NEWSLETTER

of the

AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION - CANADIAN SCIENTIFIC & CHRISTIAN AFFILIATION

Volume 25, Number 2   April/May 1983


HERRMANN-EUTICS

I want to send a word of thanks to those of you who responded to our Christmas appeal. It's clear that this is a difficult time for many of us financially. We are finding that many of our Journal subscribers and some members are unable to renew. Donations from members who have not been suffering financially thus become a major factor in our efforts, first to get out of debt, and then to expand our ministries to the churches, to the secular scientific community, and to students. Thank you.

Students in secular universities are a special concern for many of us. Through your nominations at Christmas time, several dozen students became new ASA members. Today's students are the next generation's mature Christians in scientific and technical vocations. We are now working with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, especially through Charlie Hummel, a Fellow of ASA and the Director of Faculty Ministries for IVCF, to extend our ministry to graduate students in secular universities.

In Great Britain the Research Scientists Christian Fellowship forms part of a graduates division of the British equivalent of IVCF, so the ties are quite close. In North America the ASA and CSCA are not connected to IVCF or any other campus organization, but there are great benefits in our cooperation. If you are in contact with any Christian graduate students in the sciences or related fields, or undergraduates about to move into such graduate programs, we would appreciate hearing from you at the national office. -Bob Herrmann

WE'LL BE THERE

While thanks are being offered, the Newsletter editor wants to thank a special group of ASA/CSCA members, those of you who have made it possible for ASA to be present at the Conference on The Church and Peacemaking in the Nuclear Age in Pasadena, California, May 25-28. At presstime we have received checks marked PEACE from 22 of you, totaling $544. Thank you. The American Scientific Affiliation will "be there" with 25 other affiliate organizations (so far) and 18 convening organizations to see what agreement a broad spectrum of evangelical Christians can reach.

With only 22 exhibit booths available, ASA will probably share a booth with Radix magazine and New College Berkeley. We'll be represented by sociologist Jack Balswick, biochemist Walt Hearn, computer scientist Wally Johnson, political scientist Stan Moore, ethicist Bron Taylor, and maybe other ASAers among the 125 workshop leaders confirmed so far. Bob Herrmann may be there, telling people about ASA and seeing how we can cooperate with other Christian groups on peace issues.

Registrations from individuals will be accepted until the seating capacity of 1700 is reached. Forms for registration are available from CPNA, 1539 East Howard, Pasadena, CA 91104. Should you be there in person?

A FEW WORDS FOR PEACE

"This conference will be a redemptive forum of Christians modeling earnest struggling with the complex issues that the nuclear arms race brings to our faith, that God will be glorified by the peacemaking efforts of His people."

"I think it would be a good idea for ASA to attend the peace conference. Since the various fields of science are used to plan, develop, and manufacture the means of making war more effectively, it is appropriate for a scientific organization to be concerned about peace. As a Christian organization it is again appropriate. My own feeling is that at times war is justified though never desirable. However, Christians in particular should work for ways to minimize the chance of its occurring, especially now that a nuclear war will destroy just about everything the two sides would be fighting over (if anything-that is, if it's not an accident!)."

"I hope the Council goes along with this. I feel this would be a good opportunity for ASA to use its expertise in dealing with an issue of fundamental importance."

"I fully support the conference and ASA's participation."

"I firmly believe that the ASA should be involved in the conference.... Many evangelical Christians feel that such activities are too 'worldly' and compromising to their faith. It's hard to reconcile those attitudes with Christ's teachings, where he blesses the peacemakers, the comforters, and all in general who go out into the world to care for the spiritual and physical well-being of their global neighbors. The unsaved may be blind and totally depraved, but they aren't all stupid. It is pretentious and erroneous to think that Christians alone can separate right from wrong, whereas God, in His common grace does offer glimpses of the same to many unbelievers. The mere fact that they might actually be correct about something is no cause for alarm, or worse yet, to deny the truth ourselves ......"

"I encourage ASA to support the peace conference. Persons with both technological information and moral concerns can contribute much to dialogue on peace issues."

