“A person’s faith is only as strong as what they are having faith in.” I would imagine, by what I have read recently, that there is a consensus on this point. Discrepancies arise when the question of whose faith is strongest is brought up. Chaka Allen (and about 1,900,000,000 others) think that Christianity is the strongest faith.

But what about the some 1,000,000,000 Muslims? They seem to think the Koran is the book of ultimate knowledge, not the Bible. What about the 750,000,000 Hindus, or the 20,000,000 Sikhs, or the 18,000,000 Jews, or the countless others who believe in religions other than Christianity? Could they all be wrong?

I am also finding problems with Mr. Allen’s logic concerning our universe. The universe is quite random. However, as far as we know, the laws of physics are obeyed everywhere. Even in life forms such as ours. What evidence can be stronger than that? Atoms did not come together and form a universe for no reason at all — they came together because of the laws of physics. And organic molecules could have found a way to mix with each other to create life forms. It is not hard to believe.

Things that are well suited to survive and reproduce do just that: they survive and reproduce, all the while obeying the laws of physics. Every once in a while, a mistake is made in the reproduction process. If the result of this error is better suited to survive and reproduce, it does so. That’s called evolution (take a biology class).

Taking in mind the fact that this has been going on for between 3.9 and 4.6 billion years (according to radioactive dating, which also obeys the laws of nature), it becomes easier to understand how we are here. This does not explain why we are here, which is where religion comes in.

The laws of physics are always obeyed (that’s why they’re laws). What laws of physics can describe a man dividing a body of water? Or a bush spontaneously igniting, then speaking? What I have written about is not “random faith.” It is belief in the scientific laws that govern our universe.

Oh, and on a side note about the english 105 teacher so much was written about earlier this semester — I had him last semester, and I liked the class.

Charlie Rohwer

Sophomore

Agricultural Biochemistry