. ,-. R USSIA 1960: The Test of God: Where Can One Continued from Page Ten t Does He Exist Outside the Mind,, youth movement member) told me in broken English. 'Attempts at explanation or clar- ification are sometimes next to impossible. The youth of Russia have been raised on steady diets of full-course propaganda which, if believed, a few sentences or, hours of argument cannot dis- gorge. Even the oldsters who remember the days of Western influence probably have failing memories of a more liberal government and press laws, both of which have been traded in on gigantic tech- nological strides and promised five-year plan improvements in the future. It Is over a matter of practical rather than Ideological questions, however, that the American mind definitely has the advantage. First, the American is more likely than the native Russian to notice that the mode of dress is unstylish or the quality of food unappetizing. THE AVERAGE Russian is ac- customed to stretching his $100 - a - month budget to cover frowsy and failing attempts at imitating Western clothing. For him, small portions of meat, a surplus of bread and potatoes, and a relative dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables are about par for all three meals per day. Next,- the visitor passes from the state of amazement to confu- sion to disgust at the skyscrapers built since the revolution, de- scribed by a Soviet architectual expert as "true products of the socialist mind at work. It is the sameness of every "product of the socialist mind" from the Univer- sity of Moscow on Lenin Hills to a new apartment building -- an amazingly repeated, monotonous conformity to socialist architec- tural law. Third, the American is permitted The People and Places Of the SovietUnion By NORMA SUE WOLFE by his government to visit Rus- sia and, in return, is even granted relative freedom in touring large cities on his own. Accidental meet- ings in varied places with the same natives, soon - familiar unmarked cars, and much camera clicking; when he's around may cause the American to wonder a little over. the USSR's hospitality. BUT A SURE conversation stop- per is: "I can show you some- thing of ours similar to this when you come to visit. By the way, when do you plan to tour the U.S.A.?" In addition, the high cost of touring Russia ($12 per person for an average hotel room) may indicate to the American the Soviet Union's fondness for visi- tors. Despite the nightmarish ques* tions and seeming surveillance, though, the American can, ex- perience a glimmer 9f hope. It may come in the form of a seven-year-old child who's more than anxious to exchange his large hammer and syele lapel pin for a simple little tin "U.S.A." .,. Or 'a Russian teenager wearing a button-down shirt, asking about the daily capitalist diet, and beg- ging for American jazz records, clothes and chewing gum . . Or middle-aged people's staring curiosity . . . Or a dirty, poorly dressed, vod- ka-reeking. old man who walks up to the red, white, and blue-clothed tourist departing from a packed performance at the Bolshoi The- atre, snatches her hand from her pocket, and, unabashed, bends low to kiss it before losing himself again in the throng .. , THE SOVIET nation consists of a race primarily Russians, and, secondly, Communists. The Soviet intelligentsia, or bright students who can make or break their future by adherence to or departure from the "party line" are the only possible excep- tions. "Tavareesch" (Comrade) N., a silver-haired columnist for "Prav- da," is an example of the Com- zinnist intellectual: He must be: l44 tuns out' line. after line of distorted truth per day. The unexpected appearance of two American girls merely asking directions is more evidence. Mr. N. dropped the "AFL-CIO News" he was "interpreting," turned on his most perfect English, and started firing questions with the hope of netting a story on re- nounced U.S. citizenship or at Continued on Page Three RUSSIA is a country of amazing complexities, engaging para- doxes and fascinating complexi- ties. But the average American tour- ist in Russia is more than likely to experience somewhat of a nightmare. The images of this incomprehensible dream are the irreconcilable results of effective Soviet propaganda and inborn Russian curiosity. Surely (the naive tourist be- Norma Sue Wolfe is a jun. for in the literary college. She spent last semester at the Uni- versity of Vienna and last summer toured Russia with. a group of Austrian and Ameri- can students. lieves before contact with Rus- sians) the people can see through the "dictatorship of the prole- tariat" and the lines of the propa- ganda presses. Or, if by some blind fate they don't, it should be simple to point out to them by merely contrasting the life there with that in a democracy such as America. But the tables are sometimes turned once inside the USSR. "With the U2 incident as an example, how is it that American people cannot realize their unfor-. tunate position? Can you actually believe your dictator officials' lies and press explanations of the oc- currence? "THE AMERICAN people should be fortunate enough to live in a 6-socialist democracy such as ours," a Komsomolite (Communist ment used language incorrectly L and violated logic. Reflection upon conditions of the natural world caused Smart to reject the Teleo- logical argument, to consider it, opposed to reason and observa-d tion. Natural Theology, as we haven just stated and attempted to dem-r onsti'ate, attempts to establish basic religious beliefs on the basis of human observation and reason- ing. Contemporary criticism of Natural Theology has indicated that this reasoning employs faulty use of language and logic and in- t volves observations which are, atf best, debateable.a W E MAY NOW raise our majora questions: First, are basic re- ligious beliefs to be "justified" on grounds of reason and observa-7 tion? Second, can religion be