". . . The reading I have done convinces me that nuclear war would be the most brazen, hideous insult to God's creation, exceeding anything so far conceived by the depraved human mind. As a parasitologist and disease oriented biologist I am especially concerned with the disease sequellae after a nuclear attack, but the whole subject scares me and challenges me.... I hope ASA will back this conference and get more involved. We just can't sit idly by and let the Kremlin, the Pentagon, and the White House drive us to nuclear holocaust. We've got to be active peacemakers. How can the followers of the Prince of Peace be anything else?"

" ... I feel that the evenhanded manner which ASA brings to many topics can only help in the 'nuclear' area as well. Even if the writers don't fully support my opinion I know they will seek to be fair and open in their judgments...

"... So don't just sit there. Get on with it. Enclosed is my donation to get this thing off the ground. I do not want to see my children or my grandchildren torn to pieces by any nuclear holocaust.... I am convinced that there will be no survivors after an all-out nuclear war. If the church does not try to make 'peace on earth'  then who will?"

" If you are close to the $250 and need a tad more, drop me a line. I think this is something we should pursue."

ANNUAL MEETING SHAPING UP

The Newsletter editor spent the month of January hiding out in the mountain community of Lincoln in southern Oregon to get some writing done. That's where 1983 program chair Howard Claassen lives. We came back to Berkeley quite excited about the ASA ANNUAL MEETING, to be held at GEORGE FOX COLLEGE, NEWBERG, OREGON, AUGUST 5-7. Howard was working on symposia to fit the theme, "NORTH AMERICAN RESOURCES AND WORLD NEEDS." Jack Balswick is organizing one we know of, on "Overcoming Sociological Barriers to Development." By now the Call for Papers has gone out, so soon Howard should have a lot more puzzle pieces to fit together.

Hector Munn and a dozen other eager Oregonians are working on local arrangements. They promise a climate so delightful in August that you'll need a coat in the evening-especially for the Annual Banquet. Yessir, this year the ASA banquet will make history: fresh-caught salmon baked by an open fire the way the northwest Indians did it, at an outdoor, timbered, lakeside retreat center, with hiking trails and areas for meditation and fellowship. No problem this year about "what to wear to the banquet." Your dress-up grubbies under a Mackinaw or down jacket will do fine.

Hector's committee is having a field day thinking up field trips. How about Mt. St. Helens and the Trojan nuclear power plant? The Oregon Regional Primate Center? The Tektronics plant where oscilloscopes and other high-tech gadgets are manufactured? OSU's Marine Science Center and the beautiful Oregon coast? Mt. Hood, towering majestically over the Columbia River Gorge? Or a day of fishing for salmon ( "but only for the most hardy")?

This is it, folks-the year to take a family vacation to the beautiful Pacific northwest-and to take part in the 1983 ASA ANNUAL MEETING.

MORE OF OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Last issue we told you about the background of our 1983 keynote speaker, Loren Wilkinson. We didn't have room to mention a project he's currently working on with filmmaker Bill Schmalz. Schmalz, who has made several magnificent nature films for the Canadian Film Board, became a Christian a few years ago and wondered how God could use his talents. Reading Wilkinson's Earth keeping gave him an idea. He went with Loren to the 1982 AuSable Trails Forum in Michigan, where they conferred with Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (environmental consultant for.the Reformed Church in America) and Ghillean Prance of the New York Botanical Garden.

The upshot is that these four "stewards of the earth" are hot to produce a quality film presenting a Christian perspective on natural resources. Bill Schmalz accompanied Gil Prance on his latest journey to the Amazon rain forest to get some of its destruction on film as an object lesson. Then he'll roam North America to film what God has given us to care for, and what we stand to lose by environmental insensitivity.

Clearly our 1983 keynoter is not only an interesting guy himself but "hangs out" with other interesting people. At Regent College this year he has rubbed shoulders (and ideas) with anthropologist Miriam Adeney, whose book due from Eerdmans in May is directly related to our ANNUAL MEETING theme. Tentatively titled Saved to Starve its subtitle is "An anthropologist probes tough questions and positive cases in relief and development."

