NEWSLETTER

of the

American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific Christian Affiliation


VOLUME 33 NUMBER 4          AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1991


[Editor: Dr. Walter R. Hearn / Production: Rebecca Petersen]

 

ON OUR WAY

Copy for this issue arrived in Ipswich during final preparations for the big 50th Anniversary Celebration, the 1991 ASA ANNUAL MEETING at WHEATON COLLEGE in Illinois. Managing editor Becky Petersen had no time for our groveling confession but offered the Weary Old Editor instant forgiveness if we got the copy to her even one week before zoomsday.

The count-down before an Annual Meeting is like "primal scream time" in the ASA office, but you'd never guess that when Becky, Karen Brunstrom, and Frances Polischuk are smiling at you across the registration desk. ASA executive director Bob Herrmann will be looking calm despite preparing to defend the financial reports and a budget for the Council meeting. Program chair Jack Haas, local arrangements chair Al Smith, Ray Brand, and many other Wheaton folk will be wondering how they ever got into this.

Most of us will get into it by flying into Chicago's O'Hare airport. Up, up, and awayyyyy!

"BRILLIG!"

In the last issue we cited some letters to The Scientist over its Feb 18 exchange between science writer Forrest Nlims of the Scientific American fiasco and philosopher Arthur Caplan. (Our "ALL MIMSY" heading came from Lewis Carroll's famous "Jabberwocky" poem about  a beamish hero who, with vorpal sword, did in a burbling Jabberwock.-Ed.)

In The Scientist for May 13, Mims and Caplan were given space to respond to reader input. Caplan continued to insist that religion was not at issue:

'The one issue, the only issue, is whether or not Mims, or anyone else for that matter, can credibly serve as a staff columnist for a magazine that intends to communicate about science to the general public if he does not accept evolutionary theory as science."

Caplan repeated his claim that evolutionary theory "underpins the life sciences, geology, archeology, oceanography, cosmology, agricultural science, veterinary science, the health sciences, and the social sciences." (The question originally posed to Mims was whether he accepted the Darwinian theory-hardly an udderpinning of cosmology.-Ed.)

Mims noted that John Wiester's letter, referring to the "shell game" played with such elastic definitions of evolution, had been categorized by Berkeley biophysicist Thomas Jukes as "venomous." That kind of intemperate knee-jerk defense of anything labeled evolution led Mims to write: 

"Those who doubt that for some of its adherents Darwinism has evolved into a philosophical dogma that justifies censoring, blacklisting, and excommunicating dissenters need only read some of the letters published recently in The Scientist."

Some indexing service must have cited the letters, perhaps on-line; Wiester received a score of requests for a copy of his "publication," ten of them from institutes in Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other European countries. (Living in a small town and knowing the postmaster personally means that mail addressed simply to "Prof. J. Wiester, Buellton, CA, USA" gets delivered.-Ed.) John sent each inquirer a copy of what appeared in The Scientist about Scientific American's treatment of Mims plus (you guessed it!) ASA's booklet for teachers, Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy.

Forrest Mims was recently pondering how to write still another reply, this time to what he regarded as gross misrepresentations in Martin Gardner's column in the Summer issue of Skeptical Inquirer. Evidently Gardner fired questions at Mims over the telephone, mostly about biblical passages, sometimes not even waiting for an answer. Then Gardner published his interpretation of what Mims said, or "would have said" according to Gardner's view of Mim's beliefs.

Forrest was upset that a veteran science writer would publish such a distorted piece, but appreciated Skeptical Inquirer's invitation to reply in print. Check future issues of Skeptical Inquirer. We didn't get the whole story, because Forrest was busy packing up some of his homemade scientific equipment. He was about to drive from Seguin (TX) to Baja, California to make measurements during the July 11 solar eclipse, which would be directly overhead there and total for some seven minutes.

THEY'LL BE "FRUMIOUS!"

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frurnious Bandersnatch!"

Lewis Carroll's whimsical warning (see story above) reminds us of what one ASA member asked Phillip E. Johnson after reading an early draft of the Berkeley law professor's new book-- "Phil, do you have tenure?" Darwin on Trial, just released by Regnery Gateway (cloth, 195 pp., $19.95), may make a lot of dogmatic Bandersnatches "frumious" enough to try to get its author fired.

