NEWSLETTER
by

AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION -CANADIAN SCIENTIFIC & CHRISTIAN AFFILIATION

Volume 25 Number 3  June/July 1983

HERRMANN-EUTICS

In early April I was privileged to be on the program of the annual Wheaton College Science Symposium and to attend an ASA breakfast at the home of Dr. Dorothy Chappell. The theme of the symposium was "Scientific Illiteracy." The speakers covered a broad range of topics-from the world -ecological crisis and new directions in teaching and research to my own concern for the general insensitivity of scientists to ethical problems.

Once again I was impressed with the degree to which we are riveted to our own scientific disciplines and focused in a very narrow time-frame. When confronted by the fragile nature of our ecosystem, or the social implications of space exploration or genetic engineering, the impulse is to look the other way, as Enrico Fermi did at the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos. Something inside us says we cannot deal with those long-range, complex, subjective, and poorly quantifiable problems. So we turn back to our experiments and refer the problems to the practitioner, the politician, or finally to the courts.

Yet we also know that these are inadequate escape mechanisms. Somehow we must find our way to the decision-making about the use of the tools that we produce. Perhaps the next generation of students of the sciences and engineering will be able to do it. Perhaps our Christian colleges can produce some of them. But the present generation's choices are ours. I pray that we in ASA and CSCA can find our way to the decision-making process.

Lincoln is a quiet place to think and write, with the faculty of the Oregon Extension campus of Trinity College (Deerfield, Illinois) taking a "group sabbatical" this spring to do just that. It's also the home of a couple of retired physics professors, George Blount (from Westmont) and Howard Claassen (from Wheaton). Howard is the program chair for YOU KNOW WHAT coming up in August.

Our availability is what got George and Newsletter editor Walt Hearn in on a meeting Howard called in April to organize into a logical pattern the 30-odd contributed papers. (Judging from the abstracts, some are odder than others.-Ed.) All other ASAers in the immediate vicinity, Jim Titus of the Oregon Extension in Lincoln and Wayne Linn of Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, were also pressed into service. The committee was definitely ad hoc and some of its logic was a bit post hoc ergo propter hoc, but an exciting program finally emerged.

With a few details still to be worked out, we can promise you that anyone attracted by the meeting's theme, "NORTH AMERICAN RESOURCES AND WORLD NEEDS," is in for a rich experience. Those less interested in that theme will be able to participate in excellent alternative sessions on the interaction of science and faith in physics, geology, biology, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and what-have-you. One plenary session will be built around the concept of Christian responsibility in a technological age, another around some specific problems in Third World development. The variety of approaches and scientific backgrounds of the plenary speakers will make those sessions particularly stimulating.

The nitty-gritty of applying resources to human needs will be addressed in another session by people who've "been there" and in a special presentation by Martin Price. Martin, director of ECHO (Educational Concerns and Health Organization), uses five acres in Florida to grow seed of potential food plants for introduction into countries with serious malnutrition problems.

And that 1983 Annual Banquet! Imagine feasting on salmon baked over an open fire, Indian style, then hearing keynote speaker Loren Wilkinson eloquently address the significance of "frontier" in American thought, right there on the spot. Some field trips will be held on Friday before the program begins that evening, with one, to Mt. Hood and the Columbia River gorge (scenery not to be missed!) scheduled for the Tuesday after. Hector Munn, the local arrangements chair, will have a spot on the program to show slides of the geology of that region, to lure you into staying over. For those who do stay over Monday night, Howard hopes to arrange a showing of the "Footprints in Stone" film and Ronnie Hastings's new videotape, "Footprints in the Mind," giving alternative explanations of those footprints in the Paluxy River cretaceous limestone in Texas.

Yep, Oregon is the place, all right. And 1983 is the year for you to participate in an ASA ANNUAL MEETING, with all its spiritual, intellectual, and recreational benefits.

A SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Not everyone can contribute directly to economic development in Third World countries, but here's a "development project" in which most of us could help.

