NEWSLETTER
of the

AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION - CANADIAN SCIENTIFIC & CHRISTIAN AFFILIATION

Volume 23 Number 3  JUN/JUL 1981


THE ASA: A MASS MOVEMENT

By the time you're reading this the American Scientific Affiliation will have a new address: P.O. Box J  Ipswich, MA 01938

At press time the move to Massachusetts was expected to take place around July 1. In February our new executive director, Dr. Robert L. Herrmann, was in Elgin for a crash course on how the ASA office works. In early June he was there again to make arrangements fo rthe move. In between, Bob had located a house near Gordon College (where he will do some part-time teaching) large enough to serve as both home and ASA office. The Herrmanns will move from Oklahoma a few weeks before the ASA moves from Illinois.

Secretary Martha Wildes will oversee the office move and spend several weeks in Massachusetts setting up shop and training her replacement. Martha would love to continue with ASA but says she should stay in the midwest to be near her family in Wisconsin. Harry Lubansky, who rescued ASA by stepping in as interim executive secretary, will stay in Illinois and teach chemistry at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights.

We're reminded of Abram's big move at the Lord's call "from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you" (Gen. 12:1). That move was the beginning of a people special to God: "I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing" (Gen. 12:2). Praise God for his blessing already: in this time of absurd interest rates and uncertain real estate markets, the Herrmann were able to find the right house in the right place -and sell their Tulsa house at just the right time.

THE ASA: A WORTHY CAUSE

Bob Herrmann's letter to the membership also reminded us that in spite of God's promise to Abram, "there was a famine in the land" (Gen. 1: 10) requiring drastic action. ASA has kept up with most of its debts in the transition period but two outstanding bills in the ten-kilobuck range must be paid soon-one of them to the faithful printer of the ASA Journal and (gulp) Newsletter. And just since March, 2nd class postage has doubled to 790 per six ounces.

Our Affiliations clearly have great opportunities of service ahead of us ("so that you will be a blessing") in spite of the immediate "famine in the land." We believe this so strongly that we responded to Bob's letter with part of our tithe, a larger amount than suggested on the card. We hope you did, too, so ASA and CSCA can serve the church and the scientific community in bold new ways. In Bob Herrmann we have an enthusiastic executive to direct our service. He deserves our wholehearted support-and a clean slate.

The fact is that in times of slack income during the transition, members of the Executive Council have been bailing us out month by month with low-interest or no-interest loans. They certainly deserve our gratitude, and help. Having saved us from a "fate worse than debt," they could use some respite.

("Hiyo, Silver!" echoed the call of the ASA Loan Arranger, galloping across the barren deficit-kilobuck, kilobuck, kilobuck-to our rescue. How about shoveling out some oats, folks?-Ed.)

HAVE YOURSELF A SPHERE

This year's ASA ANNUAL MEETING at EASTERN COLLEGE in ST. DAVIDS, PENNSYLVANIA, marks the 40th anniversary of the American Scientific Affiliation. Let's have a dilly in Philly, AUGUST 14-17. We hear that Jay Moore has his local arrangements committee collecting the scoop on historic sites nearby and planning group tours. This party will be truly "cosmic," with science, theology, philosophy, history-even art. A Christian artist from New York, Sandra Bowden, will be displaying her work to help bridge C. P. Snow's Two Cultures. She will give gallery talks on her depictions of God's creation. (Incidentally, what ASA pioneered forty years ago-getting Christians in a particular profession together-keeps growing: a new organization called Christians in the Visual Arts will hold its third national conference atCalvin College, June 24-27. CIVA president is Edgar G. Boevd, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 45906.)

In conjunction with this year's theme, "THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD," a major symposium on astronomy is being organized by Kyle Cudworth of the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. Bob Newman of Biblical Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania will give a slide-lecture on "The Biblical Firmament." ASA/CSCA members will range the universe with over thirty contributed papers. Keynote speaker Owen Gingerich of Harvard and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory will bring the heavens "down to earth" in three major lectures. Owen, by the way, is a contributing editor of the Journal of ASA whose first JASA article on "New Distance and Time Scale" appeared in September 1953. His most recent article, in the current JASA (March 1981) is on "The Censorship of Copernicus'De revolutionibus."

A recognized authority in both astronomy and the history of science, Owen Gingerich got his start in science at Goshen College in Indiana. He was in classes taught by H. Harold Hartzler, first executive secretary of ASA and the only person who has attended every single Annual Meeting so far. So, come to ASA's 40th Birthday Party. Meet "stars" like Owen Gingerich, Kyle Cudworth, and Harold Hartzler. Thank Harry Lubansky for rescuing us, and encourage our new executive director, Bob Herrmann. Bring the family and have a ball-a real celestial sphere.


CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS TO MEET

"Rights and Responsibilities," a conference for Christian educators in the public schools, will be held August 19-21 at Trinity Christian College in Illinois. The conference is cosponsored by the college and the Christian Legal Society. Topics will include the teaching of history, literature, and science from a Christian perspective. Registration ($25) was due by July 15 but you'd probably still be welcome. Contact Dr. Norman De Jong at (312) 597-3000-X45 or Christian Educators Conference, Trinity Christian College, 6601 W. College Dr., Palos Heights, iL 60463.

REFORMING THE MILITARY?

Tony Carnes of Columbia University's Center for Socio-Cultural Research on Drug Use would like to lead a discussion at the ASA ANNUAL MEETING centered around Richard Gabriel and Paul Savage's Crisis in Command, and reform of the U.S. Armed Forces. Is anybody else interested? If you'd like to participate, write to Tony at 205 Second Ave., #213, New York, NY 10003, before the meeting.

MYSTERY PACKAGE FOR THE POSTAGE

Ann Hunt offers to donate several boxes of chemistry books to anyone who will take them all, sight unseen, and pick them up in Indianapolis or arrange for their delivery some other way. They are all chemistry textbooks, from six to twelve years old, mostly publishers' sample copies from the days when Ann was teaching college-level chemistry (1969-71 and 1974-75). Ann hasn't opened the boxes in four or five years but thinks they are mostly general and analytical chemistry with maybe a physical chemistry book or two.

Ann has no use for the books now that she's settled in a tEli Lilly as an analytical chemist. They turned up as she was preparing to move, and she thinks some institution on a low budget, perhaps overseas, could use them. If you're interested (without having to see a list of titles), write to Ann at her new address: 1863 Skyline Drive, Greenwood, IN 46142.

(We've long thought our Affiliations, or some local section, should organize a science book recycling program for Christian schools in Third World countries. Anybody want to start now?-Ed.)

SIGMA XI ELECTS ANDERSON

Former ASA president V. Elving Anderson was elected to the post of president-elect of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, at its8lstannual meeting in San Diego last October. That means that a year from now, in July 1982, he will become president of Sigma Xi, among the world's oldest and largest scientific societies. It has a membership of more than 120,000 scientists who have made significant contributions to research in their fields or who as students demonstrated exceptional aptitude for research. Sigma Xi publishes the bimonthly American Scientist.

Elving has been a regional director of Sigma Xi (1971-75) and director-at-large (since 1978), and presently chairs the Committee on Science and Society. He will succeed William A. Nierenberg, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego, in the Sigma Xi presidency next year.

With forty times as many members to choose from, it's understandable that it took Sigma Xi twenty years longer than the American Scientific Affiliation to elect Elving president. We congratulate them on their good judgment. Next year we'll congratulate Elving himself. He is professor of human genetics at the University of Minnesota, by the way. (We sometimes forget that a lot of ASA members don't know our "old-timers." Meeting such outstanding people is just one reason to attend an ASA ANNUAL MEETING, like the one at EASTERN COLLEGE, AUGUST 14-17.-Ed.)

Meanwhile, Elving is also president of the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies this year. In the current IFACS bulletin he writes that one objective of IFACS has been to let the Christian public know that there are evangelical believers in every major field of academic life, often in positions of leadership. Students, especially those in graduate and professional work, need that insight as well. "Years ago I was warned by some concerned friends: 'Don't go into biology; you will lose your faith. 'If many Christian young people had heeded such advice, it would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. There would have been few believers in biology to serve as guides, interpreters, and role models for others."

Elving Anderson is definitely a worthy role model for many of us.

YAMAUCHI DIGS THE PAST

Edwin Yamauchi, professor of history at the University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, and ASA secretary-treasurer, is the author of two significant books recently released by the publishers. We've already mentioned one as forthcoming, The Archaeology of New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor (1980), published by Baker Book House of Grand Rapids. It is out now as a paperback at $7.95.

The latest one is Harper's World of the New Testament (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981), available in paperback for $9.95. Ed's World of the NT is being published in eight editions in five languages (English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish).

ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MANY MISSIONS

Anthropology may not be "in" at Wheaton College these days (since they dropped it as a major field) but it certainly

is all over the place. In recent months we've had communications from anthropologist James 0. Buswell, ///, from places as widely scattered as Dayton, Tennessee; Beijing, China; and Pasadena, California, Jim's home base as dean of graduate studies at William Carey International University.

