Awake!, March 8, 1968
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Getting to Know God
PAGE 3
Carnival Time in Colombia
PAGE 8
Malnutrition=Scourge of Developing Countries PAGE 12
Court Decision Deprives Parents of Rights PAGE 21
MARCH 8, 1968
THE REASON FOR THIS MAGAZINE
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awakel" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ties; it is unhampered by traditional creeds. This magazine keeps itself free, that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
The viewpoint of "Awake!" is not narrow, but is international. "Awake!" has its own correspondents in scores of nations. Its articles are read in many lands, in many languages, by millions of persons.
In every issue "Awake!" presents vital topics on which you should be informed. It features penetrating articles on social conditions and offers sound counsel for meeting the problems of everyday life. Current news from every continent passes in quick review. Attention is focused on activities in the fields of government and commerce about which you should know. Straightforward discussions of religious issues alert you to matters of vital concern. Customs and people in many lands, the marvels of creation, practical sciences and points of human interest are all embraced in its coverage. "Awake!" provides wholesome, instructive reading for every member of the family.
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CONTENTS
Carnival Time in Colombia 8
Malnutrition—Scourge of Developing Countries 12
Animals Predict Earthquakes 16
Relativity and the World in Which We Live 17
Court Decision Deprives
Parents of Rights 21
Marble—Stone of Many Uses 25
"Your Word Is Truth"
What God Requires of You 27
Watching the World 29
Volume XLIX
Number 5
TEACHING children about God is a fascinating and rewarding experience. Their quick little minds never cease to amaze you. Of the twelve-year-old Jesus it was said: "All those listening to him were in constant amazement at his understanding and his answers." (Luke 2:46, 47) And years later the man Jesus replied to the Jews: 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God has furnished praise.' —Matt. 21:16.
Since God is the Source of life, drawing on this life Source should be a regular thing, as necessary as breathing and eating. (Ps. 36:9; Matt. 4:4) Thus learning about God should not be left entirely to a weekly study of the Bible, as important as it is. When Jehovah instructed Jewish fathers about teaching their sons, he said: "You must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up." —Deut. 6:7.
This means that children should be getting a constant flow of information about God from their Christian parents. Well, are they? How many of you fathers, for
example, take time each day to teach your sons something about God?
Teaching children about God is an art. Wisely the Bible counsels: "Fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah." (Eph. 6:4) Perhaps the following from a son who reflects on the past will be an encouragement to Christian fathers who are faced with this responsibility before God.
Outdoor Lessons About God
Every summer father would take my brother and me to visit one of his brothers' farms. On very warm nights the three of us would sleep outside under the stars. We would cross a little creek that snaked its way through the farm, climb a small sand hill and at the top of the hill prepare for the night. As we lay there we talked about the stars. Father quoted from Psalm 19:1: "The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling." Then he would ask me: "How does the heaven tell the glory of God, John?"
I recall struggling with that question and answering to the effect: "I suppose because there are so many of them, Dad."
David, my younger brother, chimed in: "I think it's because they're so bright. God is bright; the stars are bright."
Then father would say in his warm but forceful way: "Don't you think it is because the stars make us think of God? How many stars do you think there are?"
"There must be millions and millions of them," said David, giving the largest figure that came into his mind.
"Do you know that Jehovah God has numbered all of them and he calls them all by their names?" asked father.
"All of them?" probed David with amazement.
"That's what is recorded at Isaiah 40: 26," replied father. "Jehovah made them all and it is his power that keeps them where they are. You know, the thing that strikes astronomers with awe is the orderliness of the universe. That tells us that our God Jehovah is a God of order. The orderliness of the universe is one of the great discoveries of science."
Father would then mention scriptures
that tell about God's greatness. "How far away do you think the stars are, John?" he asked.
"I really don't know, but our science teacher says they are many light years away." For a moment there was silence, but the night was filled with night noises. David told Dad that he liked what he had said about the order of the universe.
"Order shows wisdom," father said. "To show you how wise Jehovah is, the Bible says that, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts"—Isa. 55:9.
"By comparison we sure don't know much, do we, Dad?"
"No, we don't. That's why it is wise to trust in Jehovah with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding. If we listen to Jehovah, we will never go wrong."
The earth was bathed in moonlight. When father thought we were asleep, he would often get up and walk a short distance away and kneel down and pray. We would see him silhouetted in the distance. Years later whenever thoughts of God came into mind, I often thought of father praying in the moonlight. At the crack of dawn the three of us would awaken, often wet from the fallen dew. Father would lead with prayer. Sometimes we would repeat after him. It was an unforgettable experience, the three of us in prayer at daybreak. I always felt that that pleased God.
Indoor Lessons
About God
Father always enjoyed telling us about God in unusual ways. For example, one day we were visiting friends. In the living room hung a huge painting, a seascape, with the ocean waves crashing against the rocks and tiny spots of glittering sunlight on the water.
"Do you like the painting, son?" he asked.
"It's beautiful," I said. "The ocean is so big and powerful."
"And yet Jehovah holds the whole earth in the palm of his hand," said father as if he had seen it right there in God's hand. "To paint like this takes great skill."
"I know," I said.
"Man can paint like this, but only God can make an ocean," replied father.
The thoughts of the poet's words flashed through my mind that "only God can make a tree"; only God can make an ocean; only God can create stars, number them and call them all by their names. I was learning what a wonderful Creator our God is; with my father's help I was getting to know God.
The Nearness of God
Father often talked about the close friendship that Abraham and other faithful men had with God. Because father spoke about God's being near to us, too, I set out one day to ask him about this. "Dad," I said, "how do you know, how can you be sure of the nearness of God?"