Many Christian pastors in the Philippines must support their families on monthly salaries of $40 to $60, with little left over to buy books to help them in Bible study. Action International Ministries (AIM) is working with a Philippine national organization, Christ for Greater Manila, on a "Library Assistance Program." AIM's aim is to help evangelical pastors obtain good Bible study material in English. Many of us have an abundance of such things as single-volume commentaries; Bible dictionaries, handbooks, concordances; study Bibles; and books on the Bible, doctrines, or systematic theology. We're not using some of them at present, having bought newer editions or moved on to more advanced areas of study. Those books could still have a lot of use in them if we got them off our shelves and into the hands of a Filipino pastor, Christian worker, or ministerial student.

The way to do that is to ( 1) Pack in small packages and tie securely; (2) Print "Free Religious Literature" on each package; (3) Send by surface (sea) mail; (4) Write "No commercial value" customs declaration on package (if required) and insure; (5) Send to AIM, P.O. Box 110, Greenhills, Metro Manila 3113, Philippines.

ASA received this request from Doug Nichols, AIM's international director stationed in the Philippines. Another way to help is to send (tax-deductible) gifts for printing books for pastors in the Philippines. Checks should be sent to the U.S. office (AIM, P.O. Box 490, Bothell, WA 98011, USA) or to the Canadian office (AIM, P.O. Box 1257, Innisfail, Alberta, Canada TOM 1A0). Send the books directly to the Philippines, however.

One paper at the ASA ANNUAL MEETING at GEORGE FOX COLLEGE in AUGUST will deal with the medical consequences of nuclear war. On hand also will be at least four or five ASA members who by then will have participated in the big evangelical conference on The Church and Peacemaking in the Nuclear Age.

From its earliest days ASA attracted a significant number of members from "peace churches," particularly the Mennonites. Many of them have felt that our Affiliations should publicly address issues of war and peace. But peacemakers are by nature peaceful folk, not inclined to push their views to the point of confrontation. And it's clear that many of us have used our technical skills in support of military efforts, in industry or even in the armed forces.

War and peace are political issues. In general Christians don't want to get politics mixed up in the practice of our faith because politics tends to polarize people, and Christians should be united by the Holy Spirit. Likewise scientists try to keep politics out of science because partisanship threatens the goal of objectivity in our work. Since ASA and CSCA are composed of people serious about both Christian faith and science, it's not surprising that our Affiliations have been reluctant to take up any issues with which politicians play football.

Some of us detect that public attitudes about peace are changing, however. In spite of their pretensions of "controlling" the nuclear arms race, politicians seem to have lost control of forces beyond their understanding. The Christian community, with its deeper concern for spiritual and ethical issues, seems to be waking up to the idea that politicians need help on issues of war and peace. Likewise the scientific community is recognizing that politicians need more technological understanding of the unprecedented consequences of nuclear war. As individuals, many Christians and many scientists have been active politically in the past, of course-and on all sides of military issues. Now those issues seem to be drawing Christians together, and scientists together, to see if we can lay politics aside and agree on spiritual and ethical dimensions on the one hand, and on technological dimensions on the other.

Perhaps much of this activity stems from awareness of new political movements such as the various "nuclear weapons freeze" campaigns in states and municipalities. Whatever their effectiveness in changing government directions, at the very least those "grassroots" efforts signal that many citizens think their political leaders need re-educating in the nuclear age. Can Christians contribute to that process? Can scientists?

Besides the gentle "peace witness'' of Mennonites, Quakers, and others, some Christian organizations like Clergy and Laity Concerned or the Ecumenical Peace Institute have always had a political agenda. New on the horizon are the educational activities of several groups with an evangelical perspective. They are beginning to explore the biblical call to peacemaking, but with little historical tradition behind them. One such group is World Peacemakers (2852 Ontario Road, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009), founded by Washington's well-known and highly respected Church of the Saviour. They publish a quarterly Newsletter and publish or distribute books and pamphlets on peacemaking. For example, they distribute Effects of Nuclear War ($3), including the 1979 report of Congress's Office of Technology Assessment; also Richard J. Barnet's Real Security: Restoring American Power in a Dangerous Decade (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981. $6). Barnet, a former State Department official, is a founder of both the Institute for Policy Studies and World Peacemakers. For 30c to cover postage, World Peacemakers will send you a pamphlet on The Emerging Peace Movement: The Awakening of the Church and America.