There wasn't much information (but a beautiful stamp) on the postcard from China. From Tennessee Jim wrote us about the 50th anniversary of Wm. Jennings Bryan College, founded just five years after the famous Scopes trial in Dayton. Jim spent two days there in April helping them celebrate by giving a public lecture, chapel talks, and classroom presentations on such topics as "Dangers of Ethnocentrism," "Science and the Bible: Creationist Alternatives," "Human Origins," and "The Scopes Trial: Modern Parallels and Contrasts." Jim was impressed with the stimulating student body of about 600 and a friendly, wide-awake science faculty in a school with a very conservative heritage, willing to examine the various science/faith issues with an open mind.

From California Jim wrote us about a meeting in New York. In May he attended a meeting of a group called Survival International, which concerns itself with the atrocities being perpetrated among tribal peoples of the world. The sessions dealt almost exclusively with claims that missionaries are

-allegedly destr2XLaa_~iu~re and forcing a sort of imperialistic colonialism on peoples in tribal societies, particularly in Latin America. The Summer Institute of Linguistics, New Tribes Missions, and South American Mission were pointedly criticized. Don Richardson, author of Peace Child, was there with Jim for some of the sessions, and the two of them surprised most of the audience by defending missionaries in anthropological and cultural terms. Some of the most eloquent critics turned out to be the most curious and openminded when they learned of the current climate of missiology-trying to change the missionary role from the 19thcentury stereotype in which all missionaries are often cast.

Jim Buswell is preparing a detailed report, both to Survival International and to the mission boards, hoping to show the narrowness of the Survival International approach and at the same time show mission societies how they are coming across to their critics. For one thing, missionaries have allowed themselves to be publicized by deceitful documentary film-makers who have edited theirfilmsto make missionaries look silly. Missionaries need to be made more aware of the actual dynamics of culture change and stop representing their mission in hackneyed clichc's of evangelical and fundamentalist jargon.

Jim thinks this subject so important that he is proposing it as a focus for discussion when Christian anthropologists attending the American Anthropological Association in Los Angeles in September get together in sessions sponsored by William Carey International University. He hopes to invite any members of Survival International who wish to explore "missionary anthropology"-a field that may be new to them but which has a literature of rather considerable tradition already.

TALL IN THE SADDLE

While we're reporting on "movers and shakers" among our membership we should mention one of Richard H. Bube's many speaking engagements. In April Dick gave three lectures at a weekend conference on "Academia and Life" at the U. of Texas in Austin. The conference, sponsored by the University Faculty/Staff Christian Fellowship and the student IVCF chapter, was almost a miniature version of anASA Annual Meeting. In addition to Dick's keynote addresses, the conference featured panel discussions on professional and personal topics, plus papers contributed by faculty members at various nearby schools.

Abstracts were solicited in advance by David Bourell, U.T. professor of mechanical engineering, so that papers could be selected on the basis of relevance to the conference theme, general interest, and understandability. Christian academicians were invited to discuss those areas where Christian truth and values intersect their teaching and research. Suggested areas included relationships between academic and Biblical truth, impact of recent research on society/church/future, innovative campus witness, and coping with academic pressures.

Most of those areas were touched on in Dick's lectures on the expression of Christian faith in the avenues and activities of academic life. He lectured on "The Christian Faculty Member" as "Professional," "Servant," and as "Disciple." Even newcomers to our Affiliation know that Dick Bube is professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Stanford University in Stanford, California, and editor of the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. You might not know that he's written a number of outstanding books on science and faith beside some 169 scientific papers on the photoelectronic properties of solids.

And if you haven't been to an ASA ANNUAL MEETING, like the one at EASTERN COLLEGE on AUGUST 14-17 this year, you may not know this: at almost seven feet (even without boots and spurs), Dick Bube is an academic role model tall enough for even Texans to look up to.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGIZERS

Jordan College continues its program of short courses on energy alternatives. The latest schedule includes the following, all in Michigan:

July 25: Wind Energy Conversion Systems (Cedar Springs).
Aug 8: Alternative Fuels: Alcohol, Methane, Wood
(Cedar Springs).
Sep 15" Preview of International Solar Tours (Detroit; no charge).
Sep
17-19 Solar Quest: Energy Options (Detroit).
Sep  25-26 tAdvanced Solar Energy for Homeowners (Cedar Springs).

In addition, "Solar Tours" of England/France (Aug 22-Sept 6), the U.S. (Nov 1-11), and the Caribbean (Dec 6-13) are being co-sponsored by the college and other institutions. For information on courses or tours, contact Linda Bouwkamp, Energy Programs, Jordan College, 360 W. Pine St., Cedar Springs, MI 49319.