"God is very real to me, son," he said. "The apostle Paul wrote: God 'is not far off from each one of us. For by him we have life and move and exist.' (Acts 17: 27, 28) Perhaps it is an appreciation of life and its value that helps to give us this awareness. At times when we have been alone outdoors, or when we have been reading the Bible especially and are touched deeply by its beauty or its truth, then we often have a richer appreciation that God is near. These experiences are not accompanied by any emotional excitement. Rather, they bring a feeling of deep peace and gladness."
By listening to Dad I would search myself to see if I had experienced the same things. One day at the dinner table, where father always relished discussion, I brought up the point again. "One moment, Dad, you say that God is in heaven and the next moment you say that he is very close to us. How can that be?" Everyone's eyes were fixed on him, as we wondered how he would answer. Dad gave the question some thought before he spoke, but he would never get angry no matter how difficult the question. He wanted us to ask questions and if we did not, he would. I knew that he was thinking of a way to answer so that all present would understand.
"John," he said, speaking directly to me, "perhaps the closest parallel to our consciousness of God's presence is the reeling that comes alive in us when we realize that a person whom we love has love for us and that this love will be ours no matter where we are. We do not think of human love in terms of locality. We can say that we sense its reality and that we can sense it no matter where we go. This does not mean that a human whom we love and who loves us is everywhere, does it? Neither does it mean that God stands beside us every moment. Rather, God awakens within us the consciousness that He is with us wherever we may be, and he does this by means of his spirit or active force."
I knew what father was talking about, for I carried thoughts of his love wherever I went. Mother looked across the table and smiled at Dad, for she understood too. "No wonder you have such peace of mind, Dad," I said.
"It's a peace that excels all thought," was his quick reply. "Remember, son, we're never alone. There are always the sun, the stars, the grass, the birds to remind us that God is near, and that we live because of him."
What Is God Like?
In school many questions arose in our biology and science classes, and Dad was interested in knowing what the youth of today think. So he would get me to talking. He knew that as long as we talked together there was a way to get at the doubts and suspicions that often come into youthful minds and have a way of establishing themselves. One day as we were driving to town, he asked:
"Any talk of evolution in your biology class this week?"
"There's always that," I said.
"What do the boys and girls in your class want to know?"
"They want to know if we really know anything about God, what he is like and what he is doing."
"Well, did you answer them?"
"I tried, but I'm afraid not with much success." Had my father not taken the initiative I doubt if I would have brought the question up. And still there it was on my mind. Father simply said:
"Philip, an apostle of Jesus Christ, on one occasion asked Jesus: 'Lord, show us the Father.' (John 14:8) Philip, I suppose, wanted some superhuman demonstration, something these school friends of yours want to see. But Jesus merely said that, had Philip observed Jesus closely, he would have seen the Father. For Jesus did the will of his heavenly Father and spoke the words of his Father. More than that, a flesh-and-blood creature, such as we are, cannot see God, for God is a Spirit."—John 14:9-11; 4:24.
"Then how can we get to know God more intimately?" I asked.
"In the same way Philip did."
They're recorded for us in the Bible. We need to read it and think about it.
"How's that?"
"By observing Jesus' words and works.
"And there's still another way that we get to know God. Imagine that we're at sea. An island appears on the horizon and we travel toward it. As we land we can see a house on the hilltop. Coming closer, we recognize that the house is well built. The door is open, so we walk in. Inside we see it is beautifully furnished. The walls are covered with scores of paintings. We closely examine everything in sight and we see that whoever did the work understood the technique of painting, architecture, carpentry, engineering, that he is a master worker. It is amazing how much you learn about someone by observation. We may not know his features, but we do know something about his thoughts, his likes and dislikes.
'Now apply this illustration to the problem of discovering the truth about God, and what do we come up with? Humanity finds itself on this planet, surrounded by a sea of space. All around us we find things of beauty. How did this beauty get here? By itself? When you saw in our illustration the house on the hill and its furnishings, did the thought strike you that tife house could have evolved? Such a thought would never cross your mind, and for good reasons. The apostle Paul tells us: 'Every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.' (Heb. 3:4) Now, what conclusions should we reach as we study our earth?
"We look around and we know that earth's Maker loves beauty because we see so many scenes of beauty that please us. This beauty was here before man ever appeared on the scene. One thing is certain, man has not made the flowers, the trees. Man cannot even make a single blade of grass. But have you seen the majesty of the sunrise, the superb lacework of a snowflake, the gorgeous display of colors on the feathers of a bird or on the scales of a fish?
I know our God loves beauty! When I see children laugh and monkeys play, I know our God is happy and that he lovingly wants us to be happy. Paul wrote: 'For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world's creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.' —Rom. 1:20.
"Unbelieving men are inexcusable, because they could see the earth just as your eyes have, Dad," I said.
"That is what God says about them, son," was his answer.
I realized that the majority of people walk about this planet blind to its beauty and deaf to its message about God.
A Moral God
One day when Dad was reading the paper, the reports of crime and violence caused him to raise some questions.
"John," he said, "how can you prove that God understands the difference between right and wrong and that he is on the side of right, without using the Bible to prove your point?"
Frankly, I did not know. So father answered his own question.
"Son," he said, "in life we see that liars in time betray themselves, that injustice reaps rotten results, that selfish people are not truly happy. James Anthony Froude, a noted historian, said: 'This world is somehow built on moral foundations—that is the lesson of history. In the long run it is well with the good and ill with the wicked. This is the only teaching which history repeats with any distinctness.'"
"Then these qualities are geared to basic laws in the universe."
"It appears so. But what can we conclude about a God who has made such laws?" father asked.
"That he knows the difference between right and wrong."