Within the scientific community, some groups like the Federation of American Scientists have always had a political agenda. But new groups have arisen, such as Physicians for Social Responsibility in the U.S. and parallel organizations of M.D.s in other countries. The first Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War was held in March 1981 with physicians from 12 nations, including both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. A broader group, the Union of Concerned Scientists ( 1384 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02238) held its first Convocation on the Threat of Nuclear War on Veterans Day in 1981. UCS  recommendations for a new national security policy, drawn up after consultation with a number of prominent scientists and other experts in the arms control field, have been endorsed by more than 500 members of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution in May 1982 calling for both the U.S. and Soviet Union "to intensify substantially, without preconditions and with a sense of urgency, efforts to achieve an equitable and verifiable agreement" to limit strategic nuclear arms and to reduce significantly the number of such weapons and delivery systems. The American Physical Society endorsed that NAS resolution and has more recently passed a resolution that goes even further. APS, through its council, has called for a reversal of the arms race, a negotiated end to nuclear weapons testing, and disavowal of military doctrines that treat nuclear explosives as ordinary weapons of war.

For ASA/CSCA to take up issues of war and peace obviously entails risks. But the world in which we are to serve our Lord has always been a risky place. Jesus was accused by religious leaders of political motivations, and o.as p,! to death by a military regime-who probably did it .C~ Keep trie peace.

"The nuclear issue" is a political slogan that seems more confusing than most political slogans. Many opponents of commercial nuclear reactors on grounds of safety seem to like the ambiguity of the phrase. It draws others to their side of that argument because almost everyone fears the consequences of nuclear war. Even "nuclear power" is an ambiguous phrase, since it can refer either to the generation of usable forms of energy in reactors or to a country such as ours or the USSR that maintains an arsenal of terribly destructive nuclear weapons.

We were interested in the approach of the Union of Concerned Scientists (see above). In an appeal to scientists "to join us in facing an issue of transcendent importance: the nuclear arms race," a letter from UCS included the following paragraph:

"We unite in this appeal despite our being on opposite sides in the debate concerning the safety of commercial nuclear reactors. We continue to differ on that issue, but agree-as we believe most scientists do-that the threat posed by continued expansion of the world's nuclear arsenals is the most pressing concern of our time. It is a concern that demands unified and enduring action by the scientific community."

We were also interested in how Christian physicist William G. Pollard handles "the nuclear issue" in his pamphlet, A Theological View of Nuclear Energy, published by Breeder Reactor Corporation (P.O. Box U, Oak Ridge, TN 37830; evidently free on request). In the light of world energy shortages, Pollard tries to help people overcome what he considers an irrational fear of nuclear energy. He argues that God used nuclear energy in the creation of the universe and that in his providence God seems to have given us the capacity to use it constructively just when we needed it.

In a section on "The Blessing and Curse of Nuclear Energy," Pollard discusses Genesis 1:26-28 and the fact that "dominion" requires us to make constructive use of what God has provided. Pollard cites Deuteronomy 30:19 ("therefore choose life") as a needed balance to the Genesis passage in regard to use of nuclear energy. He acknowledges "the equal immensity of its potential curse," a present reality "in the ever-proliferating arsenals of nuclear weapons throughout the world." He argues that a refusal of the blessing of nuclear energy is not one of the ways "to prevent the misuse of nuclear energy, to prevent the potential curse from being realized." Two of the references Pollard cites are David J. Rose and Richard K. Lester, "Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, and International Stability," Scientific American 238, 45-57 (April 1978), and his own chapter on "Energy and the Conquest of Fear" in Michael P. Hamilton, ed., To Avoid Catastrophe: A Study in Future Nuclear Weapons Policy (Eerdmans).