TEMPLETON PRIZE TO SOLZHENITSYN

The 1983 Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion will be awarded to Alexander Solzhenitsyn in London on May 10. The prize, now worth more than $170,000 (about like the Nobel Prize), has been awarded annually since 1973, when it was given to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

In 1978, when Thomas F. Torrance of Scotland won the award, the Newsletter carried a story of the man behind the Templeton Foundation, ASA member John M. Templeton of Nassau, Bahamas. We've since learned a few more facts about John, who was born in Winchester, Tennessee, in 1912. He grew up "interested in everything," collecting butterflies and experimenting with plants to which they were attracted. In the eighth grade he worked on old cars. When the depression wiped out his father's business, John worked his way through Yale, studying economics. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he went on geological explorations with another Rhodes scholar named George McGhee of Oklahoma. Back in the states, the two of them worked for the National Geophysical Company and "struck oil" in Texas. John Templeton then became an investment counselor in New York. He still manages one of the world's most successful mutual funds.

All this time John has been an active Christian, from his earliest days in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in his home town. He has served on the board of Princeton Theological Seminary for 30 years. He thinks of the Templeton Prize as a way of calling attention to the same kind of "progress" in religion that the Nobel Prize represents in science. The international board of judges is made up of distinguished persons from the world's major religions. The 1979 winner was Nikkyo Niwano, Japanese founder of Rissho Kosei Kai and World Conferences on Religion and Peace. In 1980 Ralph Wendell Burhoe, founder and editor of Zygon (a somewhat more liberal counterpart of JASA) won the award; in 1981 Dame Cicely Saunders, originator of the modern hospice movement (homes for the dying); and in 1982 Billy Graham. The 1983 citation calls Solzhenitsyn "a pioneer in the renaissance of religion in atheist nations," a person of "profound Christian faith."

That latter designation seems to fit John Templeton, also.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE MIND

Was it at our 1974 Annual Meeting that "Footprints in Stone" (Films for Christ, Peoria, Illinois, 1973) was shown? Or was it 1975? Anyway, we recall that some of the geologists were so depressed they looked like they had been stepped on by a dinosaur. Maybe they'll feel better after seeing "Footprints in the Mind," a 70-minute VHS videotape produced by ASA member Ronnie J. Hastings and the popular-scientific journal, Creationl Evolution.

The videotape shows a visit to the famous Cretaceous limestone bed of the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, by "Raiders of the Lost Tracks," led by Ronnie Hastings. The tape shows the alleged "man tracks" together with an analysis of them by professional scientists. "Creationists" are interviewed and allowed to present their evidence for the existence of human tracks in the 100million-year-old limestone. According to Ronnie, the tape demonstrates that the tracks in question are really elongate depressions formed variously by river erosion and dinosaurs.

A copy of the tape can be purchased for $20 by writing to Dr. Ronnie Hastings, Science Department, Waxahachie High School, Waxahachie, TX 75165. Make check payable to Ronnie Hastings.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

Somehow we got side-tracked and haven't done a full story on the Committees of Correspondence on Evolution (CCE's). The story above reminds us of some information Ronnie Hastings sent us eight months ago, when we found out he is a co-liaison of the Texas CCE. The Committees are a network of independent efforts, not a central organization. The name dates back to 1772, when Sam Adams persuaded Boston to appoint a committee of correspondence to explain to other towns and to the world the rights of the Thirteen Colonies, and to show how Britain had violated those rights.

CCE's were founded (beginning in December 1980) in response to "intense efforts of creationists, religious fundamentalists, and New Right politicians to legislate creationism into public schools." The first goal of the Statement of Purpose of the Texas CCE is "To preserve scientific integrity and rationality by opposing the creationists in their attempt to confuse the public about the scientific legitimacy of 'scientific creationism,' which is in fact a fundamentalist religious myth masquerading as science." Other goals are preserving the separation of church and state, and improving the quality of scientific education in Texas public schools. The committee proposes to "speak to school boards, parent-teacher associations, state committees, the media, and other public forums to provide advice and information about science and evolution. . . ."

Committees of Correspondence on Evolution are basically grass-roots political organizations. The idea was to form independent, volunteer local groups to propound an idea on a nationwide basis, a "well-tested strategy in American public life which the organized scientific community has heretofore ignored." That's a statement by Stanley L. Weinberg, the retired biology teacher who serves as national coordinator of the CCE's from his home in Ottumwa, Iowa. In a "teach-in" on "Creationism in American Culture and Theology" at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago last October, Weinberg explained that the CCE's treat "creationism" as a political movement and have learned to use the same political tactics to combat it.