To see a Christian college like Jordan take the lead in alternative energy education is exciting enough. But our excitement doesn't stop there. We know of an evangelical urban ministry that is developing self-help programs in energy, housing, and economic development, "strengthening the ability of urban churches to respond to these crisis needs of their people and to reach out to the needy nearby." For years we've been impressed by the far-sighted "nuts and bolts" approach to ministry taken by Christians for Urban Justice (C.U.J.) in Boston. They have tackled economic problems in the Dorchester area by working with inner-city churches and by encouraging suburban Christians and college students to share their labor and financial, technical, and political resources with the poor.

Now C.U.J. is becoming a unique Christian witness in the secular energy field, "openly proclaiming Christ's Lordship over all of his creation." By this fall C.U.J. will have the first phase of its Christian Energy Resource Center in operation. The Resource Center will be a showcase of options for lowincome homeowners and tenants, cosponsored by eight to ten local churches. It will include low-cost greenhouse techniques to enable poor families to grow some of their own food right in the city.

A regional "Christian Energy Fund" is beginning to function, with churcheswriting into their budgets gifts to supply emergency fuel and do home "weatherization" for the poorest in the Body of Christ. C.U.J. already has much experience with practical designs for energy conservation. They plan to develop energy-related cottage industries to fabricate interior storm windows and insulating shutters and window curtains. Some of their products will be marketed through an expanded Jubilee Store, C.U.J.'s present outlet f or-handicrafts made by Christian cooperatives in the Third World. Teams of volunteer weatherizers work under skilled craftsmen, literally giving'life to the poor in Boston by conserving energy. Plans are also being laid for a Christian "energy cooperative," enabling member churches across the city to purchase home weatherization supplies collectively at great savings, eventually extending to include fuel oil and other common needs.

C.U.J.'s director, Roger Dewey, hopes to finance all this through the prayerful gifts of Christians and through grants from various sources, including possibly the final funding cycle of the Department of Energy. Roger hopes to hire Ambrose Spencer, alternative energy specialist with Boston's major anti-poverty agency. A strongly committed Christian, Spencer says "we soon will have many people in this area freezing to death unless people respond to the challenge with the sense of ministry Christians can bring to the problem." He contributed to a handbook of energy conservation and renewable energies for city homes and has taught at the U. of Mass. in Boston on energy economics and home heating. Spencer will develop the technical aspects of the Energy Resource Center if the funds can be found.

For more information, or to make a contribution to this significant ministry, write to Christians for Urbafv JusfieeT563A Washington St., Dorchester, MA 02124.

NEW JOURNAL OF WHOLE-PERSON MEDICINE

The International Fellowship of Christian Physicians (IFCP) is an organization of "full gospel" physicians founded by Dr. Ed Glazier. Several years ago Glazier gave ASA member Donald C. Thompson responsibility for developing a new journal of "Christianly oriented medicine." According to Don, Christians with a full-gospel orientation "consider the supernatural and spiritual being reality along with the physical reality as we experience it with our five senses."

Don has now sent out a call for papers for publication in the Journal of International Fellowship of Christian Physicians, expecting the first issue to be in the form of a newsletter but hoping to graduate into full journal status as the Lord provides funding and circulation. Typed, doublespaced manuscripts not exceeding ten pages (including all illustrations) should be accompanied by a glossy photo of the author(s) and bycurriculum vita(e). Mail totheJournal of /FCP Editorial Office, c/o Donald C. Thompson, R.Ph., M.D., P.O. Box 1085, Morristown, TN 37814.

Don Thompson is both a physician and a registered pharmacist with some work toward a Ph.D. in pharmacology, a member of the Christian Medical Society as well as IFCP. He has discussed the idea for the new journal with a number of leading Christian physicians around the country and at the Eighth Annual Conference on Logo-psychosomatic Medicine last year in Tampa, Florida.

As we understand it, the new journal will focus on documenting the spiritual/psychological/physicaI interaction in healing in a scientifically acceptable way. Don, who has seen "instantaneous as well as gradual healings and also readaptations of attitudes and changes of life,' thinks that biochemical changes  take place in at least some individuals saved or filled with the Holy Spirit. The idea is not to emphasize the miraculous element but to be cognizant of it and to document its effects. "There should be some way in which to articulate these things so that they will be acceptable and in proper format."

Many who recognize the spiritual dimension of life, of course, are turned off by any kind of "supernaturalism" that borders on magic. Don seems to understand that, agreeing that spiritual power "is not at our beck and call or available on command" to work miracles of healing. Yet all Christians believe in miracles-in the interaction of a loving Creator with his creation. In a sense every Christian is a miracle of that interaction. Hence it seems to us that any responsible approach to developing a Biblically-congruent theology of nature, or to facilitating the work of the Holy Spirit in human lives, should be welcomed.

Since Don has asked for input from ASA/CSCA members, let's give him all the help we can.