"And since right in time wins out, what does that prove?"
"It proves that God is on the side of right."
"Fine. That's your answer, John," he said. "Now consider the man who tries to be righteous. Don't we give credit to the best? Don't we uphold fairness? Don't we speak well of decency and speak badly of wrongdoers? What does this prove? What conclusions can we draw about God, who is responsible for creating man with such qualities?"
"We must conclude that God loves what is righteous too."
"And the Ten Commandments and other Bible principles show us that this is truly the case."
"Isn't that interesting!" I said. "The very things we've concluded by observation about God are supported by the Scriptures."
"Do you know why, John?" asked father.
"Offhand, no."
"Because Jehovah is the Author of both. He is the Author of creation and the Author of his Word the Bible."
This was a wonderful way to learn about God.
A Loving God
One day we were in Central Park and some squirrels came up to us. They were exceptionally tame. We reached into our bags and gave them some peanuts. The cracked ones the squirrels would eat immediately, but the peanuts that were not damaged the squirrels would take to their favorite pantry and hide for the wintertime. Father just beamed watching them. After a while he said: "We can learn a lot about God by watching these tiny creatures."
"What, Dad?" we asked.
"These little creatures tell us that God is love. For example," father said, "the squirrel makes a big nest of moss and twigs on the branches of a tree. There's one over there. See it? The birds also make ingenious nests. What industry, what skill, what patience, and little or none of this is done for themselves! They care for their little ones."
Most of us had never thought of things this way and we wondered what father was going to say next.
"Among men," father continued, "we find the love of a mother for her child, the love of a man for his family and we read in the Bible that Christ gave his life for the world of mankind. Now I ask you, Can you imagine all this love, all this patience stemming from a God who knows nothing about love or devotion?"
It was easy to get father's point. God is the source of love. Father then quoted a scripture: "He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8) That's why we can be absolutely sure that this earth of ours will be a paradise someday, as God has promised in his Word."
Walking with father and listening to him speak about God was indeed a gift. So often fathers neglect this rarest of all privileges. Perhaps if they knew and were aware of how much it enriched their sons, they would do more of it. Now all creation speaks to me of God. Father's words have made me realize that future life and happiness depend not on man but on Jehovah and his approval. Fathers by teaching their sons about God are qualifying them for everlasting life in peace and happiness in God's new system of things. (John 17:3) What greater gift could any father give his son or any son receive?
CARNIVAL Time
in
Colombia
By "Awakel" correspondent
in Colombia
IT WAS near the end of January. Carlos was contemplating a sign scrawled in big painted letters across the pavement of the street: "Disfrázate como quieras" ("Disguise yourself as you like"), inviting the neighborhood to the masquerade dances to be held during the several weeks
prior to the Carnival. Roberto lives on the same street and is in the same class at school with Carlos. Since his moving from the interior of the country they have become fast friends.
"Have you picked out the disguise you are going to wear to the Carnival this year, Roberto?
I've just come from where they are putting the finishing touches to my bull's head. It's sort of a tradition with our family to use the same mask every year," explains Carlos.
Roberto sighs resignedly. "Everybody is sure getting the 'bug.' Looks like the whole population on the coast is getting into this thing. Everywhere you turn, radio, newspaper, at school and at work, it's all you hear these days. As you know, in the interior they hardly celebrate the Carnival. So, I don't know much about how you celebrate it except what I've read in the papers and magazines. Tell me, Carlos, what goes on and how long does it last?"
How Celebrated
"Oh, you've probably read about the Carnivals they have in Germany, Brazil, Haiti or Spain—our tradition comes from Spain. But, of all of them, I would say that ours is the most lively. Why, this festival has grown up with this city, being celebrated in Barranquilla since 1861. Young and old, rich and poor alike mix on these occasions.
"The official opening of the Carnival season is on January 20th. It begins with 'El Bando' ('Proclamation') in which the mayor announces who the young lady is that will preside as queen of the Carnival. Also, he authorizes the organizing of 'verbenas' ('festivals') in designated homes and social clubs throughout the city that will result in the selection of a queen for each section of the city and each club. These are the queens that ride in decorated floats in the 'Batailla de Flores' ('Battle of Flowers') parade on Saturday afternoon, the first day of the Carnival."
"That should be interesting to watch," interrupts Roberto. "I imagine it would be hard to find anyone staying home and missing out on seeing it!"
"You're right!" Carlos confirms enthusiastically, "but you'd better wear your old clothes, and protect your eyes. The crowd can get wild, throwing corstarch on everyone within reach, along with confetti, and, sometimes, buckets of water!
"After parading about forty blocks from the Municipal Stadium the floats and dance groups converge on Paseo Bolivar in front of that big pavilion they are setting up. There judges choose which float, which dance group and which mask get first prize. By then the sun is setting. So we begin to disperse to our respective places of entertainment, where the eating and drinking, dancing and merrymaking start in earnest, to last for seventy-two to eighty hours without letup."
They both stand quietly for a moment and then Roberto remembers another part of the celebration that he has heard a lot about.
"Tell me, Carlos, what is this 'solemn funeral for Joselito' that comes on the last day of the Carnival?"
"Oh, that!" Recapturing his original enthusiasm, Carlos explains that "that is possibly the most comical part of the entire festival! You see, 'Joselito' is the name of the big rag doll that represents the Carnival. On Tuesday afternoon groups roam the streets carrying different versions of the rag doll on a stretcher or sometimes in a coffin. Particularly the women in the group, dressed in black from head to toe, continually let out wails of hysterical crying interspersed with the chanting of a litany: 'Poor Joselito has died. Ay! Ay! For excess of gaiety he has died.' Whenever they encounter a passerby they plead for a contribution to bury him. However, the official burial is at midnight Tuesday when the Carnival queen presides over a ceremony, setting fire to a rag doll amidst the music and dancing and clamor of the multitude."