Professor Johnson, a keynote speaker at the 1990 ASA Annual Meeting at Messiah College, is a legal scholar, not a scientist. Despite much hubris, however, scientists aren't the only scholars who can spot a weak argument. Johnson has concluded -from their writings that many scientists have "prematurely accepted Darwin's theory as fact and have been scrambling to find evidence for it-mostly unsuccessfully." Many scientists deny or conceal their biases, but Johnson sets forth his own at the beginning:

"I am a philosophical theist and a Christian. I believe that a God exists who could create out of nothing if He wanted to do so, but who might have chosen to work through a natural evolutionary process instead. I am not a defender of creation-science, and in fact I am not concerned in this book with addressing any conflicts between the Biblical accounts and the scientific evidence."

The question he wants to investigate, Johnson says, is "whether Darwinism is based upon a fair assessment of the scientific evidence, or whether it is another kind of fundamentalism." His interactions with prominent scientists along the way, and the reception his ideas have already received, have tended to confirm his view that Darwinism is an ideology, not simply a working hypothesis. He thinks it was set forth as a rival to theism from the very beginning.

A major story on Johnson appeared in the Jun 14 San Francisco Chronicle. Staff writer Jerry Carroll's profile was headed "The Man Who Dares to Doubt Darwin" and included a photo of Phil smiling amid unsmiling dinosaurs in an evolution exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. The caption asked, "Is This Man Committing Professional Suicide?" Commenting on Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins's statement that anyone who claims not to believe in evolution "is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)," Johnson said, "I'm not easily intimidated."

For balance, the reporter included negative comments from ever-dependable Thomas Jukes, closing with a typical sleight-of-mouth from Jukes: "Bring on the flying saucers, astrology and extrasensory perception. How sad that a professor of law should argue on behalf of a degradation of the intellect." Despite that kind of balance, we hear that Carroll's sympathetic treatment of Phil Johnson drew a lot of "emotional hate-mail."

As we understand it, the U.C. provost, distinguished science historian John Heilbron, tried to set up a public discussion of the book between Phil and someone opposed to his views within the university system. No go. Then the editor of the alumni magazine, California Monthly, wanted to publish a piece by Johnson and an opposing piece. Phil has submitted a 1,000-word article on "The Ideology of Biology" along with the names of eight professors who oppose his views. He told the editor he was submitting so many names because "I suspect you may have difficulty getting evolutionary biologists to risk exposing their position on an even playing ground."

Phil Johnson seems willing to "take the heat" from some heavyduty fire-breathers. The line of Lewis Carroll's poem he brings to mind comes near the end, after the Jabberwock has bought the borogove: "He chortled in his joy."

THE PASCAL CENTRE

We urge our readers to attend ASA ANNUAL MEETINGS to benefit from personal contact. At the 1990 Messiah College meeting, personal contact with bearded Jitse Van der Meer taught us a lot about the Pascal Centre for Advanced Studies in Faith and Science, which he directs. (It also taught us that despite sounding a bitsy like "Betsy," Jitse is a man's name in Dutch.-Ed.)

Jitse, a Ph.D. in biology, is an associate professor at Redeemer College in Ancaster, Ontario, a relatively new liberal arts college in the Reformed tradition. Don McNally, a Ph.D. in history & philosophy of science, is associate coordinator of the Christianity & Culture Program at St. Michael's College of the U. of Toronto. At their urging, Redeemer College established the Pascal Centre on its campus in 1988. One stimulus was the presence of the personal library of wide-ranging scholar Arthur C. Custance, an ASA member in the early 1940s with an M.A. in oriental languages from Toronto. He later left ASA but devoted himself to publishing a long series of
Doorway Papers on science (especially anthropology) and the Bible. When Arthur died in 1985 he left his books and papers to Redeemer College. Other major libraries are not far away.

The Centre's stated purposes include study of "the implications of the biblical teachings on creation"; understanding "the coherence of our knowledge of God, humanity and the cosmos"; conducting research in philosophy, theology, science and related fields; promoting awareness among Christians that a biblical approach to scholarship in the natural sciences includes "bringing our knowledge of the subject matter itself under the lordship of Christ"; and communicating the work of the Centre "to serve like-minded Christians world-wide." The Centre emphasizes its commitment to the authority of Scripture, from which it seeks guidance for its scholarship. How it works:

The Centre initiates research projects and invites collaboration by scholars outside the Centre. The Centre also assists researchers seeking grants from private and public sources. Research may be done at the Centre or elsewhere.