WE'RE "MAIL CHAUVINISTS"

We think letters and postcards are great, even those that tell us we did something wrong. Occasionally we do something --right. Then we get letters like these:

"Thanks for encouraging me to look for a job through the Newsletter. Actually I sent you a copy of my C.V. and you wrote a summary of it under PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS last summer. Anyway, it had results. The dean of Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, wrote to me and now our family (Liz and 3-year-old Sarah) will be off to Iowa in August . . ." (from Ian S. Johnston, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA).

"Thank you for your help in placing our ad for the chemistry position in the Newsletter. We were very pleased with the response and have hired one of the people who saw that ad and applied. Dr. Allan Nishimura, an associate professor at Wichita State University and an ASA member, will be joining our faculty in September. He and his wife Amy are particularly enthusiastic about the possibility of us working a rotation for overseas teaching. I wish we were in a position to hire some of the other ASA candidates who applied. It was a difficult choice for us.... At any rate I feel that the

Newsletter has been a good forum for our own advertising and future plans, but I also appreciate your emphasis on the way God can use us in our professions both here and abroad . . ." (from Stanley F. Anderson, Dept. of Chemistry, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA).

We even get phone calls. Sometimes we know an issue has been mailed because somebody calls to complain about something even before our copy arrives. We haven't received the April/May issue yet, for example, but we know it's in the mail. Glenn Kirkland called from Maryland yesterday. He wasn't sore about anything. In fact, he wanted to thank us for the write-up on Alzheimer's disease.

That's the kind of communication we like best. No, wait the best kind is a news item for the next issue.

BUT WE'RE ALSO FEMINISTS

Our consciousness has been raised considerably by sharing an office (and life in general with the editor of Green Leaf, newsletter of the Bay Area chapter of the Evangelical Women's Caucus. Members of EWC "are committed to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord" and "believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God." The EWC Statement of Faith goes on to say:

We see much injustice toward women in our society. The church especially has encouraged men to prideful domination and women to irresponsible passivity. We call both men and women to mutual submission and active discipleship.

We are committed to obtaining equal rights for women and men in society and to changing policies and attitudes that hold women in subservience in church and home. We affirm the duty of all Christians to exercise their gifts in response to God's call upon their lives.

"We believe that feminism, as defined above, is consistent with and is a natural outgrowth of the Scriptures, and we are committed to studying all of God's teaching on love and justice between the sexes."

Even though the logic of "Biblical feminism" seems clear, some sexist habits are deeply ingrained. Looking back over what we wrote ten years ago often embarrasses us now. Why did we keep using that generic "he" when we could so easily have avoided offense by changing to a plural form? We used plenty of other polysyllabic words, but with male thoughtlessness we often used "man" to refer to "humanity," "humankind," "human beings," "people," "persons," or" individuals." Today most of the publishers for whom my wife Ginny and I do free-lance editing, recognizing that language produces sexist attitudes (and vice-versa), insist on inclusive alternatives. Yet many speakers and some writers, socialized by a male-dominated society, still ignore or trivialize the issue.

At last year's ASA Annual Meeting, for example, feminists in attendance were repeatedly annoyed or angered by insensitive speakers. Many speakers carelessly excluded women by using such expressions as "man's intellectual capacity," "salvation for all men," or "any scientist who takes his faith seriously." A number of ASA members were on the verge of taking some kind of action to raise our consciousness about the offensiveness of sexist language.

Maybe things will be better this year. If you're giving a paper, don't assume that "man" or "men" obviously includes everybody-unless you think women shouldn't respect a door with "MEN" written on it. Feedback helps us develop linguistic sensitivity. Ask a local EWC member-or even a secular feminist-to read a draft of your paper, and follow her (or his) suggestions. If all else fails, go through the paper and change all generic masculine forms to feminine; if they sound exclusive of males, then your masculine forms were probably equally unsuitable.

If you're a male who feels excluded by the phrase "sisters in Christ," expect Christian women to feel excluded by "brothers in Christ." Say "brothers and sisters" if that's what you mean.

If you doubt that "salvation for all women" includes you, others must doubt whether "all men" or "mankind" includes them. Substitute an epicene (genderless) term, like "all people," or "humankind," or "all believers."

If you acknowledge that a theologian, an artist, a doctor, a distinguished person, a child, a philosopher, someone chairing a committee, an anthropologist, etc., might be a woman as well as a man-even if you've never met one who is-say "he or she" or, better, change the sentence to plural form and say "they."

Editors find that about ninety percent of sexist usage can be eliminated that easily. True, "man" has a nice monosyllabic ring to it, matching "God" in theological talk, but why risk offending a sister in Christ to save a few syllables? And even though the mildly awkward "chairperson" has one syllable more than "chairman," an easily understood alternative is to refer to either a man or a woman as the committee "chair."