"I must say, it all sounds very exciting." Roberto exclaims. "And, with the whole populace joining in, there must be complete chaos for the duration of the festival!"
"It would seem that way," agrees Carlos. "However, in the decree from the mayor's office that is in force during the days of the Carnival it is stated that 'all kinds of public rejoicing, dances, masks, and so forth, are permitted so long as they do not go against morals or good customs, nor allude to civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities, . . . or happenings of a political or religious nature.' The police are around but they usually do not interfere with the gaiety."
Economic Aspect
"Now, don't get me wrong, Carlos. I'm not against people having a good time. But I can't help but ask myself, 'How can the people afford it?' We no sooner halfway recuperate from the excess spending and merrymaking at Christmas, New Year's and the Epiphany and then comes a week more of 'festa' with more spending, to be followed in a few weeks by Holy Week. All these holidays without work! The economy is bound to suffer! The average worker has a minimum wage of only about a dollar a day, whereas the cost of living is constantly rising. Many families do not seem to have enough to eat, to say nothing of providing clothing, education and medical care for each member of the family."
Carlos sadly agrees. "I've seen many a person pawn almost his last possession or borrow money at a 20-percent interest rate to buy a costume or to go to the dances or to have money for drinks.
will agree, the Carnivals are harmful. But we must not forget that the Carnival attracts many tourists to the city, and that means money for the local economy."
"And that reminds me. According to certain investigations, our holidays are costing the national economy some 227 million dollars a year. In that aspect, I
"But," counters Roberto, "wouldn't that he offset by the money appropriated from the city treasury for the expenses of organizing the Carnival? Really, though, it's not so much that that upsets me as does the moral aspect."
Moral Aspect
"Moral aspect! What do you mean?" queries Carlos, realizing that this discussion is getting more involved than he had anticipated.
"I mean," says Roberto, warming up to the subject that his conscience obligates him to speak about, "I mean the license that is given to moral badness by the relaxed law enforcement, the costume and mask that hide the identity of the person—that number on the badge pinned to your costume doesn't make you recognizable!—and, add to that the free flow of beer and other alcoholic drinks that lower the resistance of an otherwise morally upright person! Wouldn't you say it is morally wrong to abuse the human body with an excess of drink? Why, some celebrators never go home to sleep or bathe or change clothes until the festival is over!"
"Be careful there! You're hitting close to home," observes Carlos.
A period of silence follows. Roberto does not intend to mar their friendship with a heated discussion. So he gives Carlos time to calm down. But it is Carlos himself that initiates the conversation again.
"I find that I can't truthfully deny any of the things you've said, Roberto. We do take this 'fun' business a little too far and forget about what is upright and to our best interests and pleasing to our Maker.
We even laugh about the population explosion nine months after the Carnival, knowing that many of those babies born are the result of moral badness. You would think the Church would step in and curb our actions and bring us a little more under control, wouldn't you?"
Religious Aspect
"I agree with you there, Carlos. Say, what do you think about our doing a little investigating? We should be able to dig up some interesting facts that might answer your question and a lot more. It seems to me that there is an aspect related to our worship of God in the celebration of the Carnival."
After a fruitful search of a few days among books and encyclopedias Carlos and Roberto meet again to compare notes.
Carlos begins. "I found this statement in the volume called German Mardi Gras Customs, by Adolf Spamer: 'From the Church fathers on, from Tertullian, Chrysostom, Jerome and Augustine, throughout the entire Middle Ages, the Church fought against the noisy and degenerating masquerading carried on by the people.'"
"Well, that's encouraging," Roberto says approvingly. "But here is some more on it from The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Vol. V): 'The last three days preceding Lent, which in Roman Catholic countries are given up to feasting and merrymaking, . . . represents a compromise which the church always inclined to make with pagan festivals and that the carnival really represents the Roman Saturnalia. Rome has ever been the headquarters of carnival, and though some popes . . . made efforts to stem the tide of Bacchanalian revelry, many of the popes were great patrons and promoters of carnival keeping.'
"So we see why the Church keeps silent on the matter. Being so undecided as to whether to support it or to reject it, it could hardly give us guidance on the matter. Nevertheless, there are three phrases mentioned in that last quote that really interest me: 'pagan festivals,' 'Roman Saturnalia' and 'Bacchanalian revelry.' Do they bring anything to your mind, Carlos?"
"Yes, they do. In our Carnival we give worship, we say, to the god Bacchus along with the god Momo. As you know, when we say Bacchus we think of revelry and drunkenness, and, to us, Momo means buffoonery and grimaces. Do you suppose those terms could involve more than just those meanings?"
"There is just one way to find out," Roberto determinedly says as he readies himself to do some more investigating.
In their search they find out that Bacchus is an ancient pagan Greek god of wine who eventually became represented under the symbol of a fat bull or ox. More enlightening still, they find that Bacchus is the same as Tammuz, a god of ancient Babylon, representing Nimrod, who in Sacred Scripture is referred to as "a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah." (Gen. 10:9) Bacchus means "weeping" and classical writers refer to him as "The Lamented One." So when the Sacred Scriptures refer to the detestable things God's people were doing in the temple in Jerusalem, saying: "Look! there the women were sitting, weeping over the god Tammuz," it indicates the relationship of all three, Nimrod, Tammuz and Bacchus. —Ezek. 8:14.
"And to think," exclaims Carlos, "that we, calling ourselves 'Christians,' participate so fervently in celebrations so obviously pagan and dishonoring to God!"
