Re: [asa] Thoughts on the new president

Let's not abandon critical thinking. For example, Raman writes, "Most of
all, he feels deep in his heart.." How does Raman know what Obama feels
"deep in his heart?" From the way he speaks, one gets the impression that
Raman is a close friend of Obama. Is this true?

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Iain Strachan" <igd.strachan@gmail.com>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 5:20 AM
Subject: [asa] Thoughts on the new president

> >From "Science and Religion Today":
>
> "From all that we have seen and heard and read, Obama is a man of
> unusual intelligence, insight, and vision. He is a rare combination of
> idealism and activism, a politician and citizen who considers himself
> an American first and foremost, rather than an individual with a
> hyphenated nationality and subgroup loyalties. He is, in the tradition
> of the country, a man of faith, but also enlightened enough to respect
> those who find fulfillment beyond his own pews, or in no traditional
> religion at all. He has his own convictions about traditional
> morality, but respects those of others in so far as they don't perturb
> the personal lives of their fellow citizens. Most of all, he feels
> deep in his heart that our problems can never be solved, let alone to
> the full satisfaction of all, by harping on our acute differences and
> rubbing in ad nauseam our past mutual hurts, but only by looking into
> the future, holding hands together as dedicated citizens of the nation
> and of the world," says V.V. Raman, an emeritus professor of physics
> and humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in a note to
> Science & Religion Today.
> "Obama is acutely aware of the dangers lurking in the environment as a
> result of unbridled industrial excesses, and he trusts scientifically
> informed advisers to recommend steps to curb and eliminate these
> dangers. He respects science and science education in our schools,
> relegating visions of a Creator God to places of worship and tradition
> rather than to biology classes."
>
> (Please note: I am from the UK and don't have a political axe to
> grind, but I thought these observations were encouraging).
>
> Iain
>
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Received on Thu Jan 22 07:31:32 2009