Over the years ASA has encouraged formation of Christian fellowship groups in the various scientific disciplines, such as the Federation Christian Fellowship in the preclinical medical sciences. Last year we heard of one that got started on its own at the annual meetings of the American Nuclear Society. The Christian Nuclear Fellowship is "an informal fellowship of evangelical Christians who work in the nuclear field." Their next meeting will be on Monday evening, June 13, at 8 p.m. in one of the conference rooms of the Westin Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, where the ANS will be meeting.

Like the Federation Christian Fellowship, CNIF has no formal membership or dues. It has a steering committee of about eight people, including coordinator Victor 0. Uotinen, who publishes an occasional CNF Newsletter out of his home (9102 Oakland Circle, Lynchburg, VA 24502). Vic included in his current CNF Newsletter an editorial by Bob Herrmann from the issue of ASA News we sent him. He gave ASA some "good ink" from which we've already received several inquiries about membership (including Vic's).

In addition to providing fellowship opportunities for Christians in the nuclear community, CNF tries to encourage Christian witness within that community and the formation of prayer/study groups. One goal is discussion by CNF members of "how we can best use our talents to glorify God and serve our fellow men." Vic, who works for Babcock & Wilcox, says that one Christian group at B&W in Lynchburg has been going for more than seven years, meeting weekly for prayer and Bible study.

In answer to our question about "the nuclear issue" (see above), Vic wrote that "a few active CNF supporters (not many, but there are some) work on nuclear weapons-related projects (e.g., at Los Alamos National Lab), and we have had some discussion once or twice at our gatherings on this issue, with a variety of views expressed. We have pretty much concluded that this is a topic on which sincere, committed, biblically-faithful Christians can have honest differences of opinion. Thus the CNF has not taken any official position on it."

Guessing that possibly 98% of the 400 or so people on the CNF mailing list work on non-military applications of nuclear energy, Vic says that his own activity in developing peaceful applications of that energy source gives him a lot of satisfaction. He doesn't believe that "any thinking Christian would argue that the development of nuclear weapons is intrinsically good. However, many sincerely believe that in this warped, sinful world, and in the absence of other effective deterrents, it is necessary for us to pursue this activity if we are to deter the spread of a diabolical ideology that openly defies God and dehumanizes millions of people who are held in its iron grip."

Vic also believes that "every thinking Christian would be heartily in favor of dismantling all the world's nuclear weapons-the sooner the better. However, many believe it would be naive for the free world to do so unless we had an absolutely foolproof way of verifying that everyone in the other camp did the same."

The ASA seems to be the only technically-oriented evangelical organization participating in the May conference on The Church and Peacemaking in the Nuclear Age. As part of our educational responsibility, we've asked Vic Uotinen to send us any literature CNF would like us to make available at ASA's literature table. We also hope to have some copies of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists along with our own Journal of ASA, and maybe even some copies of William Pollard's pamphlet on Theology and Nuclear Energy.

Wheaton College biology professor Raymond H. Brand sent us programs from two different activities in Wheaton, Illinois, in which ASAers participated. Bob Herrmann has already mentioned the two-day Science Symposium sponsored by the Division of Science and Department of Biology of Wheaton College, April 7-8. The symposium led off with a showing of "The Last Epidemic," a film on the medical consequences of nuclear war, and a lecture by our ASA executive director on "Ethical Insensitivity in Science: Preoccupation or Presumption?" Other speakers discussed molecular genetics, computers, and the devastation of the tropical rainforest. The second day began with a breakfast for ASA members and prospective members. That day Bob Herrmann spoke in chapel on "Caring vs. Curing: A Contemporary Tension in Science and the Professions." On the symposium planning committee with Ray Brand were two biology colleagues, Dorothy Chappell and Ann Crawford.