"A sobering thought," Roberto assures him, "and we still haven't discussed the Roman Saturnalia.
Remember, the encyclopedia said, 'the carnival really represents the Roman Saturnalia.'
"Here, I have some information on that," offers Carlos. "Hislop's book The Two Babylons goes into detail and explains that the Babylonians worshiped the Sun or Baal as the only God and Tammuz was worshipped as the incarnation of the Sun. The feast of Saturn in his honor was celebrated at the winter solstice and lasted for five days. It was characterized by drunkenness and revelry, feasting and merrymaking."
"Any way you look at it and from any aspect, our Carnival is as far from true
Christian worship as daylight is from dark," sums up Roberto. "I am so glad we have dug into this thing, Carlos. Now we can take a course of action in keeping with our profession of Christian faith."
"Well, I can say one thing. All this research has really opened my eyes! If I still go ahead and participate in the Carnival this year it will be against an enlightened conscience. But, Roberto, it seems to me that there are other aspects of our worship that we should look into. Don't you think it would be profitable to continue our investigations even further?"
"I heartily agree," concludes Roberto, as they again head for the public library.
MALNUTRITION scourge of developing countries
WAS greeted with, "Good afternoon, Doctor," as I made my way with the medical superintendent of a modern clinic serving the African population of a copper-mining community in one of Africa's new developing countries. As I am no doctor, the misnomer would have brought a smile, but the circumstances were too
sobering. This clinic is one of a group of five surrounding a 300-bed hospital, which comprises the medical services for some 50,000 people, mine employees and their families. The sobering circumstance was that I was visiting a malnutrition clinic.
The medical superintendent took her position in the consulting room, the nurse presenting her with the case histories for the afternoon patients. The African orderly stood by as interpreter, and I took my place to permit close scrutiny of the symptoms of this scourge of developing countries.
I viewed a little boy aged one year. As he sat listlessly on his mother's knee I was told he was suffering from kwashiorkor, the main cause of which is a diet lacking protein. I noted a swelling of the legs and feet.
His hair was soft and light in color and easily pulled out. He was obviously underweight. Other evidences of kwashiorkor, I was told, are underdeveloped muscles; skin dull and unhealthy looking; eyes dull and lifeless; inclination to listlessness and at times a swelling of the whole body.
For, this child a regular free issue of dried skim milk was prescribed, with a supplement of dried soup containing meat extract and soya meal. Regular visits to the clinic will be necessary for some time. The completeness of recovery cannot be fully assessed.
The next patient was a little girl of eighteen months. She was recovering from nutritional marasmus, which is another way of naming starvation. Her diet had been totally insufficient in quantity, lacking in both calories and proteins. In this case there was no swelling of the legs, her hair appeared normal and there seemed to me to be more interest in her eyes. But she was extremely small and underweight. She looked wizened. Her arms and legs felt very small, just wasted muscles under loose skin. The doctor explained that it was very difficult to tell the difference between kwashlorkor and marasmus, and it is often convenient to think of them both as protein-calorie malnutrition.
As I took my leave of the medical superintendent an hour or so later, I had a deeper sense of this frightening scourge of malnutrition. Only a day or so previous I had read in a report that one-third of the children who attend school in the province where such medical services are available suffer from malnutrition, and I now reflected on the dimensions that this scourge must have reached in rural areas. In Zambia, Central Africa, 15 percent of the deaths in children are due to malnutritive conditions. Then there was the report I read about Uganda, East Africa,
stating that the incidence of protein-calorie malnutrition is as high as 25 percent, with 6 percent suffering from severe kwashiorkor. In 1961, it was found that 25 percent of nonwhite child patients in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa, suffered from kwashiorkor due to lack of protein. The director-general of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, Dr. Binay Sen, has estimated that 3,000,000 people die every year from malnutrition. Although complete figures are difficult to obtain, it is generally accepted that two-thirds of the world's population are not getting enough to eat.
A lot of work is being done in Zambia and other developing lands to cope with malnutrition. International organizations have provided much assistance. There have been great advances in land fertilization and use of insecticides, increasing agricultural yields. Plant Pathologist J. George Harrar, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, says: "We know enough today to transform the food production of the world. There is no longer any excuse for human starvation." Yet there are more people suffering from hunger than ever before.
With so much being done to fight hunger, why must millions of toddler-age children go to bed hungry every night? In developing countries the problem is found among all income groups. A factor to account for malnutrition is man's tendency to be led astray by his own ideas, customs and habits. There is a great need for education.
Traditional Feeding Habits
Walking away from the malnutrition clinic, I quietly meditated upon the discussion I had with the nurse, who had spent many years fighting the problem of malnutrition. I could still hear her say with emphasis, "We are up against traditional feeding habits."
I was compelled to agree with her that most people have strong emotional feelings about their diet. I recalled having read about the Buganda people who live in part of Uganda. They use bananas as a staple food. Their babies are born under the shelter of banana trees; the baby's bottom is wiped with a banana leaf; food is cooked in a banana leaf; and everywhere you look there are bananas. Now, bananas are a very delightful fruit, but they do not contain protein.
Some other African tribes have the tradition that the women should eat less during pregnancy to limit the size of the baby. In parts of Africa other taboos relate to food for women. Chicken, eggs and certain meats are forbidden, which is most unfortunate, as especially during pregnancy women need a good diet. Thus some children get off to a bad start even before they are born due to traditional feeding habits. In one tribe women are not allowed to touch hot food while menstruating; they may grind the flour, but not cook the porridge, which must be detrimental to the feeding of the younger members of the family.
