Cory 1998-09-18

From Summa Bergania

From : David Bergan

To : Cory Heidelberger

Subject : Adler... sleepy?

Date : Sep 18 1998

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Hi Cory!

I'm glad that you share my disgust with the "f------" idiot. When I write someone like that and get such a response I always question my reasoning before I indict his. So it's good to have someone to back me up.

It's funny that ever since starting college, I have just let politics alone. I hardly new that the Starr report was out much less what Rush or Larry King had to say about it. I just hope that this might impact Daschle's election chances. The last guy I want representing me is one who thinks that pro-choice means that we make the choice after we find out we're pregnant because it is obvious that no choice is involved before conception... Well, at least not in my worldview. Can you believe it, after merely three weeks here people already think that I am too opinionated. From now on I always apologize for it before I begin critical examination of other's beliefs. One gal got mad at me for thinking that abortion is not a good solution to keep a volleyball scholarship (i.e. having the baby would lose the money). She thought that I should "respect her opinion" even though it was different than mine. So what does that mean? Do I say, "Yeah you're right and so am I! The right thing to do is to either have an abortion or not to. Wow! Can I have my cake and eat it too?" Or perhaps I say, "You're wrong, but the important thing is that you have an opinion. The last thing we want on Earth are people without opinions, so it is better to have a wrong one than none at all. And it's better that you live forever with the wrong one than change your thinking, which could lead to emotional distress and low self esteem!!!" I hate it either way. Go on and try to change my opinions. Tell me that I shouldn't hate respecting other "wrong" opinions. I'm a man, I can take it.

The other thing that bothered me was that one of my professors told us on the first day of class that no one knows the truth; to say that you know the truth is arrogant. I wanted to vomit. Obviously this man is arrogant because he thinks that the truth is that no one knows the truth, which is a paradox. You can't state that no one knows the truth because that isn't true by its own conclusion. Fortunately he's in physics and not a philosophy. However, my religion teacher said a similar thing. Our first paper was over, "Why study religion?" and I of course answered, "To beat on senseless atheists." Just kidding. In that paper I made a comment that one reason to study religion was to find the true perspective of God. And that there can only be one because of inherent differences between religions (i.e. Jews think that Jesus was blasphemous, Christians think He is the Son of God, Hindus think He was a cow.). She underlined that part and wrote, "Why can there only be one? According to who?" That made me mad, especially because she's the Honors course teacher. I wanted to ask her that because I said there is only one true perspective and not some theologian how that somehow affects the statement.

But I do have one cool prof, my diff. eq. teacher. His advice is that in order to succeed in mathematics you have to have confidence in your skills and answers, so we do our work in ink.

A lot of chess has been happening here. I got to spend most of last week driving around grandmasters from the airport to dinner or their hotel or wherever they wanted to go. After the Gov. Cup, then I was invited to the Grandmasters' party. It was fun to dine next to the U.S. Chess Champion and to watch him analyze his games from the tournament.

Ever since the tournament I have spent most of my leisure time studying chess because I'm too opinionated to be in public. As for Adler, I admit that he isn't the most colorful writer ever, in fact most math text books are usually more interesting. However, if you make it through, you will have a very good reason for believing in God. It picks up a bit as you work toward the end. Take care Cory, don't be too tough on those sophomores and detention kids (remember I spent a great deal of time in detention). Hopefully one of these days I'll see you either in church or at chess club!

Your friend,

David

--David Bergan

"I prefer nothing unless it is true"

Socrates