Ray also seems to have been at least partly responsible for an adult elective class at Wheaton Bible Church called "Christians in an Age of Science." The class features a different speaker relating Christian faith to an academic area each Sunday from April 10 through June 26. Each speaker has at some time been associated in a teaching capacity with Wheaton College, but the program for the series includes a disclaimer that the speakers' viewpoints do not necessarily represent the position of either Wheaton College or Wheaton Bible Church. ASA scientists we recognized on the list are physicist Joe Spradley, chemist-attorney Stan Parmerter, biologists Dorothy Chappell, Russ Mixter, Ray Brand, and Pattle Pun, engineer Jack Sheaffer, and chemist Larry Funck. (if they're not all ASA members, they ought to be. -Ed.) Herb Wolf and Al Hoerth represented Wheaton's Bible Dept. and Art Holmes the Philosophy Dept.

Tapes of both the Symposium talks and of the church series are available. For information, contact Ray Brand at the Biology Dept., Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187.

Hooray for Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, associate professor of psychology at York University in Toronto! She has not only written a stimulating book, subtitled "A Christian Looks at the Changing Face of Psychology," but she is acknowledged on the back cover as "a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation and a contributing editor to its journal."

In The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 1982. paper, $5.95), Mary urges Christian psychologists to help develop a human-science rather than a natural-science approach to their discipline. Using philosopher C. Stephen Evans's typology (from Preserving

the Person, Baker, 1982), she criticizes the "Perspectivalist" approach taken by many Christians (e.g., Malcolm Jeeves and Donald MacKay), preferring to be a "Humanizer of Science": "I would insist, rather, that the traditional natural-science approach of psychology must at least be augmented, if not replaced, by a very different approach, based not on the continuity of human beings with lower organic and inorganic forms but on their unique differences from them."

The human-science features Mary focuses on are " ( 1) an emphasis on the significance of reflexivity in both investigators and the persons they study, (2) a concern for the uncovering of meaning in human activity, and (3) an emphasis on the unity of personal experience." By warning of certain dangers inherent in a human-science approach, though, Mary seems to end up in, or not far ',Drr. the traditional Perspectivalist camp herself. If so, she insists on being a "Perspectiva list with a difference." She wants a plurality of approaches to be built in to the conduct of psychology, and wants the move away from the hegemony of the natural-science approach to be accompanied by changes in the training, funding, and evaluation standards of the discipline.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice sharpens our ongoing discussion of how to integrate scientific understanding and Christian understanding, especially of human beings. The book is based on lectures Mary gave at the 1982 John G. Finch Symposium on Psychology and Religion at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary.

In "Confrontery and Effrontery" in the Feb/Mar 1983 issue of the Newsletter we reported briefly on a symposium held in June 1982 at the annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The symposium was entitled "Evolutionists Confront Creationists." Our second-hand report was .ased on several pages of first-hand notes from David Siemens and some comments by Wendell Hyde, both of whom live in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, California, where the meeting was held.

For a much more comprehensive report, we refer you to several issues of Origins Research, a newspaper published in Santa Barbara to which we've called your attention before. The AAAS symposium was not only in OR's own backyard but also right up their alley, since the stated purpose of the newspaper is "to provide means for students and educators to critically analyze the evolution and creation models of origins." The current issue (FallWinter 1982; Vol. 5, No. 2) summarizes the main points of four of the symposium speakers and offers critiques by editor Dennis Wagner and others. It covers the presentations by the two creationist speakers, Duane Gish of the Institute for Creation Research and Robert Gentry of Columbia Union College, and by two of the evolutionists,

Robert Root-Bernstein of the Salk Institute (on philosophical issues) and William Thwaites of San Diego State U. (on evolution vs. design). Presentations by the other six evolutionists will be covered in coming issues of OR as space permits.

Evolutionists may not consider OR's critique any more balanced than recent-creationists thought the symposium was. But here's a paragraph from Dennis Wagner's overview of the symposium, to show you why we think Origins Research is remarkably open for a "creationist" publication:

"Several valid criticisms were raised concerning arguments that have been used in the past to support the creation model. It was obvious that Brent Dalrymple of the U.S. Geological Survey had done his homework in challenging the assumptions used by creationist Melvin Cook in calculating the age of the earth. Likewise, Harold Slusher's moon dust calculations were shown to be based on dubious assumptions. Creationists must either respond to these challenges or quit using such arguments to support their model. On the other hand, Gish and Gentry presented their own evidence for creation and against evolution which remains unanswered. The conclusion is obvious. The study of origins is a complex issue requiring open dialog, research and debate between opponents. The AAAS symposium was a start-not the finish the evolutionists had hoped for."

