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Show opinion/ MONDAY* SEPTEMBER 19*2005 faculty corner Iraq war: Cause and effects Evolution vs. intelligent designpart II Well, response was such to last week's column that I've decided to write on the same topic this week, but this time in more depth (after all, it's hard to make a case in 500 words). If you missed it last week, my main points were: a.) science, not theology or philosophy, should be taught in science class, and b.) science doesn't have the capacity to prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being or Intelligence responsible for creating the world. Now, going beyond the political debate, the question still looms: where does the evidence we do have seem to point? Could we be, as Darwin asserted, the result of random and gradual evolution? The descendants of apes? As one scientist put it, are we mere computers with meat, having no greater purpose than to live a short period and die, never to exist again? "No educated person any longer questions the validity of the so-called theory of evolution, which we now know to be a simple fact," declared evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr. Ernst Mayr, however, is wrong. Darwinian evolution, at least in its more sweeping claims, is far from being the final say. "All scientific knowledge," admitted the National Academy of Sciences, "is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available.11 This quote is actually very similar to the one I mentioned last week from William Blake. Science is limited and constantly changing. And evolution (particularly in its explanation of the origin of human life) is currently filled with holes and far from providing any concrete answers, especially concerning the "big questions." When considered both logically and intuitively, in fact, it really doesn't seem to make much sense. Think about it. For a true Darwinian Naturalist, you have to believe that non-intelligence created intelligence, that unconsciousness created consciousness, that nothing created everything, and that all the coincidences and complexities of life just happened by some impossible fluke. Imagine someone claiming that a computer just "came together" over time-it has no creator, no cause-it simply developed naturally with all its coding and precision and amazing capacity on its own. Human beings are infinitely more complex than computers, and yet that's the assertion being madethat we evolved naturally and gradually from mere matter with no intelligence SeeJ0E-A7 Opinions Desk (801) 863-8617 of Energy, Middle Eastern governments,i.e., In regard to the war with Iraq, we have Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to come to terms with two interrelated facts: will have to double their daily production lev(1) we are dangerously dependent on Middle els to meet the growing international demand Eastern oil; (2) our dependence on imported for oil. Thus, the U.S. will seek to subvert oil is the primary reason we are at war. any government in the Persian Gulf Basin that does not exploit its resources in a manner At the beginning of the 20th century, the which increases oil exports to the West. U.S. was the largest producer of oil. By the In regard to Saddam Hussein, the facts inend of World War II, it became apparent that our domestic reserves were too small to dicate that the U.S. never had a problem with meet the growing demand for oil. Our depen- his being a dictator. Hussein was able to viodence on foreign oil has led us to overthrow lently suppress conflicts among the various democratically elected governments and to religious, political, and ethnic groups in Iraq. support dictatorships. A 1945 State Depart- Because he was able to ensure stability, the ment memo contended that the oil reserves of U.S. did not object to his brutality. In 1984, Saudi Arabia, "must remain under American Iraq used chemical weapons in its war against control for the dual purpose of supplementing Iran. The Reagan Administration responded and replacing our dwindling reserves, and of by restoring diplomatic relations with Iraq. preventing this power potential from falling In 1988, Hussein used chemical weapons into unfriendly hands." Thus, in exchange for against Iraqi Kurds and murdered thousands access to Saudi oil, every President from FDR more using conventional techniques. The to Bush II has supported a corrupt, Islamic U.S. subsequently strengthened its economic fundamentalist dictatorship in Saudi Arabia. ties to Iraq. However, Hussein made a critical error It is projected that we will become much more dependent on oil from the Persian Gulf when he overthrew the family dictatorship B asin in the near future. According to a report, of Kuwait in 1990. Iraq has over 10% of the authored by Dick Cheney,U.S. domestic pro- world's oil. Kuwait contains over 9%. If he duction of oil will decrease by 18% over the had succeeded in invading Kuwait's neighnext two decades. During this same period, bor, the domestic consumption is expected to grow dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, he would have by about 31%. Obviously, petroleum imports been in control of well over 40% of the world's will have to dramatically increase. According oil reserves. The U.S. was willing to support to another report released by the Department Hussein, but it wasn't prepared to give that much power to one dictator. This was the reason for the Gulf War. In the period after the Gulf War, it became apparent that Saddam Hussein posed a major barrier to the West's access to oil. Iraq was unable to fully exploit its own resources and there was always the possibility that it might disrupt the flow of oil from other nations in the region. Therefore, invading Iraq was always part of Bush's agenda. The Bush Administration's false assertions that Iraq was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that it was close to developing a nuclear weapon were merely convenient excuses for the invasion. We are asking soldiers to sacrifice their lives (and the lives of Iraqis) in order for us to have cheap gas. Another option would be for civilians to make sacrifices, i.e., conserve energy and develop renewable sources of energy. This would better enable us to have an American foreign policy that is more consistent with American values. Alexander Simon Associate Professor of Sociology Utah Valley State Dear Editor, I was one of the few townspeople who attended this Monthly Ethics Forum entitled "From Past to Future: Assessing UVSC's Changing Role as an Institution of Higher Education". It was very interesting and