If the great need is for protein in the diet of these nations, I momentarily thought I had the answer to the problem with the idea of increasing their intake of beef from the herds of cattle I had seen around the country. But, in Zambia, at least, this would mean changing a way of life for many, and removing a social pattern that has existed for centuries. For in Zambia, Botswana and other developing countries cattle are a form of wealth, like money in the bank. Where a nation can grow all the maize required for their traditionally staple diet, there is no need for the farmers to sell their cattle for slaughter; thus they keep them 'in the
bank,' as it were, killing only a few for their own domestic needs. In Botswana, however, poverty and hunger have overcome the traditional reluctance to sell cattle. People have to sell their cattle to buy maize, which they cannot grow in sufficient quantities for the nation's needs. So once more I groaned with the thought of the scourge of malnutrition being fostered by entrenched tribal customs.
I found it difficult to get the pathetic image of these little bloated bellies out of my mind. The nurse at the clinic had spoken about this as partly the effect of improper weaning. As soon as an infant begins to show any interest in food and stretches out its hand toward the food or cries for it, the mother will invariably give it little bits of cooked maize porridge or relish, but will continue to suckle it for some time. No special food is cooked for children, generally speaking. In the absence of proper weaning by the gradual reduction in milk, balanced with the gradual intake of adult food until weaning is complete and breast feeding ceases, one can imagine the effect upon the child's digestive organs. Due to gastric reactions the stomach becomes distended, and the child may even rebel against sudden contrasts in diet and refuse to eat. Thus may be laid the basis for the dire consequences of malnutrition.
Family Way of Life
As I further reflected upon my discussions at the clinic I took another glance at my notes and saw, 'tribal customs and family way of life.' An African custom is to feed the men and adolescent boys separately from the women and children; and in the villages the men have their own shelter, where they eat usually from individual bowls, with the women and children eating in a separate shelter, invariably from communal bowls. This custom is often carried over into urban life, and the men working in industry must have the greater portion of the food available.
Often due to lack of planning and little or no budgeting the two-meal-a-day average is reduced to one meal toward the end of the month, and under these pressures the children usually suffer.
This reflection reminded me of a recent pronouncement by a government official in Zambia. He commented on reports made to him that 32 percent of the younger schoolchildren in the industrial areas suffer from malnutrition, saying, "What good is it for the government to spend vast sums on building more and better schools if parents send their children to school hungry and unable to learn properly?" That poor diet may even limit the growth of a child's intelligence was suggested by a study made of schoolchildren in another province of Zambia.
Another view of this problem is known in large industrial townships as the 'extended family system.' This develops when a male member in a village community leaves his home to seek employment in a mining town. He is allocated a house with two or three bedrooms, according to the size of his family and his advancement in the mining community. No sooner has he entered into his new way of life than news gets back to his village of his newfound wealth. This releases a stream of relatives who come to share it. The visitors do not always find employment and thus the number of dependents in the family is increased indefinitely. With more adults to feed, it is the younger stomachs that go empty.
In three mining townships in Zambia where employees and their families totaling some 52,000 persons are housed, there may be as many as 15,000 relatives living with these families. Certainly hospitality is a commendable virtue, but it must be
balanced with the Bible principle of providing for one's own household and loving one's wife (and children) as himself. -1 Tim. 5:8.
Christian families will want to avoid any impairment to a child's health through malnutrition for the additional reason that one of the main therapeutic weapons used by the medical profession against malnutrition is blood transfusion, and this is out of line with God's law.—Acts 15:28, 29.
Prestige Rather than Food
I glanced at my notes again. Next I had written, 'prestige problem.' It was another way of saying 'keeping up with the Joneses.' Newfound wealth in countries that have recently acquired independence is too often diverted to enjoy some token of the way of life of the industrialized nations. The radio, television, motorcycles and even automobiles are greater evidences of one's newfound status than a well-balanced family feeding program. Tobacco, alcoholic beverages and other so-called luxuries are almost easier to purchase, and certainly require less thoughtful planning than a balanced diet.
How beneficial it would be to such people if they applied the Bible principles of avoiding the love of money and the desire for prestige so widely promoted by this materialistic age and used more of their newfound wealth in more healthful and practical ways!—1 John 2:15-17.
Food Habits Hard to Change
As I meditated upon these various problems, I recalled the World Food Program's report entitled "An Experiment in Multilateral Food Aid." It stated: "In the early days of the Program's operations insufficient attention may have been paid to the difficulty of getting people to change food habits, and in an effort to improve diets, food may have been included which the people concerned were much readier to sell than to consume."
The same report, discussing the distribution of food, further states: "Even where an existing organization takes over the task, as in the case of the Ministry of Education with a feeding program in secondary boarding schools . . . the inclusion in the diet of somewhat unfamiliar but desirable foods may require considerable effort on the part of dietitians to make the food acceptable. And it is even more difficult to change the food habits of adults." In Jamaica the dried fish distributed by the World Food Program was found to be unacceptable because of its color. Another report records that "the question of the acceptability of W.F.P. commodities was successfully solved by breaking down custom or prejudice by means of demonstrations by people in whom the beneficiaries had confidence."
Much is being done to help developing countries fight the scourge of malnutrition. Vast distribution of cereals, nuts, soybeans, dried milk, eggs, fish and meat
has been undertaken by seventy donor countries to the World Food Program and carried to seventy-seven needy nations. In Zambia a project is under way to provide milk to low-income groups at a subsidized rate to counteract malnutrition, and each year vast quantities of dried skim milk, dried soup with soya meal and meat extract are given free at clinics. A steady expansion of the poultry industry in this country has also given emphasis to the government policy to provide protein in "an egg a day for every Zambian."
