In Monday's paper it was said, "It doesn't matter whom you pray to, or even that you pray at all. What you choose for yourself is what is right for you." The claim is that religious truth is relative and not absolute. Is this reasonable to believe? If we think logically about this issue, the answer must be no.

We may disagree about what is true, but we should agree that every religious belief cannot be true. One person believes there is no God. Another believes God exists. Only one of these people is correct. One belief is true; the other is not.

People often say things like, "It's wrong to criticize someone else's religion or beliefs." If a person truly believes that, then that person has no right to make that statement. In doing so, they violate what they just said. They are criticizing someone else who has a different belief; someone who believes it is okay to criticize others' beliefs.

I am not saying we shouldn't be civil and courteous to people who have opposing view points. We should. But it is not reasonable to believe that all religions are equally true.

Joshua French

graduate student

statistics

Every day I read more opinion articles in this paper that disappoint me. I would like to remind students that one reason we are attending secondary education is to develop critical thinking skills and to learn to criticize and evaluate the world around us. Too often I read politically motivated letters whose authors appear to be blindly following or disagreeing with the policies and beliefs of politicians and political parties. It should be possible for all of us at this stage in our lives to objectively look at important world events like the Iraq war and come to conclusions about the usefulness and necessity of our government's policies and actions on our own. Not only should we look at the intent of policies, but we must also look at their effectiveness in achieving objectives. It is logical and justified to disagree with a policy, not because you disagree with the morals or goals behind the policy, but because you think the policy may not succeed in achieving its goals. It would, in fact, be reasonable for a Republican to disagree with Bush's massive increases in discretionary spending and premises for invading Iraq, and for a Democrat to support the war in Iraq and agree with Bush's increases in the funding for the Department of Education. Only monarchs can do no wrong, but we are lucky to live in a system that allows us to criticize and evaluate the politics behind our politicians.

Brandon Bean

senior

economics and political science double major