So, one way to find out what was said, plus what some creationist critics think about it, is to subscribe to Origins Research (P.O. Box 203, Santa Barbara, CA 93116). Actually, OR is sent free "to all students and educators who request it" or for $2 a year (two issues) to anyone else in the U.S. ($3 in Canada). Write to the same address to inquire about back issues (50c each) or membership in Students for Origins Research. Before submitting your own article for publication in OR, ask for their "Author's Guide."

Another way to get the scoop on that AAAS symposium is to get hold of the videotapes. Tapes of the Gish, Awbrey, Thwaites, and Gentry presentations (Frank T. Awbrey of San Diego State was co-organizer of the symposium with Thwaites) can be rented ($35 per videocassette) or bought ($100 each or $350 for the set of four) from UCSB. Order from Learning Resources Television, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106. A convenient order blank is printed in Vol. 5, No. 2, of Origins Research.

M. R. (Mike) Johnson of the Geological Survey (Private Bag X 112, Pretoria 000 1, South Africa) joined ASA last year. He recently received his second issue of the Newsletter, which takes three to five months to get to South Africa by surface mail. Noting "the creation-evolution issue cropping up a number of times," Mike sent us a copy of a paper he read at the second congress of the Palaeontological Society of South Africa last year. Entitled "Creationism, Evolution and Historical Geology," it was later published in South African Journal of Science 78, 264-7 (July 1982). The paper is in English with summaries in both English and Afrikaans.

Mike's paper tries to explain to geologists and paleontologists "the anti-evolution campaign now being waged in religious and educational circles in the United States and elsewhere by the so-called creationist movement." A footnote points out that "strictly speaking, all who believe in the existence of a Creator are creationists, but in practice the term is nowadays restricted to those whose view of creation involves a partial or total rejection of evolution." He clearly distinguishes between "progressive creationism" and "six-day creationism" and addresses them separately.

In his concluding remarks, after discussing some of the geological data, Mike says that "most creationist literature gives the impression that one is faced with a straight choice between special creation and atheistic, materialistic evolutionism. In fact there are many scientists who consider that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with the main tenets of orthodox Christian teaching (or of other religious persuasions for that matter)." He quotes Malcolm Jeeves in The Scientific Enterprise and Christian Faith (IVP, 1969) in support of his position that "there is in principle no conflict between Christian faith in general and the discovery of a scientific mechanism for creation.... When we affirm that God created we do not rule out the possibility that He did it via a natural process.

Progressive and young-earth creationists among our Affiliations may not appreciate Mike Johnson's approach as much as the theistic evolutionists will. Yet it does seem remarkable for such a clear presentation of the issues to be published in a major scientific journal by a Christian who takes the Bible seriously. Mike writes that he and geologist William Tanner of Florida have been corresponding and collaborating on a book-length manuscript on geology and Genesis. In recent correspondence Bill Tanner mentioned that a symposium on creationism and geology was planned as part of the Southeastern Geological Society of America meeting in Tallahassee in March 1983.

One paragraph in Mike's paper describes an aspect of the educational scene in South Africa:

"On the local scene things have been fairly quiet, partly because, in the Transvaal at any rate, the high school biology syllabus maintains a total silence on the subject of evolution. Creationists have therefore had no real cause for complaint. Of the half-dozen different high school biology textbooks stocked by a Pretoria bookshop, only one mentions evolution. Religious considerations no doubt played a part in the decision to exclude all mention of evolution in high school biology. That six-day creationism must be making some impact on the general public is,

however, clear from the fact that in bookshops specializing in the sale of religious literature, three-quarters of the books dealing with the relationship between science and faith proclaim the creationist message." (Only threequarters? Some U.S. religious bookstores wouldn't have any book that was "soft on evolution." -Ed.)