But food distribution alone is not the solution. Education is the great need. There is need for teaching people how to eat and what to eat and how to plan a balanced diet from the foods available to them. Above all, there is need for inculcating of basic Bible principles that will give people the moral strength to resist harmful traditions and customs. This will also aid them to exercise the self-control, family love and Christian contentment that are so essential to winning the war against the scourge of malnutrition.
Animals Predict Earthquakes
Instruments that would predict earthquakes are yet to be developed by man, but for centuries animals have reacted before major disasters in strange and mysterious ways. Brenda McCall in "Safety Sidelights" writes that "a few days before the Tehachapi, California, quake, the snakes on nearby Bear Mountain left it en masse. In fact, a drilling crew working in the valley below had to climb the rig to escape the thousands of reptiles that suddenly appeared. Extra snake-bite kits had to be flown in. The same thing happened three weeks before the sinking of the ocean floor and subsequent eruption of Mt. Pelée in St. Pierre, Martinique. Here, not only the deadly fer-de-lance snakes invaded the city below, but birds and other animal life left mountain areas too." In 1811, before one of the worst earthquakes in United States history, "millions of squirrels began to vacate. From Indiana they swarmed into the Ohio River, where many drowned. Horses and dogs ran away from their homes before the 1812 Caracas, the 1906 San Francisco, and the 1933 Long Beach quakes. Sea birds flew inland before two great Chilean convulsions and six hours before the Heghen Darn, Wyoming, quake of 1959, no birds or animals could be seen in that area." The big question is: How do these creatures know ahead of time?
RELATIVITY
and the world in which we live
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INTO a world teeming with trouble and experiencing the hunger pains of a
nunger pairs of a newborn desire for science and technology the theory of relativity was born. Today relativity is generally accepted more as fact than theory. The equations that mathematically express the theory of relativity are in everyday use among scientists when working with high-speed atomic particles. The word relativity has taken on a new (and often misunderstood) meaning. Dictionaries allot it more space. The world has become relativity-minded. But what does it all mean? and how does it affect us and the world in which we live?
There are actually two theories of relativity, the general and the special. The special theory is merely a special case of the general theory, and it is the topic of this article. Of course, gravity was in existence long before the not too credible story of an apple falling on Isaac Newton's head to jar him into recognizing the law of gravity. In like manner the principles of relativity have always been in force since the creation of matter, but the theory explaining it was proposed only in 1905 by the work of Albert Einstein. Einstein set forth two postulates or assumptions that formed the basis of his theory.
The first postulate is called "The Principle of Relativity" and shows that motion is always relative. If one were in a rocket traveling somewhere in the universe far from planets, stars, and so forth, how would one determine one's velocity? One cannot measure air speed, since there is not any air! If a meteor passes by, can
a passenger tell whether he is moving or whether he is standing still and it is moving past him? Or perhaps one is traveling backward and the meteor is motionless. But, then, out in space what is backward? or forward, for that matter? What one needs is some fixed point from which to measure one's travel, but unfortunately there is none! Even the earth moves about the sun, which, in turn, moves together with its solar system in its galaxy. The galaxy also moves and so does the cluster of galaxies in which it is found.
So there one is—stuck in space without knowing how fast one is going (or if one is moving at all) or in which direction. But if one could just see some familiar body, such as the planet Saturn, then one could measure movement in relation to it. Of course, knowing how Saturn moves with respect to the earth would, in turn, enable one to figure one's velocity and position relative to the earth. But, then, that is the whole point. Velocity is only relative to other bodies. We know only relative motion (and thus the theory of relativity).
Of course, on earth we measure our movements relative to the earth, and so the principle of relativity of motion poses no problems for us. But there is another fundamental postulate of Einstein's special theory of relativity.
The Speed of Light—
A Fundamental Constant
The second postulate of relativity states that the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant, independent of the source and the observer. To understand what this means, let us look at a common situation. A boy stands on the street and throws a rubber ball against a wall. Assume that the ball leaves the boy's hand travelling at 20 feet per second. Now the boy puts on roller skates and skates toward the wall at 5 feet per second. At the same time he throws the ball against the wall at 20 feet per second. What is the speed at which the ball moves relative to the wall? Well, it is the sum of 20 and 5, or
25 feet per second. This is because the ball was already moving at 5 feet per second due to the roller skates when the boy added to it another 20 feet per second. Of course, if the boy were skating backward (away from the wall) at 5 feet per second and threw the ball at the wall at 20 feet per second, the speed of the ball relative to the wall would then be only 20 minus 5, or 15 feet per second.
Now apply this to light. The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 186,000 miles per second. But suppose that we are aboard a rocket and that we repeat the ball-throwing experiment with a beam of light. If we could travel in space toward the earth at a speed of 100,000 miles per second and flash a beam of light toward the earth, the light should
reach the earth at 100,000 miles per second, plus the speed of the light beam of
186,000 miles per second, or a total of 286,000 miles per second. Well, when we measure the speed of light from earth we find that, instead of its traveling 286,000 miles per second, it traveled only 186,000 miles per second. Very strange! Even though the rocket was moving at 100,000 miles per second when the light was flashed, the beam of light traveled at the same speed as though the rocket were standing still!
To show how unusual this is, suppose that the rocket were turned around and could travel away from the earth at the record speed of 185,000 miles per second. We then flash our light back at the earth. Now, remember, the rocket is leaving the earth at 185,000 miles per second, and the light is leaving the rocket, traveling toward the earth at 186,000 miles per second. Logic would indicate that the light would travel at a speed relative to the earth of 186,000 minus 185,000 miles per second, or 1,000 miles per second. But it does not! Observers on earth still would measure the speed of the light reaching them at 186,000 miles per second. This means that the speed of light is always a constant 185,000 miles per second regardless of how fast or slow the source of light and the observer move toward or away from each other. This is a remarkable phenomenon, one of the created natural laws of the universe.
