While reading William Zingrone’s articles in the last two editions of The News, I have been struck by several thoughts.

The first is how the pieces bring to mind Jonathan Edwards’ famous piece “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

The strong belief system which brooks no discussion, the slash and burn attacks and the almost fanatical recitation of one’s own views; all these are hallmarks of an extremist position in any belief system. Zingrone is arguing for a belief system – just one different from religion.

The first article seemed to blame religions for all mass killings. He seemed to have forgotten Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Attila, Genghis Khan, all of whom killed for political reasons, not religious ones. It does not hold that only the religious kill.

Rather, super zealots in any setting go to extremes.

Lastly, Zingrone pulled an old trick in use back when I debated for Murray State. Since one person held a position, therefore all within that belief system are the same.

That would be much like arguing that because Hitler used genetics and bloodlines to kill that all of Darwin’s evolutionary work should be thrown out.

My BS in math and physics shape my life. The Bible relates a sequence of events in creating the world. Science follows the same sequence: the sun is formed, earth is made, liquid covers the earth, creatures develop and then man appears. Both sides pretty well agree on this.

So the discussion is over length of time periods and who or what started it all.

Having heard that a thousand years is but a twinkle in God’s eye, I figure that God’s days can run pretty long in our years. Did life appear just by accident? Wonder what the probability statistics say about that? Or did somebody set up the systems of the universe?

Letter by John Pasco, Alumnus from Murray