If you don't see this as a serious issue, read linguist Robin Lakoff's Language and Women's Place (Harper Colophon, 1975) or Sexism and Language by Alleen Pace Nilsen, Haig Bosmajian, H. Lee Gershuny, & Julia P. Stanley (National Council of Teachers of English, 1977). An appendix to Sexism and Language, "Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language in NCTE Publications," is available on request from NCTE, 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, I L 61801 (1-15 copies free; more than 15, 61:each prepaid; ask for Stock No. 19719).

The free six-page NCTE Guidelines pamphlet suggests alternatives not only for expressions that omit women (the generic "he/him/his") but also for those that demean women ("lady scientist," "career girl," "man-sized job") or stereotype women ("engineers and their wives").

(Obviously men as well as women can be Biblical feminists, and are welcome as members of the Evangelical Women's Caucus. For information on the national organization, contact the EWC Membership Secretary, Box 3192, San Francisco, CA 94119. The next national EWC meeting will be held in Seattle, Washington, in July 1982.-Ed.)

ON UFOMETRY, PSYCHOMETRICS, ETC.

With reference to the survey on UFOs included in the Dec/ Jan issue, biologist Herman H. Wiebe of Utah State University in Logan thinks that "the ASA does not improve its image among scientists by lending its good name to this

effort." Although he strongly supports every scientist's right to seek the truth wherever that may lead, Herman feels that such truth-seeking must inevitably be judged on its scientific merits by other scientists. Since funding is limited, "some priorities must be set; UFO research should receive very low priority-together with ESP and other psychic phenomena. (I have read fellow plant physiologist J. B. Ryan's work and studied his statistics.)"

According to Herman, the UFO questionnaire "would never pass as a scientific document. The information that can be gained from it is prejudiced by the way questions are asked. It has far more in common with political questionnaires included with fund-raising appeals than with questionnaires prepared by Gallup and Roper."

Questionnaires can be infuriating, we agree. The Moral Majority's latest request for contributions included a "Congressional Petition on Moral Issues." Each of its fiye Yes o rNo questions contained a prejudicial twist: "Do you believe that smut peddlers should be protected by the courts and the Congress, so they can openly sell pornographic materials to your children?" How do you answer that one if you believe all citizens should be protected by the courts and the Congress (from lynching, say), but also think selling pornography to children should be against the law?

And here's a Yes or No question from a "personality inventory" designed by a Christian psychiatrist whose head we would like to examine: "Do you object when people tell you to stop smoking?" What if nobody tells you to stop smoking? What if you don't smoke? We wanted to add a write-in question: "Do you think this questionnaire was designed by an idiot? YES."

Personally, we didn't have that negative a reaction to the UFO survey. Since its progenitor Richard Haines now knows what Herman Wiebe thinks of it, we'll let them thrash out the question of its validity. At press time, by the way, when he had received about 700 responses, Dick Haines called to find out what fraction of ASA/CSCA members that represented. Replies were running about six or seven to one in favor of some kind of research on UFOs, but a smaller percentage of our respondents than of the general population say they have encountered anything resembling a UFO. Probably 90 percent of the respondents asked for the results of the survey but an even larger percentage said the church should not hold "study classes, meetings, or conferences" about UFOs.


ON PSYCHISM, PARAPSYCHOLOGY, ETC.An article on "Occult Beliefs" in the Jan/Feb 1981 issue of American Scientist says that "preoccupation with the occult forms a pervasive part of our culture." The authors, psychologists Barry Singer and Victor A. Benassi of California State University at Long Beach, do not assume that beliefs and practices termed "occult" or "paranormal" are totally without validity, but they cite statistics on a dramatic rise of beliefs ranging from "the objectively unsupportable at present" to "the demonstrably absurd."

Occultisms such as astrology, ESP, spoon bending, the Bermuda triangle, and psychic healing are "riding high." Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods has become one of the best-selling books of modern times. Belief in ESP is moderate to strong in 80 to 90 percent of the population, edging out belief in God in one survey. Ouija boards overtook Monopoly as the nation's best-selling board game in 1967. The authors try to account for this trend. They also consider how the scientific community should respond. They conclude:

"The most convincing rationale for a scientific response to the occult preoccupation may simply be scientific self integrity. The following steps seem appropriate: issuing rebuttals to fraudulent or unsubstantiated occult claims far from being beneath our dignity, this can be considered a compelling social responsibility; increasing the availability to the media of scientific expertise on the occult; helping the public recognize which media sources speak with scientific authority and which do not; treating occult concepts in science education, including, perhaps, introductory textbooks; examining policies relating to occult courses and concepts which appear in the name of a university and relating to the selection of books and films for public school reading and science classes; and reorienting science education so that science becomes more personal, more life oriented, and more easily apprehended as a highly useful mode of inquiry."