rightfully rejected because of the nature of its language and its logic? I wish to answer "No" to both of these questions by arguing that Natural Theology and its critics both have adopted a view as to1 what is essential to religion which1 may be rejected in favor of an alternative view, a different ap- proach to basic religious beliefs. It will be argued that the consid- erations of Natural Theology do1 not touch the heart of what is essential to religion. If this is the case, then the contemporary criti- cism of Natural Theology, al-; though it may well defeat the ar- guments of Natural Theology, will in no way effect what is essential to religion. To present my alternative ap- proach to the establishment of+ fundamental religious beliefs, I shall present some considerations of what has been termed the "philosophy of existence," which, I hope to imply, are more perti- nent to the essence of basic re- ligious beliefs than are the con- siderations of Natural Theology; Whether or not the-arguments to follow are convincing, at the very least it is hoped that they will+ serve as an indication that there are alternative approaches to the est'ablishment of religious beliefs. The failure of Natural Theology does not imply the failure of the basis of religion. What I hope to argue, beyond this minimum im- plication, however, is that the Existentialist approach to the es- tablishment of some type of foun- Or Is He a Creation of the Mind of Man? dation for religion indeed touches' the very heart of religion. Let us now consider some ideas of one representative of this position, Soren Kierkegaard. FOR Kierkegaard, the basis of religion may be discovered only by compelling the recognition of the permanent cleavage between faith and reason, between religion and culture. There is no religious doctrine which does not involve a perpetual offense to reason, whose acceptance does not in- volve a decision to suspend reason. The tendency of theologians to attempt to reconcile faith and reason inevitably leads to failure. To quote "Six Existentialist Thinkers" by H. S. Blackburn, "Sooner or later there comes the extrusion of Christian beliefs as wholly alien to reason and expla- nation, inescapable of assimilia- tion. Such a movement of thought may spring from the ten-, sion between a sceptical mind and a religious heart, but it repre- sents also the persistent tension between Christian dogma and sec- ular culture." Religion, for Kierkegaard, is es- sentially an attitude, not a specu- lative philosophy (a theology) or an objective system of reason. Complete involvement with ab- stract reasoning accomplishes only what Kierkegaard terms "escape from the real problems of exist- ence." Speculative philosophy (for our purposes, Natural Theology) subordinated ethical will and ra- tional doctrines for vital decisions. The "problems of real exist- ence," according to Kierkegaard, involve decisions. Life involves choices and to make significant decisions is more important than speculating. Two of the most im- portant choices for the individual involve the choice of the individ- ual of himself and a choice of the individual to lead a moral life. THE first sort of decision is dis- cussed by Kierkegaard in his classic work "Either/Or." Two ways of living are, in general, open to the individual. Either he can1 do his utmost to forget that he is an existing individual, or he can concentrate his entire ener- gy upon the fact that he is an existing individual. To choose to be oneself, to be unique rather than attempting so to conform to the general patterns of society that one's individuality is lost, is an ethical act. "The self as a to- tality cares about itself as unique, not merely about its participation in a common humanity." The choice of being an individ- ual is an ethical act, for it yields a second choice, that of choosing to lead the moral life. "Choosing oneself, choosing inwardness, in- volves making good choices also, involves carrying out one's social, worldly activities in a manner ap- propriate to the demands of the species." Natural Theology did not con- ..4in.e ..,,onnexiaev xin~ tnxir nu" 4 ~1 cannot be predicated of such 'things' as God or morality, for such entities are not themselves objective-they meet no empirical tests-one cannot even really con- ceive pf the sort of tests to which they could hypothetically be put in order to validate their ob- jective existence. Second, it has at least been indicated how the argument types employed by Na- tural Theology have violated the use guag "logi 'trot: acccl chop else to g canc uniq act soci lives divi pers sider contingent existence .and hoped to find some truth of a universal nature. Natural Theol- ogy operated, so it believed, solid- ly by reasoning. It was an effort to understand the world rational- ly. The point of view we have been putting in opposition to Natural Theology opposes the pur- suit of objectivity in religion; truth, it claims, lies in subjectiv- ity. Now we may ask the question, why is the latter position prefer- red? We prefer the subjective in- terpretation of religious doctrines for, among other reasons, religious truths cannot be proven to be objectively valid. As I attempted to indicate in constructing an ob- jection to the Moral argument for the existence of God, objectivity PAPER-BOUND BOOKS 50 Publishers Represented PROMPT SERVICE On Special Orders OVERBECK'S BOOKSTORE 9* SExclusive APOCUROMATIC 3-co overall BRILLIANCE in all its natt " 7 CUSTOM GROUND ELEMENTS TION and HIGHEST CONTRAST at full aperture. - " CONTINUOUS. FOCUSING RANG] subjeet-to-negative -ratios and expo mount. " KERN VISIFOCUS system-AUTO of-field ... AT ANY APERTURE. * FULLY AUTOMATIC DIAPHRA release-closes AND reopens COM be disconnected for viewing depth-of * UNCONDITIQNAL GUARANTEE F FORMANCE. ALFA ALSO OFFERS YOU THE ONLY C AUTOMATIC LENSES RANGING FRO 1116 S. 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