An ASA member who helped organize that Chicago teachin was Richard P. Aulie, who at that time was the sparkplug of the Chicago CCE. Dick managed to get some funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities to bring two British scholars over to participate in the teach-in, one of them being ASA member James R. Moore of England's Open University. We've also heard that Roger Cuffey has been active in the Pennsylvania CCE, and suspect that a number of other ASA members participate in other groups. Weinberg reported that in less than two years the number of committees had grown from none to 53 in 46 states plus three in Canada.

Ronnie Hastings says that the Texas CCE finds sympathetic clergy often more effective with local school districts than scientists. He himself does a lot of letter writing, for example to each member of the Texas State Board of Education, to urge them to revoke Section 1.3 of the Board's Policy Proclamation. Section 1.3 proclaims that textbooks should identify evolution "as only one of several explanations of the origins of humankind."

Ronnie says he became active in the controversy when he realized the extent to which his non-Christian friends were beginning to "associate the pseudo-science of 'creationism' with Christianity itself." He hopes the ASA will keep pointing out the difference.

If ASA members want to get in touch with the Committee of Correspondence in their area but have no local address, they can write to Committees of Correspondence, c/o Creation-Evolution. That journal's address is P.O. Box 146, Amherst Branch, Buffalo, NY 14226. (it used to have a San Diego address, which we reported in the Dec 1981 /Jan 1982 Newsletter. -Ed.)

WINNOWING THE WHEAT'N CHAFF

Physiologist David S. Bruce of Wheaton College in Illinois gently corrected two errors we made in the Dec/ Jan issue of the Newsletter. In our story on the Wheaton inaugural we incorrectly cited Roger Voskuyl as having once been president of the college. According to David, the five Wheaton presidents before Richard Chase were: Jonathan Blanchard ( 1860-82); Charles Blanchard ( 18821925); J. Oliver Buswell, Jr. ( 1925-40); V. Raymond Edman ( 1940-65); and Hudson T. Armerding  ( 1965-82).

David also pointed out that his biology colleague, Pattle P. T. Pun, was actually born in Hong Kong of Chinese parents. We said he was from India. What an abject Pun-job (or is Punjab now in Pakistan?). Miserable editor will try to appease honorable Chinese ancestors by giving Pattle's book another plug.

After all, did not venerable ASA mandarin Russell L. Mixter say in his Foreword to Pattle Pun's Evolution: Nature and Scripture in Conflict? (Zondervan, 1982), "1 predict that this volume will have an impact on the apologetic field, and I commend it to you for your thoughtful reading." (We didn't make that up, honest. -Ed.)

NEWS OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOLS

1. The Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, founded in 1967, was probably the first "free-standing" graduate school in North America concerned with integrating theology with other academic areas. President Bernard Zy1stra and other faculty members have been worried about Bill 137 in the Ontario legislature, which had the admirable purpose of keeping "diploma mills" out of the province but which also would have kept ICS from granting anything but "religious" degrees. Respected friends of the Institute wrote many letters on its behalf explaining why the Institute's Master of Philosophy should be recognized as a regular academic degree, even though ICS is not a provincially chartered college or university. After much prayer and consultations with the Ontario Minister of Education, ICS has finally won the right to grant essentially the same degree with a special title: Master of Philosophical Foundations. (Address: 229 College St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6T 1R4.)

2. Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., founded in 1968, describes itself as "an Evangelical and biblical college of theology for advanced studies in Christianity." Two years ago it added a Master of Divinity program to its other graduate programs, making it now a seminary as well as a school for the laity. The 1983 summer sessions offer a number of courses of interest to ASA/CSCA members. Courses in the first session (27 June- 15 July) include R. K. Harrison (Wycliffe College, Toronto) on "The Book of Genesis," and 1978 ASA keynote speaker Clark H. Pinnock (McMaster Divinity College) on "The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible." The second session ( 18 July-5 Aug.) will feature David 0. Moberg (Marquette) on "The Graying of the Church: Christian Ministries and Aging" and 1976 ASA keynoter Donald M. MacKay (U. of Keele, England) on "Man in Biblical and Scientific Perspective." Also, Ralph D. Winter(U. S. Center for World Mission) will share the teaching of "Issues in Christian Mission Today" with Bishop Stephen Neill of Oxford and Gottfried OseiMensah of the International Congress on World Evangelization. (Address: 2130 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T I W6.)