Why is it that so many Christians who have never been much interested in science are now so easily excited by "psychical research"? "Some (e.g., The Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship) associate psychic events with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, while others (e.g., author Dave Hunt) suggest that psi phenomena may be strands in the web of counterfeit miracles."

The sentence just quoted is from the current issue of the SCP Journal (Winter 1980-81, Vol 4/2). The 45-page issue devoted to "Expanding Horizons: Psychical Research and Parapsychology" is available on request from Spiritual Counterfeits Project, P.O. Box 2418, Berkeley, CA 94702.  SCP is an evangelical "ministry of discernment" growing out of the Berkeley Christian Coalition, The Project sends out both its Journal and Newsletter without charge but depends heavily on (tax-deductible) gifts for support. (Support is especially needed at this time, partly because SCP is being sued for its socks by a group that resents what SCP researchers said about them.-Ed.)

In the current SCP Journal, ASA-Newsletter editor Walter R. Hearn tries to balance the tendency of certain Christians to ask of any strange phenomenon only if it is "of God" or 11 of Satan." In a short article called "Gullible's Travels," skeptical Walt says we should rather ask first if it might be explained on some simple physical or psychological basis -or might be a deliberate fraud. He quotes Walter Thorson (speaker at the 1980 ASA Annual Meeting) on the New Testament critique of magic, which makes it clear that demonic power "is not material, but spiritual." Any demonic power to alter perception of the world and of physical phenomena depends on the human choice to believe a lie.

Walt Hearn, whose brother was for years a professional magician, points out that lucrative "psychic surgery" in the Philippines was exposed as sleight-of-hand by an alert TV camera crew. Uri Geller's spoon-bending exploits at Stanford have been duplicated repeatedly by professional magician James Randi. According to Walt, gullible Christians with the "will to believe" are likely to be taken in because "the world of psychism and spiritism has long been populated by magicians, charlatans, and outright swindlers, who are unlikely to abandon such territory now that it is more popular than ever."

Praise God for ASA and CSCA, for Christians who understand the difference between science and magic. So far only about a dozen requests for information have resulted from including ASA's address in the SCP Journal, which has thousands of Christian readers.

ARDIS H. WHITE DIES

Dr. Ardis H. White, professor of civil engineering at the University of Houston in Texas for twenty-four years, died at age 59 on January 13, 1981. According to an obituary notice in the U.H. alumni magazine, he had been suffering from a liver disorder. He is survived by his wife Frances and two adult daughters. He chaired the civil engineering department4rom 1966 to 1975. Last year the university's student chapter of A.S.C.E. named their chapter for him.

We received this information from Mary Jane Mills of Galveston, who said she doesn't know if Professor White was ever a member of the national ASA but that he was a member of the (now defunct) Gulf Coast local section of ASA. Further, he helped arrange for a room for local section meetings on the U. of Houston campus, "and was very kind and helpful."

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS

Gary B. Saylor (Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Box 3235, Baltimore, MD 21228; tel. 301-455-7378) is looking for a college- or university-level teaching position, preferably overseas. Gary has an M.S. in biology from Case Western Reserve University with concentration in biochemistry and developmental biology. He has been working as a research assistant in neurobiochemistry.

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE

Eastern College in Pennsylvania (where the 1981 ASA ANNUAL MEETING will be held, AUGUST 14-17-Ed.) seeks an assistant professor of chemistry for September 1981.

--Major responsibility is teaching of first-year courses for both science majors (chemistry, biology, medical technology) and liberal arts and pre-nursing majors. Ability to teach either biochemistry or inorganic desirable. Interest in at least one of these areas helpful: computer applications in teaching chemistry, supervision of undergraduate research, community and high school relations. Department is equipped with research-quality instrumentation for UV-visible, IR, NMR, AA, and HPLC. Eastern College is affiliated with ABC (American Baptist Churches, USA). Contact: Dr. Jean B. Kim, Acting Dean, Eastern College, St. Davids, PA 19087. Tel. 215-688-3300. (Received 10 April 1981.)

New College for Advanced Christian Studies in California is looking for a president. "Rapidly growing graduate school of Christian studies seeks an accomplished evangelical scholar with proven talent for administration and financial development. Enthusiasm for lay Christian education with an integrative, interdisciplinary focus is essential. Starting date: summer 1982." Send applications to: Dr. David H. Cole, chair, Search Committee, New College, 2606 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. (Received 2 June 1981.)