The Pascal Centre will sponsor a five-day research conference on "Science and Belief," 11-15 Aug 1992. The conference is aimed at "scholars with a professional interest in the relationship between science and belief, in particular Christian belief." Each day a keynote speaker and a respondent will interact with each other and with other participants; specific research problems will be addressed in afternoon workshops. Keynoters will be Thomas F. Torrance and John H. Brooke of the U.K., Frederick Suppe and Christopher Kaiser of the U.S., and Horst W. Beck of Gen-nany. The conference will be held on the campus of Redeemer College, with housing in college residences. Details of costs, travel information, and program will be sent during fall 1991 to all who request information from: Lynda J. Cockroft, Administrative Assistant, The Pascal Centre, Redeemer College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada L9G 3N6.

The Centre has become a base for Don McNally, whose title is director of research communications. The bibliographic database on science and Christian belief he began as a CSCA field staffer is now progressing under the aegis of the Pascal Centre. An ongoing research program in the history of science and its interaction with religious belief is being initiated. Beginning in Summer 1992 the Centre hopes to sponsor one or two projects per year. Don would be glad to send information on how to submit a proposal, and a form for scholars to provide information on their particular interests for the Centre's research directory.

The Pascal Centre is clearly establishing itself as a Reformational "think tank" of importance to our Affiliations. Biologist David Wilcox of Eastern College has already taken advantage of it as a great place to think-and write.

BULLETIN BOARD

1. After 1 Sep 1991, the ASA Newsletter telephone number will be (510) 527-3056. Berkeley and other East Bay cities will get 510 as their new Area Code; San Francisco, Stanford, and other peninsula cities will retain the 415 Area Code.

2. The North American Conference on Christianity & Ecology (NACCE) is sponsoring a 3-week "Christian Ecology" trip to the Soviet Union, 15 Aug-4 Sep 1991. The trip will actually be a sustained conference, traveling with Soviet counterparts of the "Save Peace and Nature" collective. NACCE says that the Russian church developed in a manner that blended Christian values with an ancient Slavic tribal respect and concern for the land. As the church again becomes an active social force in the USSR it is beginning to emphasize ecological action. Cost, from L.A. or NYC: $2,950. To see if places are still open, contact "Christian Ecology in Russia," c/o NACCE, P.O. Box 14305, San Francisco, CA 94114, or Russart Travel, tel. (415) 781-6655.

3. A conference on "Genomic Information: Ethical Implications" to be held at the U. of Washington in Seattle, 4-8 Nov 1991, is sponsored by the departments of Medical History & Ethics and of Medical Genetics. Course fee: $100. Applications were due by July 19 (Dept of Med. History & Ethics, School of Medicine, SB-20, U. of Washington, Seattle, WA 98165), but call (206) 543-5447 to see if places are still open.

SQUIBS

When the Geological Society of America met in Dallas last October, the Affiliation of Christian Geologists was on the official program with a session on "Communicating Geology to the Church." ACG members at that meeting went beyond merely urging such communication, however, engaging in joint discussions with a group of Dallas Theological Seminary professors and staff of Probe Ministries.

The geologists explored some perceived conflicts between geology and Christianity and learned how seminary students at Dallas are taught to deal with such problems. When ACG members gather again at the Geological Society's meeting in San Diego this fall, they hope to set up a similar interaction with staff members of the Institute for Creation Research. (From the Spring 1991 issue of ACG's The News!, edited by John Suppe of Princeton University.)

Jon Buell of the Foundation for Thought & Ethics (P.O. Box 830721, Richardson, TX 750830721) says that Christians in Romania have asked for 18,000 more copies of the Romanian translation of FTE's Mystery of Life's Origin. FIE's budget crunch is making it hard to keep up with the demand. A major gift enabled a requested 2,000 copies of Of Pandas and People (in English) to be sent to four Eastern European countries. Pandas has finally begun to sell well in the U.S., according to Jon. (A sympathetic account of adoption efforts in Alabama was given in Rob Weiman's "Evolutionists Censor Science Textbooks" in the May 1991 American Family Association Journal; Scott Brande's "Pandas Attack Science Education" in the Summer 1991 Free Inquiry was a decidedly unsympathetic account.)