3. Somewhat younger than the Canadian graduate schools is New College for Advanced Christian Studies in Berkeley, founded in 1977. It is "evangelical and orthodox in theology, multidenominational and diverse in staff and students, and interdisciplinary and integrative in programs and courses." New College is broader than ICS (which has a strong Christian Reformed flavor) and emphasizes ethical issues rather than the theoretical philosophical foundations probed so deeply in Toronto. New College lacks the seminary flavor of Regent but has developed a special program to train Christians in campus ministry. A new program in Cross-Cultural Ministry is headed by Bernard Adeney. The 1983 summer school beginning June 20 offers courses of various lengths. One-week courses will be taught by James W Sire (InterVarsity Press) on "World Views in Competition and Transition" and John M. Perkins (Voice of Calvary) on "Christian Leadership

Rediscovered." There are also three-week courses on the New Testament, evangelical ethics, and cross-cultural communication; a five-week evening course on Christianity and international tensions; a weekend course in intensive journal-keeping (taught by Ginny Hearn); and a weekend conference (July 1-2) on "World Christians in the Eighties" focusing on secular occupations overseas (with speakers such as David Adeney of the Pray for China Fellowship and Ruth Siemens of the Overseas Counseling Service). (Address: 2600 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.)

4. Not quite free-standing is the graduate program of William Carey International University in Pasadena. Headed by dean James 0. Buswell, its M.A. and Ph.D. programs combine academic work with research overseas in Applied Linguistics, International Communications, International Development, and Intercultural Studies. The Division of International Communications has announced a new degree in Publishing Science incorporating courses taken at other schools and practical work at the William Carey Library, a publishing venture associated with the university. The Division of Intercultural Studies has recently added a concentration in Latin America Studies in cooperation with PROCADES, a Central American Socio-Religious Project based in Costa Rica. (Address: 1539 East Howard St., Pasadena, CA 91104.)

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS

Stephen H. Smith (P.O. Box 1810, George Town, Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies) seeks a teaching position in Bible or apologetics at the college or high school level. He has masters degrees in biology and apologetics and 12 years of teaching experience (biology and Bible). Having also been a research biologist and environmental coordinator for the U.S. Dept. of Interior, he has several research publications. Stephen is a U.S. citizen, married with three children, and an N.A.U.I. Scuba instructor. (John Warwick Montgomery suggested the Newsletter to Stephen as a good place to advertise his availability.)

Fred Van Dyke (College of Environmental Science & Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY 132 10) seeks a teaching position in a biological sciences department of an evangelical Christian college. Fred expects to receive his Ph.D. in wildlife ecology from SUNY Syracuse in May 1983. He has a B.S. (1977) summa cum laude from Idaho and M.S. ( 1979) from Wisconsin in the same field. He has half a dozen publications based on his M.S. studies of hunter-crippled waterfowl and Ph.D. studies of the status of the eastern mountain lion (cougar). He has carried out several radio-telemetry investigations of wildlife, and made census surveys of song birds, pheasants, raptors, and cougars. As a high school student in Ohio, Fred was a lecturer and tour leader for the Columbus zoo. In New York he has been a tutor for home-bound public school students. He has been active in IVCF as a bible study leader and has served as a youth pastor in several churches. Besides teaching, Fred would like to continue his studies of environmental ethics with the active support of Christian colleagues in a setting "where quality Christian education is integrated with active, evangelical ministry to students."

