol stu-dent- d TED S PERRY Logan City Attorney Published tri weekly during the school year except during official university holidays and final exam week by the Associated Students of Utah State University Editorial offices Union 315 Business offices Union 317 and change o f address should' be addressed Correspondence to P'O Box 1242 University Station Utah 84321 Subscribtion price $1 Logan per S3 quarter per year Entered for second class postage at the Post Office in Logan Utah Represented for national advertising by National Educational Advertising Service 340 Lexington Ave New York NY 10017 Advertising material presented herein does not necessarily imply endorsement by this newspaper The opinions expressed on the editorial pages of The Student Life do not represent the view of the student body or the University racessarily Administration KAREN BUSH EDITOR-IN-CHIE- TONY BUSINESS F EDITOR ASSISTANT MANAGING SALES MANAGER SALES ADVERTISING CHIEF COPY EDITOR MANAGING ARNONE MANAGER MARDELL EDITOR TERRY MARILYN COOK PARRISH BLEVINS MARK ZAUGG SUE HARRIS STARR CURTIS (ca or 1600) religion another served a need it man with a world view a kind of picture although cer tainly not a realistic one of his universe For a period of over 5000 years of recorded with the brief exception of Greece man’s understanding of the natural world was that pro vided by his religions and the views of the Sumerians were no more naive nor absurd than those held by Galileo’s eclesiastical contemporaries In the twentieth century it is no longer quite sensible to consider religion as a source of understanding of the universe Science has long since taken over this role after hav-inwon every battle with re ligion in the search for truth God as a useful explanatory hypothesis has continually into the fog of metaphy sics until today he be ginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat” (Julian Perry’s Letter Editor of Student Life Utah State University Wednesday Wants Ideas All Tetters to the edit Commeni are welcome gripes views opinions pa on the back whatever yc wish will be published AU letters must be signt and include the stuxlen numbers or social securi numbers for identificatic purposes No phony or unsigni letters will be publishe ‘ Bring letters to Unit Building 315 or mail Student Campui Life- ‘Are Religious 5ystems Necessary?’ Spence Professor of Chemistry USU B s iqu University of Utah Postdoctoral Fellow UniveWn 195758 US Public Health Service Special Fellow !r°f0re' of Basel Switzerland 1964-6Religion None (Agnostic)6 Jack T 1957 fh'D-go- 5 essentially empty state ments since upon examination they are seen to be based on untestable assumptions Further-morit is also evident that of the ultimate many men and asked sup by questions posedly answered by religion are themselves meaningless since they demand absolute answers It has no meaning for example to ask what is the cause of the universe Science can only at tempt to answer questions at some point in time and push this point back as far as possible with its current tools and theories It will never an ultimate (meaningless) swer questions but this is no reason to invoke some supernatural explanation for what is at pre sent not known As Coulson has said “When we come to a puz zling phenomenon within science we should seek better scientific hypotheses rather than claiming we have found God” Quoting Reichenbach “The solution of the problem of absolute certain is negative this is the ty are e so-calle- d answer to an age-ol- d quest” And with this answer the need for religion disappears Even though this is widely understood at least in the sci entific world it is still held by some that religion is necessary since it presumably is the basis of the moral and ethical systems of civilization (it doesn’t mat- ter that - Bo- x- 125 rage are heard ed churches from or ers concerning the sufferings we are £ unwarranS inflicting m( this seems to be left hippies mainly to dissident students other godless types) a loci a ample is found in a recent sur of the attitudes of BYU stu vey dents to the Vietnam war OUa! 153 1968) !U N° i°e 3- 94 - percent of the students questioned thought they exemplified to some extent " the Christian virtues of We brotherhood and consideration for others” 23 5 percentfeltlim-iteforms of torture of Viet Cong suspects justified 393 percent thought napaiming of vli lages harboring Viet Congneces 619 percent indicated the bombing of North Vietnam should sary be increased and 261 agreed that nuclear percent weapons should be employed if necessary to prevent South Vietnam from falling to the Viet Cong None apparently even saw any incon sistency in the answers!! Not all religious groups can of course by so characterized (it is dif of a group of ficult to conceive Quakers having such attitudes historical case however could be made that Christiani ty has been most unsuccessful in inculcating and practicing Its own ethics Certainly one would be hard pressed to argue the necessity of this religious sy- A good the supernatural claims or religion are false it is good stem by an examination of the for law and order) This is of applications of its own morality course an old argument going If one desires to implement back at least to the Egyptian Christian ethics some other than the Christian priests who used it to preserve Church is obviously necessary the state from heretics (and in instru-men- to keep a good thing going for themselves) It however from two major cidentially suf-fer- s difficulties First the moral pre cepts of any religion just els its theology are based on assump-tionconcerning good and bad and as such are equally untestable It is quite possible for instance to give a reasonable psychologi-ca- l explanation for why men act as they do and even to infer from this something about their future behaviour It is quite however to tell men how they should act and call this truth since this involves value judgment and is not based on empirical methods This is equally as meaningless as stating that a painting by Picasso or a sonata by Beethoven is “true” In fact the use of “true” or “false” in such cases is mean ingless and the question concern ing which is the “true” system of ethics cannot be answered Clearly civilization has operat ed quite successfully using a va reity of such systems This of course does not prove that some ethical system is not necessary but it does suggest there are a number of possibilities many of which have nothing whatsoever to do with religion and any given system cannot be held to be necessary by the assertion that it is s “true” Campus Forum jon One argument in favor of re ligion remains There are many (perhaps a majority) who for rea sons probably grounded in some basic insecurity cannot face re-ligio- the uncertainty offered by science For them the true believers there will always be a need forit some absolute system whether is a Christian sect Communism or the John Birch Society To are argue that such systems Is however therefore necessary nihilism an act of intellectual some akin to saying that because addicts have a need of heroin treat we should not attempt to them but only supply the drug the Perhaps some day through win processes of education they of Paa measure acquire a small ana Tillich’s “courage to be’ learn to live with realityn0 is certainty after all of Hans words fearful in the be haZinsser “there may natur D ppiness in contemplatingand peace orderly coordinations with t e in modest fellowship w ' tional and humane spirits0 throughout the brutalities the Pu P° tory have held to compr of reason Complete sion could add very little USU The second major difficulty facing this argument is histori-ca- l Assuming that the moral tenets of the most important system in the western world are both good and de sirable it is rather difficult to' reconcile the bloody history of the Christian Church (both Cath olic and Protestant) with the teachings of Jesus concerning love and brotherhood As examples the Crusades the the Thirty Years War and the Salem Witch Trials im mediately come to mind In every war in Christendom the oppos ing armies have marched to the slaughter with the blessings of the church and the assurance that God is on their side Today few cries of moral out t Professors to discuss “Are Religious Systems Necessary’ To continue ail qiKrter |