The Center for Theology & the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, has received a pledge from Laraunce Rockefeller of $100,000 a year for three more years. According to CTNS director Robert Russell, Rockefeller's generous support (a total of $600,000 over the period 1989-94) has permitted expansion of Fellowships, research conferences, and publications. Several ASAers have taken part in recent programs. U.C. biochemist David Cole presented a CTNS Forum lecture on "The Evolution of the Lifestyle of a Biologist" in Jan 1991, discussing the transition from "little science" to "big science" from a participant's viewpoint. At a Feb 1991 research conference, ASA/CSCA Newsletter editor Walt Hearn responded to philosopher Holmes Rolston's paper on "Genes, Genesis, and God in Natural and Human History"; conference papers published in the Spring 1991 issue of CTNS Bulletin included Walt's "Science, Selves, and Stories." The Winter 1991 issue of the Bulletin included an essay on "Quantum Theory and Resurrection Reality" by physicist/ pastor George Murphy. (CTNS membership at $25/yr, $15 for students, includes the quarterly Bulletin, monthly CTNS Newsletter, and currently Science & Religion News. Address: CTNS, 2400 Ridge Rd, Berkeley, CA 94709.)

Daniel Diaz, at Case Western Reserve in Ohio, noted that the March 1991 Book of theMonth Club main selection was a book edited by Timothy Ferris, The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics. According to the blurb in BOMC News, the anthology includes authors ranging from Albert Einstein and Pierre Curie to ASA's own Owen Gingerich. Of Owen's "Let There Be Light: Modem Cosmology and Biblical Creation" (based on keynote addresses from the 1981 ASA Annual Meeting at Eastern College), the BOMC reviewer wrote:
For the religious reader, it offers heartening evidence that faith and science needn't be seen as conflicting. For the hardheaded atheist, it poses a hardheaded challenge as it seeks to demonstrate the sheer mathematical improbability of a Godless universe. And for the agnostic, there is the pleasure of observing an internal debate in which both sides are presented knowledgeably and forcefully.

Cornell University chemistry professor Roald Hoffmann has become familiar as host of the American Chemical Society series on PBS TV. He also writes the "Marginalia" column in Sigma Xi's American Scientist. His Jan-Feb 1991 column, "In Praise of Synthesis," began with the sentence, "Creation is wonderful." Hoffmann praised "Nature's work," deifying (or at least reifying) nature with a capital "N," before moving on to consider the creativity of chemists. Of several categories of synthesis, his first was "elemental." What example did he choose? The now famous synthesis of xenon tetrafluoride. Who "created" that molecule from its elements? Former ASA president Howard Claassen then a physics prof at Wheaton College, now retired and living in Tacoma, Washington. The paper Hoffmann cited was H. H. Claassen, H. Selig, and H. G. Malin J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 84, p. 35~3 (1964).

Astrophysicist Hugh Ross's interpretation of Scripture was criticized in the July Acts & Facts of the Institute for Creation Research (P.O. Box 2667, El Cajon, CA 92021). In "Hugh Ross, ICR, and the Bible" (Impact No. 217), ICR Librarian James Stambaugh argued that Hugh's refusal to accept the "days" of Genesis I as 24-hour days undermines "the very integrity of the Bible itself." In April Hugh appeared on the Dobson "Focus on the Family" broadcast, partly to talk about his book, The Fingerprint of God. Focus on the Family had stocked 700 copies, but within a few days 6,500 orders had come in. In the Spring issue of Facts & Faith from Reasons to Believe (P.O. Box 5978, Pasadena, CA 91117), Hugh discussed various models of the "Big Bang." Recent data, such as the Geller-Huchra galaxy map and the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite measurements of the background radiation, both featured on recent PBS television programs, have led to reports of the demise of Big Bang theories. Hugh wrote that only the first of many possible colddark-matter Big Bang theories has been eliminated, and that he ex_ pects to see much more data accumulating to support "the biblical doctrine of Creator and creation."

The Spring issue of Facts & Faith (see above) congratulated astronomer Allan Sandage for winning the 1991 "astronomer's Nobel," the Crafoord Prize, to be awarded in Stockholm on Sept 25. Sandage works at The Observatories (PalomarMt. Wilson) operated by the Carnegie Institution, not far from the Pasadena headquarters of Reasons to Believe. (Thanks to Dave Fisher for a clipping on Sandage from the 12 Mar New York Times and an additional bit of data: the Crafoord Prize is an award of $260,000.-Ed.)