informative. Four members of the panel gave well thought out opinions on Academic Freedom from the Liberal standpoint. Norman Nielsen was the only Conservative on the panel. He is a former State Representative in the Utah Legislature, former member of the Board of Trustees of UVSC and UVSC Development Committee, and is currently on the UVSC Community Relations Committee. He did an outstanding job under the circumstances (being greatly outnumbered). He pointed out that the American Association of University Professors are 85 percent liberals with 15 percent Conservatives. His plea was for BALANCE in the classroom, and when there are two sides to a subject, both should be presented, with the students being the final judge as to what they want to accept or reject. One teacher who appeared to be very liberal (and very courteous) said he felt he could not fully express his opinions because he did not have Tenure and feared that it might put his job in jeopardy. Another teacher who STRONGLY OPPOSED some of Mr. Nielsen's remarks said that he himself is LDS and that there IS some persecution of LDS students at UVSC and that this should stop. I believe that teachers at UVSC and elsewhere should have academic freedom to discuss whatever they want in the area of what they are teaching, but should not use their position as a soapbox to promote their special opinions on things outside of their field. (President Sederburg has also said the same thing). Mr. Nielsen concluded that if academic freedom was followed in this way, and that ideas and opinions could be expressed freely on all sides without fear of retaliation, and we could disagree without being disagreeable, UVSC would be virtually unique and the envy of U.S. Academia. That sounds pretty good to me. —Grant Misbach Dear Editor, "One Stop" is a mistake, period. Sadly, no one is openly criticizing the huge mess it's created because people are not willing to go out on a limb and tell the emperor that his new clothes are not real, and his One Stop idea is a big waste of space, money, and resources. The whole premise for the idea is stupidity. Is it not obvious that eliminating ten long lines and combining them creates one HUGE, RIDICULOUSLY LONG LINE? So we have eliminated the "Run-Around." Was it really so much worse than the "Stand-Around?" Now, a new student has to compete for a place in line with sixty other students who need one of five different things, instead of the ten other students who share his need. Well, I don't suppose I need to form a strong argument since the evidence speaks for itself. Anyone who has walked into the Administration Building has had to squeeze past a hoard of highly agitated students who have been corralled into a maze of crowdcontrol barriers extending out past the information desk and down the hall towards the Business Building. Pure Genius. Yes, the emperor is naked! No, I'm not an innocent little boy, but I'm no "fool" either. —J. Carlson Dear Editor, I want to smoke marijuana, but instead I pay taxes so that I can hire police to keep me from smoking marijuana. Is vegetation really my enemy? What was your personal experience the last time that you smoked marijuana? Or perhaps, like that rascally Bill Clinton, you didn't inhale. Or perhaps you believe the threatening propaganda of Uncle Sam's drug czar, "Weed will make you kill and steal!" We call this the "Land of the Free." However, if I want to grow a naturally-occurring, ultra-useful, God-given plant in my personally-owned back yard for my private use or consumption, I am suddenly a criminal faced with automatic years of jail time and fines in the thousands of dollars. America cannot be called the "Land of the Free" while cancer patients waste away, vomiting and aching to death, while the perfect medicine for their pain is banned by insane bureaucrats. In countries like Canada, citizens are not thrown in prison based on their proximity to a certain plant. Perhaps Canada is the new "Land of the Free/' where Americans can go on vacation to experience personal freedom in the privacy of their homes. The call of sanity and common sense has been heeded to some degree in states like Alaska and Nevada, where allowances for medicinal marijuana use and general decriminalization of the good-herb has made progress. The honest feeling of this 22-year-old working-class man is that the outlawing of a plant is the true crime against nature and sanity. I can only conclude that the obscure, ultra-rich people who own this country and its government have some financial interest in keeping marijuana off of the pharmacy shelves. In a better world, they would be honest about their big-business motives and stop insulting us with ridiculous propaganda touting pretenses of concern for public well-being. In my opinion, keeping marijuana from cancer patients and other suffering individuals equals inhumanity in thefirstdegree - and that is evil. —Mark James Idler/ to (he editor Dear Editor, What is UVSC doing this year? I see they have taken major steps toward becoming a university, such as: taking down the word "college" on signs, making the registration system incomprehensible, and making its 25,000+ students wait in a line for an hour just to be told, "You need to go talk to this person...and then come back." Major strides for us and minimal progress for the school. I know that there have been major problems with the Banner system along with major complaints, so I will just add to that list. Due to Banner registration it took about two hours rather than the 15 minutes last year, and some credits are not appearing on my transcripts. The One-Stop is actually a really long line, in which you wait in line for someone who is not in the financial aid department, registration, or admissions. They just tell you who you need to talk to instead of them. How helpful!! Last year I had such difficulty reading those signs that said "Financial Aid," "Registration;' and "Admissions." This just saves me so much time. NEWSFLASH UVSC: reconfiguring the building acronyms and building make-overs does not constitute as steps for university-dom. This would be like the "UtahGirls" dying their hair dark rather than just the extreme weaves! We can do better than this...maybe hire more faculty, enhance departments and schools to actually benefit the students, and remember when it comes to payroll and registration, quality rather than saving money so the administration can make something else prettier! —Katie Wrigley LETTERS TO THE EDITOR * •E-MaiIlcBerstouvscopinlonsi3haunail.com .'-'. • ' . . 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