The summary concludes: "Daar word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat daar geen gesonde wetenskaplike of teologiese redes bestaan vir die weerhouding van inligting oor die evolusie van lewe en van die aardkors in skoolleerplanne, museums, ens. nie."

Maybe we can all agree on that, at least.

NOTES AND QUOTES

1. Commenting on the endless arguments between proponents of punctuated equilibrium and of paleontological gradualism, Richard E. Grant of the Dept. of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., says it is time to recognize that "the question is philosophically intractable and therefore is a pseudoquestion." In a letter to Science ( 11 Mar 1983, p. 1170), Grant writes: "Given a fossil in the lower part of a formation and another in the upper part, one may infer that the lower one is an ancestor of the upper one. Say the formation is rather thin, so the two fossils are only narrowly separated; one can say that it is highly likely that the earlier form gave rise to the later form. One can say this, but it is always an inference; it cannot be proved." When the punctuation model comes up "with cyclic regularity" under such names as "saltation" or "allopatric speciation," says Grant, it always produces a furor among paleontologists. "Then the futility of the argument becomes apparent to most who examine it and it tends to go away, while gradualism seems to retain its hold on most minds."

2. Shifting this Year from its traditional year-end meeting time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (with over 140,000 members) is holding its 1983 Annual Meeting on May 26-31 in Detroit, Michigan. With the theme "Science and Engineering: Toward a National Renaissance," the meeting features nearly 150 symposia, plus public lectures, science exhibits, poster sessions, and a science film festival featuring 40 of the best new science films.

3. Cross-cultural evangelism and ministry in the local church will be the focus of some 300 mission specialists and church leaders from all over the world for the last 12 days of June, 1983. The Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois, will be the site of the conference and planning sessions with the theme "I Will Build My Church." The committee planning "Wheaton '83" has been arranging for churches in the U.S. and Canada to host overseas visitors and help underwrite their travel costs to the conference.

4. Marquette University sociologist David 0. Moberg sent us a clipping from the March 25 issue of News & Views from his campus. It said that Dr. Charles Everett Koop will be one of five people awarded honorary doctorates at Marquette's 102nd annual Commencement on May 22 at the Milwaukee Arena. Koop, Surgeon General of the United States, an evangelical Christian and "a leading spokesman for the right to life of the unborn, the newborn, and the aged," will receive a Doctor of Science degree. Theme of the Roman Catholic university's 1983 Commencement Week programs is "A Celebration of Decency." A Doctor of Laws degree will be awarded to Robert J. Keeshan, television's "Captain Kangaroo."

5. In the March issue of the ASA Washington- Ba It im ore Section Newsletter, editor Bill Lucas notes the availability of OTA Assessment Activities at no cost from the Publishing Office, Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress, Washington, DC 20510. The 42-page document lists OTA's current and recently completed projects. Current titles include "The Future of Conventional Nuclear Power," "Industrial Energy Use," and "The Impact of Technology on Aging in America."

6. A review of Karl Popper's Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery, Vol. // & ///, appears in Nature 300, 663-4 (16 Dec 1982). The review is by ASA's 1976 keynote speaker Donald M. MacKay, emeritus professor of communication and neuroscience at Keele University in England and author of a number of important books relating science and faith. According to MacKay, Popper 11 sees the current scientific orthodoxy as riddled with philosophical errors and confusions that urgently need sorting out . . . " Gary Doolittle of Eugene, Oregon, thought that intriguing line might make some Newsletter readers want to read MacKay's review and possibly Popper's book as well.

7. The October 1982 issue of The Astronomical Journal carried a report of the discovery of "the largest thing ever found in the universe," a string of galaxies ten times the size of any previously identified galactic cluster. Riccardo Giovanelli of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and Martha Haynes, assistant director of the National Radio Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, made the discovery when they showed that two previously identified clusters were actually two ends of one huge cluster. The clusters, located in the Perseus and Big Dipper constellations, had seemed to be separate because visible light from between them was absorbed by the Milky Way. The two astronomers found a string of galaxies connecting the two clusters by using the 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope at Arecibo and the 300foot-wide dish at Green Bank.