The speed of light is remarkable in another respect. As far as scientists are able to detect, it is an upper limit to all speeds.
Hence, their view is that no material body can go faster than the speed of light. However, scientists do not consider the spirit realm in which unknown laws may allow for spirit creatures to travel faster than man can presently envisage.
Particles (especially small ones) can be accelerated to approach the speed of light, but none have been able to equal the speed of light! But when the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, strange things are thought to happen. But why do scientists think these strange things happen? Because they have made deductions from the two postulates of relativity by mathematical means. And they believe that various experiments, such as accelerating small particles to approach the speed of light, have proved the truth of many of the strange conclusions about relativity.
Space Contraction
Let us set up a situation with two friends to show what is thought to happen when objects begin moving close to the speed of light. Let Manny be stationed at some place on the earth while his friend Nick travels to and fro in a rocket so that Manny can make some measurements. Now Nick takes a yardstick with
him on his rocket and as he passes Manny traveling at a speed close to the speed of light, Manny reaches up and measures Nick's yardstick. Normally, of course, Manny would measure Nick's yardstick to be 3 feet exactly. However, this time Manny finds that Nick's yardstick measures less than 3 feet. In fact, the rocket
and everything in it seems to be shrinking, and the faster the rocket travels relative to some observer, the more everything shrinks when measured by the observer in the direction of travel. Thus nothing gets shorter vertically, or narrower, but everything is contracting in the direction of travel. This phenomenon is known as space contraction. So we can see that length is not thought to be absolute, but depends on the motion of an object relative to an observer. An object has maximum length when at rest with respect to an observer.
You may ask why you have never noticed any such contraction before. Although it is thought that there is a contraction when one object moves relative to another, yet the changes are said to become appreciable only when the relative velocity approaches around 40 percent of the speed of light. To accelerate any object to that speed is a formidable task! Normally only atomic particles travel that fast, and even that requires considerable energy. Then again, how would you measure the length of any object moving by you at approximately 150,000 miles per second? Clearly, then, objects moving at speeds to which we are accustomed exhibit the theorized space contraction to such a small degree as to be unmeasurable.
Time Dilation
We have been accustomed to consider time as an absolute quantity. We assume that if we preset two clocks to the same
time (and assuming that they operate accurately) they will both read the same time under all circumstances. It sounds logical, does it not? But logic can sometimes be misleading.
Let's return to Manny and Nick. They preset their clocks to the same time before Nick stepped into his rocket. Then he roared by Manny at a speed close to the speed of light.
Just as he passed Manny standing on the
ground he held up the face of the clock to the window for Manny to see what time it was. What do you think Manny found? His own clock showed that one hour had passed but
he saw Nick's clock indicated the passing of only 30 minutes! In other words, it is theorized that, to an observer, time in a moving object goes more slowly. Thus time in a moving system is seen to be dilated or slowed down relative to a fixed observer, a phenomenon called time dilation. That does sound weird, does it not?
Of course, it is thought that, not only clocks slow down, but all processes—biological, atomic, and so forth. Then why have you not noticed this in airplane flights? Again the difference is so small for velocities not at least 40 percent of the speed of light, that it is impossible to measure. For example, for an airplane flying at 750 miles per hour, the time dilation for an interval of one second on a fixed clock would be about one millionth of a millionth of a second on the moving clock—too small to even think of measuring.
Mass Change Due to Relative Motion
lose some of his mass as well. By now, however, we should have learned not to rely on logic when discussing the theory of relativity. Logic is based on known information and
You may have wondered, when we discussed the theory of space contraction, what was happening to a person's mass while he was shrinking. So let's look at the theorized change in a person's mass when moving at a high speed relative to a fixed observer. It may seem logical to think that as a person shrinks in the direction of travel when his length is measured by a fixed observer, he should also
is of limited value when applied to the unfamiliar universe.
It is thought that as the speed of an object approaches the speed of light its mass increases. This mass increase is said to have been observed with experiments. According to an experiment, when a small particle of matter is accelerated to 86 percent of the speed of light, it weighs twice as much as it does when it is at rest. Thus it is theorized that if we weighed a baby elephant at 500 pounds on the ground, and then flew him by an observer at a speed of 161,000 miles per second, the observer would note the weight of the baby elephant had increased to 1,000 pounds!
At higher speeds the mass increase would be greater yet, according to the theory.
Of course, the elephant does not get larger. In fact, he gets shorter if he is facing the front of the rocket! Thus an object is thought to become more dense when moving relative to another stationary observer. There is no need, however, to worry about gaining weight when out for a drive in the family car; you will never notice the difference.
So, according to the theory of relativity, the speed of light is absolute, and space, time and mass are relative and depend upon the motion of an observer. As man progresses in scientific knowledge, he will no doubt discover more to shed light on the laws that govern the universe. And as The World Book Encyclopedia points out: "New theories may eventually show limitations of the relativity theory and deal with problems that the relativity theory does not cover."
Deprives Parents of Rights
WHAT are the rights of parents who are Christians? Among other things they include the right to teach their children about God their Creator and about Jesus Christ their Savior, and to train them in harmony with the principles of righteousness and neighbor love as found in the Bible. Western nations generally grant these rights, and especially would one expect a nation professing to be Christian, such as the United States, to grant these rights.
sectarian medical opinion is that blood transfusions are necessary in certain cases to save lives, and, in fact, do save lives."
Is the Court's Decision Just?
While thus ruling against the rights of Christian parents, the court also stated: "It need only be added that our case . . . does not involve any of the rights of parents to train . . . their children in religious matters." But is it consistent and just to subscribe to such a principle and
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