Faith can't be spread by acting as 'God's Gestapo'

Faith can't be spread by acting as 'God's Gestapo'
EDITOR:
This is in response to various letters to the editor about the Ohio Board of Education and the debate over the teaching of science.
As a scientifically inclined churchgoer, who has been active in church doings, especially those of a musical nature, I have sometimes wondered if there was no one who could differentiate between allegorical truth and scientific truth. I have read articles by a few, but their voices seemed to be lost in the clangor.
I have taken notice of the intolerant behavior of all too many "Christian" groups. These groups have never learned that acting as God's Gestapo is no way to promote their faith, or to spread the news of the Prince of Peace. My belief is that if any faith has to be promoted and defended in such a manner, then it is not worth promoting and defending.
Others have stated the evidence in favor of evolution, and I see no reason to attempt it myself. I have accepted the work of the scientists as that which best explains the known facts, and I change my own ideas as I read about the new discoveries. Some of my interpretations may be at variance with those of the scientists, but that's my own privilege, and I do keep my speculations within their basic framework. The teachings of the Creationists interest me only as exercises in the detection of philosophical fallacies.
Those who claim to have never seen evolution in action are not reading the newspaper headlines. Surely they have seen the stories about how antibiotics are becoming ineffective because the germs are evolving towards being able to resist them. Also, if DDT had not been banned, it would now be useless. The reason was that the insects were already evolving to a point where they could eat it for breakfast, then spend the rest of the day destroying the crops. As for intelligent design, the design of the eye of the octopus and squid is superior to the design of the human eye.
I very strongly object to attempts to enlist me in a campaign to shrink God down to our size. The creation story in the Bible has analogues in similar stories of other peoples. Not only that, there are two stories in the Bible, the second beginning with Genesis 2:4. They all appear to be, as I have heard others say, attempts by early peoples to explain what they saw around them within the limits of what they knew. We know more today, and to fail to take advantage of that knowledge is to belittle God.
To reiterate, I have no patience with those who mistake allegorical truth for scientific truth. Allegorical truths, intelligent design included, have absolutely no place in the science classrooms of our schools, and the Ohio Board of Education should not be considering it.
The god the creationists are trying to push on me is a little god, fit only to stand with the pagan gods of old. Zeus, Odin, et al.
JEROME K. STEPHENS
Warren
Transcript of Supermax trial reveals the truth
EDITOR:
As one of the attorneys for plaintiffs in the Supermax class action, I am responding to your March 1 editorial "Courts should not interfere with mission of supermax."
I wonder what your editorial writers know about the Supermax. Are you aware that the Supermax opened in May 1998 but that until August 1998 there was not written policy governing transfers to the prison? Do you know that throughout 1998 prisoners were transferred to the Supermax without notice or hearing of any kind, and that the annual reclassification hearings required by administrative regulation did not begin to be held until December 1999?
Had you been in court during the recent trial you would have heard Peter Davis, executive director of the Correctional Institutional Inspection Committee from 1978 to 2001, testify that what Ohio needs is not a Supermax prison but more maximum security beds. You would have seen the documents proving that several prisoner witnesses were sent to the Supermax for alleged offenses as to which they had been found not guilty in outside courts. You would have listened to defendants' expert Chase Riveland state that he was "stunned" to learn that approximately 50 of the prisoners at the Supermax are there for nonviolent drug offenses. And you would have perceived Judge Gwin's incredulity when he found that one prisoner witness was being kept at the Supermax because of the way he wrote the letter, "B," and that a second prisoner witness had been sent there after he was hit on the head by another prisoner in an incident in which the witness, according to the official records, did not fight back.
Based on your statements to date I don't think you know what you are talking about. You seem to write editorials based on isolated facts reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Associated Press, not on independent reporting by your newspaper, which, after all, is located in the same city as the Supermax and might be expected to conduct its own investigation. Before you lecture Judge Gwin on his duty, at a minimum you should read the complete transcript of the trial.
Atty. STAUGHTON LYND
Niles
Killing unconscionable, but compassion necessary
EDITOR:
I have been reading the paper, and hearing on the news about cases where women have killed their children and the cause has been "post partum" depression. I cannot relate to that because I have no first hand knowledge of this condition. My personal opinion is that anyone who kills is mentally ill. I think that way because as a reasonable adult I find killing unconscionable. By watching so many television court shows, I guess there is always extenuating circumstances leading to the various ways of looking at a killing.
Looking back on several of the cases involving the women, experts and regular people have suggested that "someone" should have given the necessary help to the women. That is like knowing ahead of time that something dreadful would happen. Unless we have a crystal ball, unfortunately, we cannot prevent such horrible crimes.
Since we are all human, with human free will, I don't see how anyone could judge others until you walk a mile in their shoes. I used to think that either you did the crime or not, and that was that. I don't agree with all this plea bargain stuff and the way that it is handled. This may expedite the cases going to trial, but getting rid of frivolous lawsuits might be a better way to go.
The older I get, the more I am able to look at situations with more compassion and try to see different points of view.
PAT ZOCCALI
Warren