R. Ward Wilson (Chair, Psychology Dept., Greenville College, Greenville, IL 62246) is looking for a teaching/ research position in either psychology or Christian education. He has an M.A. ( 1958) in Christian education (plus most of a B.D.) from Wheaton Graduate School, an M.Sc. ( 1969) in experimental psychology from Eastern Michigan U., and a Ph.D. ( 1976) in social psychology (with a minor in personality) from the U. of Florida. Ward has been a Christian ed and youth worker in a center city church (Oakland, CA, 1958-62) and an IVCF staff member ( 1962-67). He taught psychology and Protestant theology at Viterbo College in Wisconsin ( 1972-79), a Roman Catholic school. After a year at Wheaton Graduate School as associate professor of Christian Ministries ( 1979-80), he became associate professor of psychology at Greenville College (where, alas, reduced enrollment is forcing severe financial cutbacks). Ward has strong interests in integrating Christianity and social psychology. He has studied attitudes toward peace and done an extensive longitudinal study of Christian conversion. In developing sources to clarify Christianity as a modeling religion, he has designed cross-cultural research on how different cultures both reflect and distort God's image in humanity, part of which could test sociobiological theory about "altruistic genes." Ward's wife Betty is an RN who has worked seven years on a psych ward.

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE

City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma is looking for members of a team to develop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging research at the Center and Oral Robers University School of Medicine. A 0.5 tesla superconductive unit will be operational in Sept 1983, to be dedicated to research applications of NMR, both imaging and biochemical. Persons with research background in electrical engineering, optical engineering, or physics, or with advanced training in computer applications are encouraged to apply. Curriculum vitae to: Patrick M. Lester, M.D., Chair, Dept. of Diagnostic Imaging & Radiation Medicine, City of Faith Medical and Research Center, 8181 South Lewis, Tulsa, OK 74136. (Received 11 Feb 1983.)

LOCAL SECTION ACTIVITIES

VANCOUVER

CSCA president Bob VanderVennen sent us a report of the new section in western Canada. They've held two meetings this academic year. The first was held in October on the campus of Trinity Western College in Langley, B.C., with the theme, "Christianity and Views of Human Nature in the Social Sciences." Speakers were psychologist Lawrence Walker and geographer David Ley, both of U.B.C. and psychologist Charles Crawford of Simon Fraser University. They each presented the view of human nature operative in their own discipline and their understanding of the tension or harmony of that view with Christianity. The meeting began at 9:30 and continued through lunch with an open discussion. Bob says about 35 people were in attendance.

The section's spring meeting was held in February at Regent College, with a distinguished guest speaker, Thomas Torrance, professor of Christian dogmatics at the U. of Edinburgh and author of many books on the relationship of theology to science. Dr. Torrance's topic was "Science and the Reconstruction of Theology."

METROPOLITAN NEW YORK

The spring meeting was held March 12 at The King's College in Briarcliff Manor, New York, with David 0. Moberg speaking on "Wholistic Christianity." David is professor of sociology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he has been on the faculty since 1968, for most of that time as chair of the Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology. His most recent book is Spiritual Well-Being: Sociological Perspectives (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1979). Dave's afternoon lecture at The King's College was on "Dynamic Dialectics," his evening one on "Confronting Contemporary Change."

The section has already planned its fall 1983 meeting for November 12, with Charles E. Hummel, director of faculty ministries for IVCF, as speaker. Meanwhile, members of the section interested in campus matters are being invited to the first IVCF Faculty Conference in the NY-NJ area, being held April 23 at IVCF's Hudson House in Upper Nyack, New York. The conference theme is "Psychology and Christianity: A Dialogue," with psychologist Paul C. Vitz of NYU as speaker and Charlie Hummel as discussion leader. Vitz, author of Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship (Eerdmans, 1977), will become director of the first American psychology of art program this fall, to be inaugurated at NYU. His topics at Hudson House are "A Christian Critique of Psychology" and "Fresh Opportunities for Christian Witness on Secular Campuses."

In a recent issue we mentioned that the Metropolitan New York section has changed its by-laws to expand the categories of local section membership. Since then we've seen a dues schedule: Life member, $250; Sustaining member, $30; Regular member, $15; Associate member, $10; Affiliate member, $10; Student member, $2. Except for the student category, those look high at first glance, but members are exempt from registration fees at section meetings (a total of $8 for this year's fall and spring meetings). Also, unemployed or retired members pay reduced annual dues.