Allan Sandage (see above) was one of 27 cosmologists interviewed by Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer in their book Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists (Harvard U. Press, 1990). Chemist Chi-Hang Lee spotted an acknowledgment of Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich in the Preface and noted at least two other theists among the 27 interviewees. Asked about Steven Weinberg's famous line about the pointlessness of the universe, Allan Sandage said that since nihilism is even more pointless, he is "quite willing to believe there is a purpose." An overtly Christian position was taken by Don Page, physics professor at Penn State at the time of the interview but now at the U. of Alberta in Edmonton. Don is a long-time ASA member who got his Ph.D. at Cal Tech in
1976, then spent three years as a postdoc with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge. Asked about philosophical implications of the beginning of the universe, Don said: I am a Christian and believe that God has created the whole universe. Of course, as a physicist I'm trying to understand a bit more of how He did create it or in what state He's created it. I think these laws show the faithfulness of God and the patterns that He's used. In answer to other questions, Don said he believed the Bible to be God's revealed Word to us, and that "there's definitely a purpose." Stating the gist of the biblical message of creation and redemption through Christ, Don Page confessed that he doesn't know all of God's purposes, and remains "a bit skeptical about applying the strong anthropic principle, that the universe had to have life in it."

British astronomer John D. Barrow's new book is titled Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation (Oxford). Author of The Anthropic Principle (Oxford, 1986) and World Within the World (Oxford, 1988), John Barrow spoke to the San Francisco Bay ASA section in the 1980s while doing research at U.C. Berkeley. Excerpts of his forthcoming book appeared in the 10 Dec 1990 issue of The Scientist (p. 13). Scientists are beginning to ask ultimate questions, John wrote, and "theologians find their thinking preempted and guided by the mathematical speculations of a new generation of scientists." After discussing the limits to what is "listable" as well as "computable," Barrow concluded:

There is no formula that can deliver all truth, all harmony, all simplicity. No Theory of Everything can ever provide total insight. For to see through everthing would leave us seeing nothing at all.
Barrow's review of John Polkinghorne's Science and Providence in the 9 Feb 1991 New Scientist suggested that Christian apologetics based on the "openness" of microscopic chaos may produce a "chaotic theology" rather than a "theology of chaos."

KENYA/ASA: 4.

We're looking forward to a report from Bob Herrmann, Ken Dormer, and Martin Price, ASA representatives on the board of the new Institute for African Research & Development described in
this column last issue. The IARD board met in Nairobi in June. Meanwhile, Kenya items have caught our eye in various publications.

The newsletter CMDS (May/Jun) reported on the first East African Continuing Medical Education Conference (see KENYA/ASA: 2, Apr/May 1991). Contributions to a scholarship fund enabled 41 East African physicians to attend the week-long conference, held at the Brackenhurst International Conference Center in Nairobi. Paul Groen, an orthopedic surgeon from Wheaton, Illinois, who led the CMDS contingent from the U.S., wrote that a sense of spiritual renewal accompanied the transfer of technical information, a goal to which IARD aspires. He also wrote of a growing awareness "that the problems of Africa are going to ultimately be solved by Africans, and that the role of expatriates will probably be more of a supportive role in the future." That awareness undergirds all of IARD's planning.

In Evangelicals for Social Action's newsletter Advocate (Jun 1991), L. Lamar Nisly cited Kenya's high annual population growth rate of 4.1 percent (about twice the world average) as one factor leading to unhealthy conditions in Mathare Valley on the outskirts of Nairobi. Over 100,000 "squatters" live there in poverty, having left their shambas (farms) for various reasons to move to the city. The (moderately) good news is that the average fertility rate (average number of children per woman) in Kenya has dropped from 8.1 to 6.7 in the past 20 years. (Fertility rate in the U.S. is now 1.8).

A different slant on crowded urban conditions in Kenya came from Stephen Githumbi, pastor of Presbyterian churches in slum regions of Nairobi for 19 years and associate director of World Vision , s African Urban Ministry. Writing in Fuller Seminary's Theology News & Notes (Jun 1991), Pastor Githumbi pointed out that as the traditional tribal communities are replaced in urban Africa, new communities are being formed around the church. In contrast to the U.S. situation, urban African churches identify closely with slum dwellers, so that at the funeral of someone in the neighborhood a whole congregation, not merely the pastor, will offer visible support to the bereaved. Further, people love to come to church because of joyful, free-flowing worship celebrations. Finally, the community spirit of African Christians leads them to take on each other's burdens in a more responsible way. Githumbi wrote that in his lifetime he had not seen one African Christian who had been divorced, because "marriage is not a contract between two individuals; it is a contract with the entire community." We have a lot to learn from "the African way" of following Jesus Christ.

A NOSE FOR NEWS

The Newsletter editor sniffed a story this spring when an article in the Oakland (CA) Tribune and two items in the Apr 12 issue of Science hit the desk about the same time. One journal item was a review of a book on the neurobiology of The Vertebrate Olfactory System, the other a news report of the cloning of genes for what appear to be odorant receptor proteins in the rat. That work had just been reported in Cell by Linda Buck and Richard Axel of the Howard Hughes Mcdical Institute of Columbia University.

