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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1995)
Commentary Wednesday, March 29, 1995 Page 5 Religion: The food we live on It may be argued that in this space age, when humans are preoccupied with scientific discov eries of celestial bodies, why should man preoccupy himself with religion? Science makes it more difficult for the modem human to accept any religion, as these religions are based on dogma that cannot be tested by scientific axioms. Man is entirely surrounded by scientific and materialistic ad vancements; as a result, there is much skepticism about religion. But still, I believe there is a necessity for religion. I grew up in a religious atmo sphere, which was in a sense a social need for recognition in the society, also. Prayers were manda tory and religious studies a must. In that atmosphere, religion was everything. I never challenged my beliefs. There was no room for it: Religion was always right. The days passed, and my religious roots became stronger and deeper as they were tied to the social religious fabric woven around me. If I didn’t pray, it bothered me, as if some thing was missing from the daily routine. If a sin was committed, I turned towards Allah, wept and cried on the prayer mg and asked for forgiveness. This self-change came in my later years of high school. Everyone was happy and I was, too. That was the time my father had faith in me and sent me to America. Sometimes I think America was the need for my change. As soon as I arrived here, it didn’t take me long to feel the need for religion vanishing. Social acceptance wasn’t through prayers anymore, it was through parties. No one asked if I prayed or not, and I didn’t bother to pray. Yousuf Bashir Then, for the first time, I questioned my beliefs. It was scary, and I was confused. All the irrationalities of religion beyond experience became hard to digest. They were no longer logical to me. My beliefs were not actually mine; instead, they were my parents’. Denying my beliefs was like denying all the people I trusted. The existence of God became a mystery. It was then that I decided to study more about my religion. History tells us that religion has played an important part in human activities. The worshipping instinct in man has always been linked with some kind of deity. This passion for devotion to a Supreme Being is the dominant feature of man’s mind. Religion has been regarded as a necessary human institution from the days of Adam. Today it is accepted that the Marxist-Lenin philosophy merely replaced one religion with another. Religion is something human nature demands. It is said there are three basic needs: food, clothing and shelter. Beyond these are our spiritual needs, which science and philosophy fail to satisfy. The human soul remains unsatisfied and therefore festive until answers to the important questions are re ceived. Religion, therefore, fulfills the spiritual requirements of man by providing for suitable answers to the fundamental human prob lems. The fundamental problems of human life, which are metaphysical in character, cannot be solved by any means other than religion. Sense, perception, reason and meditation — all these devices have failed to solve them. The principles of science have changed. Similarly, philosophical views have been changing while moral values have also witnessed fluctuation. The importance of religion, however, has never diminished; rather, it has been ever-increasing. The secular ideologies, in spite of their best efforts, have miserably failed to gain their hold on human behaviors. Their beliefs stand for the division of life and not for the unity of life. Religion, on the other hand, stands for the unity of life. Toynbee, a philosopher historian of modem times, opines that only religion can secure one’s emancipation in this atomic age, wherein every attempt is being made to divide life into depart ments instead of unifying these departments into a whole. He further says that every human attempt to solve fundamental problems of life through materialis tic solutions has failed, and all the false promises of secular philoso phies have been exposed. The human ills cannot be cured in the absence of God. The greatest need of the present day is the promotion of faith in an omnipotent God. Like feelings, faith cannot be defined. Both these phenomena exist in life. Religion puts one on the path towards God, and faith is a stairway to it. Bashir is a senior food science major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist Clinton ignoring foreign policy I have never been too intrigued by American politics or policy making. After all, there isn’t much that is too interesting — two parties that are basically the same, labor unions that are faded images of what they should be and a foreign policy with no direction. However, the recent events concerning the unlucky Middle East escapade of two American U.S. defense contractors resembled an act from Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors.” It has always been a known fact that American tourists abroad don’t shine for their knowledge of languages, nor for their sense of orientation. So it was not surprising when David Daliberti and William Barloon were found March 13 wandering in Iraqi territory after accidentally crossing the border. The two defense contractors, probably fascinated by the vastness of the sky in that portion of the desert, evidently got carried away and before they knew it, found themselves in enemy territory. You can certainly accuse them of bad timing, given the not-so-ancient Gulf War, and a rotten sense of direction. But calling them spies would seem extremely unflattering to the entire American spy system. Although it looks dubious, we can almost certainly exclude the spy theory; after all, what espionage mission would entail a solo ride across the border through a closely observed desert only to fall into the hands of the enemy? I certainly hope, for America’s sake, that the CIA can devise better plans than that. But then again, the CIA did come up with the Bay of Pigs invasion. Nevertheless, Daliberti and Barloon stood trial and were sentenced to eight years in prison Simon Uveranl for illegally entering the country. They can probably consider themselves lucky that they were nol convicted for sabotage, which carries a minimum of 20 years in prison and possibly the death sentence. There is probably hope for leniency on the part