WASHINGTON-BALTI MORE

The January 21 meeting was held at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, where faculty member Bob Love served as host. The assistant dean for the sciences, Lloyd McAtee, welcomed the section to the college. Featured speaker Robert A. Herrmann ("the other one") stirred up a lot of discussion with his talk on "C. S. Lewis's Basic Concept of the Miracle and the Miraculous Model." That Bob Herrmann is associate professor of mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy and director of the Institute for Mathematical Philosophy. His degrees in math are a B.A. from Johns Hopkins and M.A. and Ph.D. from The American University. He has over 40 research papers and many other reviews in such areas as mathematical logic, nonstandard analysis, model theory, applied math, and general topology.

Section president Ed Allen and newsletter editor Bill Lucas both sent us accounts of the meeting. Bill expanded somewhat on the significance of the speaker's new mathematical model for nonstandard analysis, which has the inherent capability of evaluating all other scientific models based on sheer logic. With that model Bob was able to show that C. S. Lewis's concept of miracle is a reasonable model for serious scientists. He has also shown that the Greek notion of atomism lies at the philosophical foundations of scientific models. In all scientific disciplines, that concept allows the study of semi-independent isolated systems, in contrast to a unified approach in which all systems are significantly interdependent.

Lucas: "It is interesting to note that atomism appears to be in direct contrast to the scriptural notion that the universe is continually sustained by God. That is, all entities are significantly dependent on God, the unifying agent (Heb. 1:3; 2: 10; Job 34:14- 15; Ps. 95:3-5; 104:230, 147:8-9; 119:90-91; Acts 17:25,28; Mk. 10:6; Col. 1: 16; Rev. 4:11). Dr. Herrmann's model may very well be able to show by pure logic that all scientific models based on atomism are inconsistent and incapable of corresponding to the real world."

According to Ed Allen, the next meeting is planned for April 4, with a panel discussion on the use of computers in churches and Christian ministries, with speakers who have had "hands-on" experience. A note from Ed in the December issue of the section's Newsletter challenges Baltimore members to consider sponsoring some meetings or activities in their area, since their attendance is generally low when section meetings are held in the Washington area. A questionnaire in the Newsletter solicited indications of interest from Baltimore area members and friends.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY

The ASA-New College day-long symposium on January 15 drew between 50 and 60 people and seems to have broken even financially. (Registration was set at $20 for 'working professionals," $10 for students and others, after last year's symposium went in the hole.) The program on "Christian Faith and the Science Teacher" came off well, with one hitch: at the last minute a family crisis kept U.C. Berkeley genetics prof Phil Spieth from discussing university teaching. New College dean David Gill stepped in to lead a discussion based on Charles Malik's critique of "The Sciences in the University" in Malik's recent book, A Christian Critique of the University. (Maybe by next year's symposium the jinx will be fully exorcised. Last year Karpe Hall at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, where both symposia have been held, couldn't be darkened sufficiently to show a scheduled film. This year there was no heat in the building!-Ed.) The other speakers, Dick Bube, Bernie Ramm, Bob Miller, Randy Agadoni, and Jim Feenstra, were on hand, with David Cole to sum things up at the end.

Another meeting is taking place on March 18 at Foothill Covenant Church in Los Altos, back in the South Bay area. It features Gerhard Dirks on "The Human Brain and the Computer: A Life-Changing Experience." Gerhard has 140 patents, including the first rotating magnetic memory and the conversion of characters into a display. Forced to flee East Germany after WWII, he came to the U.S. in 1960 to work as a consultant for IBM. Since 1978 he has been working on a project to make available to churches personal computer systems with big computer power. This venture has resulted in the establishment of Personal Computer Management Corporation in Sunnyvale in 1982.

The announcement of the March 18 meeting includes this hint of the program: " ( 1) Just as a computer cannot debug itself, so, as all human decisions are done in conscious or subconscious knowledge of past decisions or motivations, people cannot radically change but only 'improve.' Nevertheless, an incredible radical change happened in Dr. Dirks in November 1953. This new life has persisted and deepened over the years. (2) How can all the intimate, even hidden, details of the lives of billions of people be stored in gigantic storage-mechanisms and be presented after death? Everything about Gerhard Dirks is stored in Gerhard Dirks, ready for read-out of how it really was and not how it pretended to have been. (3) All religious systems want humanity to be good. What is the difference in Christianity? The difference is the person of Jesus Christ instead of religion."