Though neither mentioned him, both items reminded us of British born biochemist John Amoore of El Cerrito, California, who in the 1970s was a sparkplug of ASA's San Francisco Bay local section. John had developed a chemical theory of olfaction and written a book on it, and at that time was on the research staff of USDA's regional laboratory in Albany. After his project was closed out, John claimed that his treatment by the government lab was illegal. Hearings dragged on and on, evidently teaching John a lot about legal proceedings in the process. Tbat's where the 1991 Tribune story comes in. We learned from it of John's consulting firm, Olfacto Labs of Richmond, which had just won a big court settlement after a 13week trial.

As we understand it, John Amoore and hydrologist Richard Weiss were both expert witnesses in a four-million-dollar toxic-waste judgment against Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., but the Los Angeles attorneys who won the case never paid either expert for their services. They sued, and the Alameda County Superior Court judge who heard their case said she had never before encountered such "indifference to and avoidance of payments of business creditors" or such "outright disregard of the truth." She ordered that plaintiffs Amoore and Weiss be paid the bills due them, plus compensatory damages and even punitive damages.

(Now that that's settled, and we know what John is doing these days, maybe we can lure him back into ASA activities.-Ed.)

THE EDITOR'S LAST WORDS: 16.
This column is turning into an on going seminar on editing this Newsletter. Reviewing my own on the-job training may serve as a useful before-the-job course for my inevitable successor.

Nobody can specify exactly what an editor needs to know. It helps to know at least something about almost everything, though the most important attribute is a firm grasp of what you don't know. "When in doubt, check it out." Good journalists, like scientists, know that what gets into print may not be so. Like historians, they realize that people can be wrong about details even of their own lives.

As an amateur editor allergic to telephones, I've been known to cut comers when I should have known better. With a deadline looming, never try to save time by guessing at some detail instead of looking it up or calling somebody to nail it down. Proper names, one learns, defy logic. Do not assume that Ancaster, Ontario, is a typo for Lancaster-even though there is a Lancaster, Ontario.

If an ASA member has what sounds to you like "an Indian-sounding name," do not say that he was bom in India unless you know it for a fact. He could have been bom in Pakistan or in Bangladesh or even (as it turned out) in China. If he (or she) has a name that could be either male or female, do not refer to, say, Pat or Robin as "him" or "her" at all. All readers expect editors to spell their name right--even if the signature on the item they send in is illegible.

Sometimes, though, letting your ignorance show is a good test of whether anybody is reading what you write. Take my admission in the Jun/Jul PERSONALS, for example, that I didn't know what P.C. meant after the name of the psychology consulting firm for which Robin Wentworth now works. Robin didn't say. (Check my judicious epicenity!).

The first two readers to educate me on that subject were computer consultant Jim Wetterau of Queens, New York, and Dow Corning chemist Larry Brown of Midland, Michigan. Evidently doctors, lawyers, and other independent professionals use P.C. after their names to indicate that they have incorporated as a business to protect their personal fortunes from litigation. That seems more logical than "Psychological Consultanf' or any of my other suggestions. The only problem is that Jim said P.C. stands for "Private Corporation" and Larry said it stands for "Professional Corporation."

Well, one rule in the journalistic trade is to "check your sources" but another is to "go with what you've got." Get it?

LOCAL SECTIONS

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

One of the best attended meetings in years was held at Stanford University on May 3, with Dr. Francis I. Andersen of New College Berkeley speaking on "How God Made Everything: The Language of Biblical Creation Texts." The meeting was cosponsored by the Stanford InterVarsity Graduate Fellowship, with about half of the 60 people present coming from each group. Audience interest was high as Andersen demonstrated how to take the biblical texts seriously, focusing attention on the language God used to communicate about himself and his mighty works.

An Australian by birth, Frank Andersen earned an M.S. in physical chemistry before studying theology at London and being ordained in the Anglican Church. He received his Ph.D. in Semitic languages under famed scholar W * F Albright at Johns Hopkins. Andersen has taught at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, and at Macquarie and Queensland universities in Australia. In 1965 he brought his Old Testament expertise to the ASA/RSCF international conference on a Christian philosophy of science held in Oxford, England. Dr. Andersen has made extensive use of computer techniques in examining Semitic texts and has written several commentaries in the Tyndale series as well as many scholarly papers and books.

