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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1997)
Geographers to split up GEOGRAPHY from page 1 Lavin said he will remain “cau tiously optimistic” about new hires, because Foster strongly supports the geography department. Although faculty will move from the geography department, UNL will not lose the level of excellence that resulted in the top-20 ranking, David BrinkerhofF, associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said. “That’s exactly what we want the profiles of our departments to look like,” BrinkerhofF said. After the move, faculty will oper ate under a differently named depart ment, but “the productivity of the fac ulty will continue,” he said. He said the university developed the geosciences department to increase the strength of all of its component programs. Geosciences will include faculty from geology, agriculture, geography’s meteorology unit and the Conservation and Survey Division. Doug Amedeo, geography profes sor, said he found irony in the universi ty restructuring a nationally high-rank ing program when UNL lists develop ing and encouraging high-ranking pro grams as a priority in its strategic plan. “There’s no doubt that they’re faced with a lot of budget difficulties, changes with the basis of knowledge in the world (and) replication,” Amedeo said. “They have to do something.” But the move may have been an administrative oversight, he said. Last spring, Amedeo and other fac ulty members worried that creating a new geosciences unit would result in the abolition of the UNL geography department. Now, Amedeo fears his department’s small size will keep it from competing nationally for stu dents. The department will continue to enroll students at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, he said, but more than 78 meteorology students will move from geography to geo sciences when the new department is ready. Had the rankings been published before this month, administrators may have halted the move of students and faculty to geosciences, Amedeo said. “I’m sure, if they were to reconsid er, they probably wouldn’t do it,” Amedeo said. - ' 'y6 rl m--— K^omens Services P.C. • Abortion Services Provided During All Legal Stages • Awake or Asleep • Outpatient Care • Full-Time OB/GYN Physicians • Birth Control • Saturday AppointmentsAvailable • Total OB/GYN Healthcare IN OMAHA *554-0110 TOLL FREE • 1-800-922-8331 201 S. 46th St., Omaha, NE 68132 httpygynpages.com/omaha Monstrous Selection ftt Discount Prices Decorations Masks Balloons Window Decals Make-Up Wigs Costumes Animated Products 50% Off Greeting Cards Party Supplies 621 N. 48th St. • 464-8201 Hours: 5500 S. 56th * 421-7510 M-F 9-9, Sat. 9-6, Sun11:30-| Daniel Luedert/DN PROFESSOR PETER GOMES spoke Tuesday at the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues in the Lied Center. Preacher praises religion // By Kebecka Hyde Staff Reporter Centuries of bloodshed and vio lence in nations where religions clash are living proof that a secular society does not prevail in the world, a Christian morals professor said during the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. Peter J. Gomes, a Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University, discussed “The Religious Dimensions that Will Not Quit: The Persistence of Belief in a Secular World,” Tuesday at the Lied Center. Gomes is regarded as one of the country’s most distinguished preachers. He is an ordained Baptist minister and has worked since the early 1970s as a professor at Harvard University and as a minister in The Memorial Church. He also wrote “The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart.” Gomes said he believed conflicts throughout the world in places such as the Middle East, Ireland and India are evidence that the world is not secular. The conflict is multi-faceted, but ancient religious differences are huge contributors toThe conflicts that have tom these places apart, he said. “To fail to take in the religious dimension is to fail to understand the problem,” Gomes said. Catholics and Protestants have been fighting in Northern Ireland for 500-600 years; Hindus and Muslims have fought for the past 50 years in India; and Jews and Muslims have fought for centuries in the Middle East, he said. “Religion, which we believe to be intrinsically good, also is the source of conflict,” Gomes said. He said religion in the United States is viewed as “an experiment whose time had come and gone. But ultimate ly the dynamic element of religion is one that cannot be denied.” Gomes said secularization cannot address basic human needs, such as the human search for ultimate meaning, the need for mystery and the innate human desire to express devotion. He offered five points to consider about how religion addresses these issues. The first point is that religious impulse cannot be denied. Gomes said he believed that no matter how advanced a society becomes, human beings will continue to seek religion. If humans are denied religion, it will reappear in worse forms, such as wor ship of the state, culture or self, he said. Second, Gomes said, to be real and valid, religious impulse must be acknowledged and understood. If peo ple worship falsely, they miss the point. Third, Gomes said he believed the religious impulse must be based on modesty. Religion must not be parochialized or limited in scope. He said people must acknowledge that many truths exist and man cannot prove or disprove the existence of those truths. Fourth, religion is an alien force that has the power to act as a separator. “Religion is subversive to conven tional truths,” Gomes said. Religion has the power to question the state and the beliefs of a culture, he said. Fifth, religious impulse helps tran scend the terrible logic of the local, he said. Religion makes people feel com fortable with the contemplation of another world. Gomes battles the myth that a secu lar world is the result of progress. Religion has been in transition after World War II because of the birth of a nuclear age, where people witnessed the devastating destruction that a civi lized society could cause and realized how terrifying human nature can be, he said. Gomes said America has grown into a pluralistic, multicultural society, and ignoring religion would not com plete a picture of the United States. “Americans are still driven, moved and inspired by their own religious identity.” The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of The Cooper Foundation and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It pre sents speakers on international issues in an effort to promote understanding of issues in other countries and in the future. The free lectures are given at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and are available by satellite to colleges statewide. Americans are still driven, moved and inspired by their own religious identity Peter Gomes Harvard professor of Christian morals *.<|yvc<J r . *_Vi« _ HLondon $321 4 ("'■"‘i# $343* y un 3oS9, Costa Wild Wednesdays 8PM-CLOSE $5°° Pitchers $3°° Refills $2°° Mixed Drinks 1823 “O” Street Lincoln, NE 68508 “A Gentleman's Club”