of the Iraqi government, despite anti-American sentiments in that country. The handling of this crisis by the Clinton administration is reflective of the lack of a clear vision on the part of the leadership of this country. An incident of this sort is either solved within a short time, or more radical views might take over. Some of the members of the Republican congress have sug gested the use of the military to free Americans. Maybe they could ask Sylvester Stallone to head the mission. Aside from these far-fetched ideas, the solution will come only if the United States decides to bargain with Baghdad on equal terms. An option would be to ask the Iraqis to allow the Americans tc serve frie sentence in a U.S. penitentiary. After all, these men did spark an international incident with their careless wanderings. Clinton, however, is too busy sending his wife and daughter around the world for a refreshing vacation on taxpayers’ money. The theme for this tour of Asia is the development of Asian women and children, or something of that sort. It’s a unique opportunity to give the White House teen-ager a cosmopolitan education and, at the same time, change the lives of millions of women forever. I can see it now: a testimonial of women’s rights from one woman (Hillary Clinton), who left her career to follow her husband, to another woman, who was elected prime minister in a Muslim country (Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan). What could Hillary ever tell her about women’s rights? Unfortunately, the first lady’s charitable escapades are the only signs of American foreign policy, since Clinton has decided to turn away from a role of prominence in world affairs and turn his attention to domestic issues. The result of the absence of a strong world power can be seen in Bosnia, where fighting continues despite continual empty threats from the United Nations. The United Nations’ blue helmets are not only sitting ducks for sniper fire, but also die symbol of a vacuum in world leadership that the United States had promised to fill after the Gulf War, but never fully secured. Foreign policy evidently does not have a prominent role in Clinton’s agenda, but the world cannot wait too long for the western giant to wake up and take responsibility for its actions. The breakup of the eastern bloc was the aim of American policy for almost five decades. Now the problem is where to find another enemy. Maybe the “spy” incident could come in handy. Llveranl is a senior advertising maj or aad a Dally Nebraskaa colanudst Go on, eat to your heart’s discontent lvutnaei jacooson sounded genuinely puzzled and a little hurt. “It surprises me how the media attacks US for our work,” he said last week. “All we do is provide information for people to make smart decisions about their health.” For more than 20 years, his organization, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has been giving us advice on what we should and shouldn’t eat if we want to avoid the discomfort of massive chest pains and the social embarrass ment of bulging eyeballs and loud death rattles. They’re the people who told us about the deadly buttered popcorn, the killer egg rolls, the murderous taco, the savage fettuccine Alfredo and dozens of other homicidal food choices. Only this week, they came out with a warning about the sadistic deli sandwich, all plump and juicy and slathered in death dealing mayo. But how do most of us in media thank Jacobson for his concerns about our health? “I’ve seen a lot of snideness in editorials,” he says, “calling us the food police. I find that ironic and shocking. “It’s killing the messenger. A newspaper is a messenger of news, but newspapers are trying to kill the messenger. “There have been editorials, especially in the Southwest, that said: ‘We don’t want to hear this stuff. We don’t want to know.’ But all these same newspapers care about the cost of health care, and if we ate a better diet, we’d save billions of dollars.” Jacobson’s puzzlement is understandable. His organization goes to all the effort of telling us not to plunge our heads into a vat of whipped cream, and all we do is tell him to go mind his own tofU. Which isn’t a nice way to treat someone who is simply worrying about our arteries getting clogged with bitty pieces of pork shank or Big Mac. After a while, it becomes easy to resent someone who pushes a sliced turkey sandwich when what you really want is a bacon and Cheddar cheeseburger with fries, and Twinkies on the side. A shrink might even say that there is more to our hostility. For people of my generation, it might be a dislike that dates back to our formative years and all those hungry children in China. Yes, those hungry children of China. We heard so much about them, they seemed almost like Mike Royko relatives or neighbors. All we had to do was try to leave something uneaten on our plates - broccoli or cabbage or rhubarb - and our mothers would say: “Finish everything. Re member, all those hungry children in China.” So we’d force the unpleasant stuff down our throats, even though I never understood how my eating some steamed broc coli could make life better for some hungry children in China. I might have understood if it was sweet and sour pork, or even chop suey. But I was sure that even hungry children in China hated steamed broccoli as much as I did. But when I raised the ques tion, all my mother would say was: “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” even when it was empty. Not that it happened very often. Without being told, Gramps had compassion for thirsty Chinese lushes. Years later, I found myself trying to do the same thing to my children when they couldn’t finish their dinners. But they were a different generation. They responded: “if they are hungry, it is not my fault. They should blame the failed agricultural policies of Mao and the rest of their oppres sive communist leaders.” And when I’ve tried the same thing with the grandchildren, they say: “Why should I worry about them? They have all those great Mandarin and Szechwan joints to go to and order General Wingwang’s chicken or garlic beef, while we have to sit here and eat the same old tuna casserole.” So from now on, when Jacobson tells me not to eat something I really like, I’m going to think about some hungry guy in China who wouldn’t dream of leaving a perfectly good pork shank on his plate. And I’ll eat it as an act of compassion. (c) 1995 Tribune Media Services, Inc. T Mike Luckovldi