PERSONALS

David L. Bourell expects to be promoted to full professor of materials science & engineering at the U. of Texas in Austin in September. Under a sabbatical fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Society he will be able to take his family to Germany for 16 months. Dave will spend 12 of those months at the Max Planck Institut fuir Metallforschung in Stuttgart, studying the sintering mechanisms of nanophase particulate materials.

Samuel K. C. Chang has been a professor and dean of the College of Economics of Chung Yuan University in Taiwan. In September he will become president of that institution, the largest Christian university on the island. Recently Chung Yuan University was a cosponsor, with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, of a conference on "The Role of Christian Colleges in China." Samuel was there but wasn't the only ASAer participating. Chemist Robert B. Fischer of Biola University in Los Angeles was also on the program.

Mark D. Hartwig of Colorado Springs directs Access Research Network, which has now received IRS tax-exempt status as a scientific and educational organization. It publishes Origins Research and hopes to launch a new periodical on "science, technology, & society" this year. (Contributions to support the expansion are welcome: ARN, P.O. Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8069). A professional science educator, Mark worked for the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study before joining Students for Origins Research, now absorbed into ARN. Mark's op-ed piece in the Birmingham (AL) News on Scientific American's treatment of Forrest Mims drew a lot of interest. Another article will appear in the Oct or Nov Moody's. In the 24 Jun Christianity Today, Mark reported legal developments in U. of Alabama phys-ed prof. Phillip Bishop's charge that his right to identify himself as a Christian to his students had been infringed by the university.

Russell Heddendorf, sociology professor at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia, and former ASA president, informed ASA that his wife Ellie died on April 25. At first her death was thought to be an unusual reaction to an allergy shot, but when Russ wrote in early May her sudden and unexpected death was being attributed to a cardiac arrest. He has sensed a peace from knowing that "God was in control." Russ hoped to be at the 1991 ASA Annual Meeting, partly to provide "a sense of closure"-since he and Ellie had planned to attend together.

Kenneth Olsen is co-founder and president of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) of Massachusetts. An Associated Press story by Bart Ziegler last December described DEC's first layoffs in its 33-year history as "a personal tragedy" for Ken, even though many other computer manufacturers were also having to cut overhead as sales slowed. Calling DEC's setback a "short-term thing" due to the recession, Ken said DEC continues to offer increased computing capacity at a lower price. Some analysts say the availability of powerful microcomputers and work-stations may have permanently dented the market for minicomputers, DEC's traditional strength. Readers of Science and other journals aimed at scientists have seen new ads pushing DEC's VAX 6000 and VAX 9000 vector systems, with an eye catching banner: "The Whole World is Waiting for Your Next Discovery. (Can you afford to wait for your computer?)"

Michael J. Smitka has been granted tenure as an associate professor in the Dept of Economics at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. His book, Competitive Ties: Subcontracting in the Japanese Automotive Industry was released by Columbia U. Press in June. For the coming academic year, Mike and his family will return to Japan under a Japan Foundation Fellowship. He will work on issues of land prices and utilization

at the Law Faculty of Rikko University in Tokyo. After September he can be contacted there or at Rikko International Residence Hall #302, 4-15-8 Nishi Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku Tokyo, Japan 171 (tel: 3985-9763). Mike expects to interact with KGK (the Japanese equivalent of IVCF) and probably the Lutheran church he attended in 1983-85. He may also be coaching his kids in Japanese, since they'll go to the regular schools. He would enjoy a visit from any ASAers in Japan. On his return Mike hopes to make it to another ASA Annual Meeting and to the Association of Christian Economists, now meeting at the annual American Economics Association convention.

Jack Swearengen, back in Livermore, California, after spending two years at the Pentagon on arms control, including preparation for the U.S.-Soviet START talks in Geneva, was interviewed by Berkeley's Radix magazine during the Gulf War. In "Working for Peace: Inside the System" (vol. 20, no. 2), Jack said that he "felt called through Scripture to be a conscience to government" at many levels. Though not expecting to transform government entirely, he said he isn't satisfied to abandon public institutions to secular or non-Christian people. God is at work in history, Jack believes, and Christ died to redeem Saddam Hussein just as he did for the rest of us.