PERSONALS

Elinor Abbott hopes to finish her Ph.D. program in cultural anthropology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts in 1983, with a dissertation on religious change processes. She will be able to focus on the Tzeltal area in Chiapas, Mexico, where she spent several years with Wycliffe Bible Translators seeing such processes first-hand. Her next assignment with Wycliffe will be in West Africa with the Mbembe language group, about 25,000 people living near the Nigeria-Cameroon border. Elinor's translation partner is already in the Cameroon, waiting for her.

Meanwhile Elinor is learning how to use word-processors and various editing programs to aid in the "fussy, mistakeladen task of formatting language texts." She's also leading a Bible study for international students at Brandeis and rejoicing in the growth of a fellowship of Christians with many different backgrounds on the campus.

Vernon J. Ehlers wrote from the House of Representatives in Lansing, Michigan, to update us after our mention of his election-night celebration last August. That election, on the eve of the 1982 ASA Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids, was only the primary. Vern still had to do battle in the November general election, but he won that one rather handily even though many of his fellow Republicans went down in defeat. A professor of physics at Calvin College before his election to the Michigan House, Vern says that "at times I have real pangs of regret at leaving the academic community and particularly the community of Christian scholars." Yet he seems to be the only scientist in either the House or Senate, so people are seeking him out for scientific advice. Appointed to the Conservation and Environment Committee, Vern hopes to put into action some of the principles outlined in Earthkeeping, the book he helped to write in 1978. He is pleased also to have been appointed to the Public Health, Social Services, and Colleges and Universities Committees, where his training can be put to good use. Vern says: "I hope to maintain my ASA membership and my contacts with my many friends in the ASA. And to all you scholars out there: Keep up the good work!" His district is the 93rd (where Gerald Ford got his start).

John E. Halver of the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington in Seattle is, as far as we know, the only member of ASA who has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Food chemist Chi Hang Lee sent us a reprint of a recent paper by John on the purification of an enzyme in the liver of rainbow trout. The enzyme clips the sulfate off of L-ascorbic acid 2sulfate (vitamin C-sulfate). Trout, salmon, and a number of other fish require vitamin C, as do humans, so they can produce collagen to keep their vertebrae glued together. Vitamin C is chemically less stable than other components of fish feeds used for raising trout. The sulfate derivative is more stable and turns out to be widely distributed in fish tissues, so John's enzyme may be the way the trout utilizes a stored form of the vitamin. Coauthor on the paper is Lita V. Benitez of the Aquaculture Dept., Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, in the Philippines. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79 (Sept 1982) p. 5445.

John Haverhals of the Mathematics Dept. at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, has been president of the Illinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America. Now John is chairing the section's program committee for the 1983 annual meeting.

Walter R. Hearn of Berkeley, California, attended the 11th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), held in Philadelphia over the Thanksgiving weekend. ICUS is sponsored by the International Cultural Foundation, which is in turn sponsored (and funded) by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Although lots of bright young "Moonies" (students or graduates of the Unification Seminary in Barrytown, New York) were there to make the conference run smoothly, the program was organized and presented by scientists and other scholars, none of them Unificationists. Some 600 scientists from over 100 countries attended the conference. From what Walt knows of Unification theology, he considers it a weird distortion of Christianity. Although some Christians worry about the Moonies "using" people by inviting them to such conferences, Walt found plenty of opportunity to speak of his faith not only to individual Moonies but also to several scientists from overseas. A highlight was several hours of conversation with an atheist who was astounded to discover that Walt was both a scientist and a practicing Christian. He had all kinds of questions to ask Walt about faith. A septuagenarian, he confessed to much unhappiness in his personal life-even though he'd won a Nobel prize. A "sermon" by Sun Myung Moon, evidently a customary part of the opening ICUS session, did tout the Unification Church and its teachings as having "power to engender total spiritual awakening to all men of conscience and intellect." But the people of intellect Walt talked to didn't seem the least bit interested. They saw listening to Moon for half an hour as a small price to pay for having their way paid to a stimulating international program touching on many current issues of science and philosophy. The tab for the conference must have come to more than half a million dollars, Walt figures.