The filament of galaxies is about 700 million light years long and from 100 to 200 million light years from Earth. According to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle (30 Nov 1982), Giovanelli said the discovery supports the theory that galaxies condensed from long filaments of matter, rather than being formed independently and then being drawn into clusters by their gravitational attraction for each other. The same story quotes U.C. Berkeley astronomer Marc Davis on the further significance of the discovery. According to Davis, this discovery and earlier reports of chains of galaxies suggest that the universe is composed almost entirely of neutrinos, the subatomic particles that may account for what has been termed "the missing mass" of the universe.

8. Robert A. Herrmann of The Institute for Mathematical Philosophy (P.O. Box 3410, Annapolis, MD 21403) calls our attention to some peculiar features of a "prayer" published in the October 1982 issue of Reader's Digest magazine. "The Great Invocation" formed the contents of a full-page ad by the Lucis Trust (866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 566, New York, NY 100 17). Bob has tracked down the Lucis Trust, agent for Lucis Publishing Company, which once seems to have been called Lucifer Publishing. The Lucis Trust is the sole publisher of 24 books written by Alice A. Bailey 1880-1949), including The Consciousness of the Atom 1922) and A Treatise of White Magic: Or the Way of the Disciple ( 1934). After delving into her writings on mysticism and the occult, Bob warns that use of terms like "God" and "Christ" in "The Great Invocation" that "belongs to all humanity" may mean far different things to "Luciferians" than they do to evangelical Christians.

9. Finally, some other words of warning, this time from political scientist Stan Moore of Pepperdine University in California. Stan noted that Time magazine chose to honor "the machine of the year"-the microcomputer- instead of "the man of the year" this time around. As we create a more technical and complex society, Stan says, we make more and more people marginal. The bell-shaped curve of I.Q. distribution in the human population shows that half of us have I.Q. less than 100, 40% less than 95, and 16% of us less than 85. How will individuals with an I.Q. less than 90 be able to survive in the society we are creating? "This is a crisis that is just beginning but already economists are defining 'full employment' as meaning 8 or 9% unemployment; to hire the remaining people is deemed 'uneconomic' because they cannot offer a 'positive' contribution to American technological society. How can the church make such people feel that they have dignity and worth as human beings?"

Stan is also appalled at what the present administration is doing to U.S. energy policy, having eliminated 85% of all money that was going into solar, geothermal, energy conservation, etc. "All energy money is now going for nuclear development. In the future, when energy is again in short supply, because of our failure to fund alternatives we will be stuck with breeder reactors as our only option."

physics and documented teaching, research, administrative, and leadership ability. The Institute, founded in 1881, is a publicly supported, coeducational technological university with 6,000 students in engineering, engineering technology, architecture, computer science, management, and engineering science. Master's programs in engineering, management, applied science, and applied mathematics; doctor's program in engineering. Applications or nominations to: Personnel Dept., Box P, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 High St., Newark, NJ 07102. (Received 14 Feb 1983 from Jim Neidhardt of physics, who would love to attract more Christians to his faculty.)

Geneva College in Pennsylvania has four tenure-track faculty openings for August 1983. Civil engineering: program has about 50 majors, with emphasis on structural design. Industrial engineering: about 45 majors, with emphasis on industrial management, also serving a strong business administration major. Radio/speech: direct campus FM radio station and teach course in broadcasting and introduction to TV. Computer science/mathematics: about 65 majors in computer science and 80 in information systems; college computer is a VAX 11 / 780, plus micros; must also teach some advanced undergrad math. All positions require at least a Master's, with Ph.D. preferred. Geneva is an evangelical liberal arts college of 1, 150 students. Contact: Dean William H. Russell, Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA 15010. (Received 16 Mar 1983.)

E K. Balian of Maine needs a psychiatrist with a comprehensive orientation to join another psychiatrist ( Balian) in private practice. Commitment to Christian values as a way of lite is essential. Contact: Epiphanes K. Balian, M.D., 45 Hogan Road, Bangor, ME 04401. Tel. (207) 947-7186. (Received 18 Apr 1983.)