Kenneth J. Van Dellen of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, was elected treasurer of the Affiliation of Christian Geologists on a ballot amending the ACG constitution to add "treasurer" to its list of officers. At first that office was deemed unnecessary, with ACG dues handled through the ASA office. Ken has already taken on responsibility for production of The News! of ACG and preparation of the first ACG directory. Ken continues to organize financial support for Sierra Leonean student Kabba Ja oh, now enrolled in agricultural studies at Dordt College in Iowa. In the Spring issue of his "Kabba News," Ken reported a potentially devastating setback. Kabba's complaints of fatigue and other symptoms led to his hospitalization in late April and a diagnosis of polymyositis. The Dordt "family" faithfully prayed for Kabba as he went in and out of a respirator. His student medical insurance is good for $25,000, but intensive care has been expensive and Kabba was soon transferred to the U. of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City. Ken announced a local fund-raiser in June to take care of some residual tuition costs and anticipated medical expenses. (Address for contributions: Third World Fund, Office of College Advancement, Dordt College, Sioux Center, IA 51250.) Ken has been in touch with Kabba's halfbrother, Paramount Chief Alimany Kulio Jalloh 11 of Sierra Leone.

Robert VanderVennen of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto was the speaker at the Feb 9 Homecoming at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. Before moving to Canada, Bob taught chemistry at Trinity Christian.

John Van Zytveld of the Physics Dept of Calvin College in Michigan held a Fulbright grant during the 1990-91 academic year. John spent three months at the Institute of Electronic Structure & Lasers at the Greek Foundation for Research and Technology on the Island of Crete. Despite distractions of history and scenery, he claims to have been working on the electronic properties of amorphous semiconductors.

Abraham Vema is now a student at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. Abraham has kept in touch since Canadian IVCF director Tim Berney suggested in 1985 that Ke look for a post-doctoral position through the ASA/CSCA Newsletter. A native of India, Abraham had an M.S. in agricultural chemistry and was expecting his Ph.D. in animal biochemistry from Allahabad University. He has since done post-doc work at Cork in Ireland, returned to India in 1988 as a junior scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and in 1989 became a senior scientist in the Dept. of Biotechnology for the Government of India in New Delhi. Then in 1990, "in a dramatic way," God enabled him to enroll at Dallas in a four-year Master of Theology program.

Peter J. Vibert, research biophysicist at Brandeis University, was sad to see the demise of 'The New England Christian of the Evangelistic Association of New England, with the May 1991 issue. EANE began publishing the monthly newspaper (then called New England Church Life) in 1982 in connection with a Billy Graham Crusade in Boston. Peter chaired the editorial committee from the beginning. He saw the paper grow into a real "community newspaper" for New England Christians, who often felt isolated. It won several professional awards from the Evangelical Press Association and was increasing its paid circulation and advertising revenues. To break even would have required a tripling of 1990 circulation, however, so the EANE board, chaired by Stephen Macchia, decided the paper was too large a drain on finances. Editor Carlene Hill will remain at EANE as communications director. (Of publications started in the first half of the 1980s, over 80 percent folded within five years, we're told. Science '80 lasted six. ASA's SEARCH, begun in 1988, is still going strong, but it piggybacks on Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith.-Ed.)

Dorothy Woodside of La Verne, California, was scheduled to leave in July for a year's service in Zambia at the Chitokoloki Mission Hospital. As a nurse, Dorothy has always had a strong interest in missions. She earned a degree in Christian education from Talbot Seminary for better preparation after spending 18 months as a short-termer in Bucaramanga, Colombia. In school nursing for the past 12 years, she has been open to new directions since her husband, Ed Woodside, died in 1985. Chitokoloki is nominally a 100-bed hospital (sometimes with up to 180 patients) with a leprosariurn and tuberculosis sanitarium. Dorothy expects to be delivering babies for pregnant women who walk a long way from villages as their time nears. Although the national language is English, her first task will be to learn enough of one of two tribal languages, Luvale, to be understood. The hospital is in the bush at the end of a 600-kni road. Mail service is said to be "iffy" but try: Nurse Dorothy Woodside, c/o Barbara Oolman, P.O. Box 27, Chitokoloki, Zambesi, Zambia, Africa. She is volunteering her services, but donations toward her expenses can be sent to C.M.M.L., P.O. Box 13, Spring Lake, NJ 07762-0013, with a note that the support is for Dorothy Woodside.

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE. Physics: Tenure track position for Fall 1992. Contact: (ASA member) Dr. James Rynd, Physical Science Dept, Biola University, La Mirada, CA 90603. Biology: Tenure track position, rank open, for Ph.D. committed to undergrad teaching and research in animal physiology or cell biology, beginning Aug 1992. Contact: Dr. Gary Tallman, Natural Science Division, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA 90263.

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