LOCAL SECTION ACTIVITIES

OTTAWA

On June 5 the Ottawa section of the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation met at St. Andrew's Hall to hear a talk on "Energy Problems from a Christian Perspective." Speaker was Roland Priddle, ADM-Petroleum, Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources. Members and friends of CSCA were invited to bring friends to participate in discussion of the topic after the lecture and possibly on another evening in the future. Refreshments, fellowship, and a chance to pick up CSCA brochures to spread around were offered, plus an opportunity to suggest ideas for programs next fall. Richard Herd, our correspondent in the nation's capital, reports local section membership now at 33, with about 100 on the mailing list.

WESTERN MICHIGAN

Somehow the section picked off Richard H. Bube of Stanford and his wife Betty on their way to the Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Orlando, Florida, for a meeting on May 7, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. About 50 people attended an afternoon seminar on "Original Sin as Natural Evil," updating and expanding ideas in Dick's JASA article of December 1975.

After dinner together in the new faculty dining room, the group moved to a larger hall for an evening lecture, "Is the Bible Scientifically True?" Some 200 people attended that lecture, which was jointly sponsored by the ASA local section and the Calvin College Lecture Council. Among Dick and Betty's official Calvin hosts were Prof. Clarence Vos of the Department of Religion & Theology and Kathy Faber of the Student Lecture Committee.

New officers for the Western Michigan section are Roland Constant, chair; Daniel Anderson, chair-elect; Edward Riekena, treasurer; and Herman Broene, secretary. Our thanks to Herman for a report of the May meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Announced for Saturday, June 20, is the fourth meeting of the year in the South Bay area. The meeting is to be held at Valley Church in Cupertino, on the topic, "What Cosmologists are Thinking of the Universe." Speaker will be John Barrow from the Astrophysics Department at Oxford University in England, currently at U.C. Berkeley working with Prof. Joe Silk, well-known cosmologist and astrophysicist. John received his Ph.D. in astrophysics at Oxford in 1977 and spent the following year at Berkeley as a Lindermann Fellow of the British Commonwealth. During that stay he gave an impressive talk to the ASA local section in Berkeley. When he returns to England later this summer John will take up a post at the University of Sussex.

PERSONALS

Gordon Lewthwaite and wife Lydia have returned to his post in geography at California State University Northridge from sabbatical leave at the U. of Auckland, New Zealand. On the way home they visited missionary cousins in Papua New Guinea, a fascinating country discussed by Gordon in his Southwest Pacific course. Then they continued to the Middle East, disappointed that a hoped-for conference on the Geography of the Bible had to be canceled. But they joined an archaeological tour group, traveled extensively in Jordan and Israel, and visited George Giacumakis and wife Joan at the American Institute of Holy Land Studies. They discovered that George was the speaker for a Christmas eve service at the Jerusalem YMCA. Finally, after visiting relatives in Austria, they returned to sort out their notes on all that geography they had covered,

James C. Merritt of La Mesa, California, joined ASA this winter and was surprised to learn from his first issue of JASA that ASA has a local section in San Diego, "which is only about 200 yards from where I live." So, how about some of you San Diegoans looking up Jim and inviting him toa meeting, or something? His address is 4039 Violet St., La Mesa, CA 92041.

Gordon C . Mills, biochemist at the U. of Texas Medical School in Galveston, has been having some problems with his own biochemistry. According to wife Mary Jane Mills, also an ASA member, Gordon has picked up a nephritis and is losing some protein. Initial efforts at medication seem to be working, so if all goes well they'll both be at the 1981  ASA ANNUAL MEETING at EASTERN COLLEGE in ST. DAVIDS, PENNSYLVANIA, AUGUST 14-17. Mary Jane also wrote that after the two editorials on creationism in NABT's American Laboratory (reported in recent issues of this Newsletter) the editor wrote that it was impossible to publish letters to the editor on the subject because they were swamped from all sides. They consider the issue closed. Mary Jane says, "I'll bet the issue is closed."

David G . Myers, psychologist at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, has an article on why people believe in ESP in the August 1981 issue of Science Digest. That article is one of several magazine pieces based on material in his recent book, The Inflated Self. Human Illusions and the Biblical Call to Hope (Seabury, 1980). A paperback edition of The Inflated Self will appear this summer.

Charles Thaxton of Probe Ministries in Dallas, Texas, sends us regular newsletters. Since we last reported on his activities he has been on Probe-sponsored campus programs at Auburn, Rutgers, and Johns Hopkins universities. Recently we learned that Charlie's major contribution to Probe is not so much speaking as it is editorial work on Christian Free University Curriculum materials. He has edited Arthur Custance's The Mysterious Matter of Mind, a manuscript by Herman Lutzer on ethics, and one by Norman Geisler on miracles.