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THE SEARCH FOR GOD . onnrwAUGUST 1991 $3.50 THE GREAT WALL OF THE COSMOS •REIN- VENTING RELIGION • MANIPULATING REAL- ITY* DAN QUAYLE'S POWER OVER SCIENCE onnruiAUGUST 1991 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOH: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT; KATHY KEETON EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL GRAPHICS D RECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: PHIL SCOTT ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM 18 First Word Earth : ' Wohieber By Father Andrew Greeley ----- ' r By Curt ~\ 3i The press f Residents periodically trumpets the of trendy Southern California • 1 love imported news of a decline \ Perrier, Evian, or revival in American water: and religion. the like. They 1 deluged with Sociologist and novelist ^\ may soon be Andrew Greeley a different contends that these shifts variety—from Antarctic merely reflect _ icebergs. the relative youth or matura- A , 22 tion of the country's population. Political Science By Tom Dworetzky 8 / Getting the lead out: 1 Dan Quayle's Omnibus The Who's Who / Council on Compeiitiveress lead- of contributing authors kills a recycling bill because the 10 costs outweigh Forum the benefits—saving lives By Murray Cox and the environment. Reason to believe: in spite ~\*- --{-'— 25 of evil, in spite 4—4^**J3 of death, belief in the vari- Continuum ous incarnations Pedaling into the future; a of God continues to thrive. monkey who has knife how to What inspires Where do we fit in the cosmos? a and knows it; benefits people to keep the faith, Can we comprehend universal mysteries? Or are there use the and what happens questions that can only be asked, never of blood-sucking leeches; Alec Hitchins sug- MIT is a funny when it no longer answers answered? This month's cover by S. humans transfixed place—really; the plants all (he questions? gests a perspective: by time, captured and captivated by a cosmic clock. they are a-changin'; 14 This month we ask as well what science radio astronomers request can know of the mind of God, the boundaries of reality. the sounds of (Additional art and photo credits, page 91) silence; and more. — —— onnrui 42 75 The Mind of God Antimatter By A.J. S. Rayl and Seen a UFO? Reach out K. I McKinney and tell Science defines most someone about It aspects of modern for a price: if Henry VIM's wives had life—why the earth doesn't float off into space, watched what why the seasons change, he ate, they might have how fax machines kept their work. But science has al- heads; and more. ways been at a 98 loss to prove the existence of God. As scientific Star Tech technology Techno-tools of tomorrow improves, will God prove 100 less elusive? Computer Games 50 By Jay Kee Tech no- Wizards and The best of both worlds: Couch Potatoes Multiplayer By Kenneth R. Hey games allow contestants Technology to interact with promises us a brave new each other without leaving world.. But their homes. many denizens of that The computer becomes world don't the conduit speak its language: They rather than the opponent, can't program 102 computers or even a VCR. If Games knowledge is power, then By Scot Morris technological Don't drink the drinks illiteracy means oppression. at least not 60 66 the entries in our mixed-up 54 Interview Fiction: Voices drinks contest. Pictorial: Eackdraft By Murray Cox By Jack Dann 104 By Beth Howard The big picture: Author The day the music died: Casualties of war; Sunlight Morris Berman Crocker says Last Word barely reaches doesn't shy away from the he talks to the dead and By D. Patrick Miller the skies above Kuwait, major issues—truth, dares his doubtful Mechanics thick with smoke God, reality, knowledge. May- friend Steve to accompany who needs them? You from the relentlessly be he doesn't have him to a funeral. can fix your burning oil the answers, but he has There Steve finds magic car with some deep ' wells. How long will the formed some dis- and a balm breathing darkness last? turbing, fascinating theories. for his hidden grief. and a little imagination. 34 Great Wall of the Cosmos By Andrew Chaikin Six years ago, two respected astronomers discovered that nearby galaxies fell into a distinct pattern rather than being scattered randomly across space. The revelation of cosmic architecture could answer fundamental questions about the universe's origin. FIRST UUORD KEEPING THE FAITH: Americans hold fast to the Rock of Ages By Father Andrew Greeley Father Andrew cline among Catholics that oc- In the last three decades, be- interpretation of Greeley is curred during the time of the 1968 lief in the literal a professor of birth control encyclical. the Scripture declined among sociology Evidence on the experiences Catholics and then only among especially college-edu- at the University of previous age groups, including younger, of Arizona those who matured during the Six- cated, Catholics. However, this Cath- and a research ties, strongly suggests that change was consistent with associate young people today will be as de- olic teaching that not every word literally inspired. at the National vout in their forties as their par- is Opinion ents. And their parents were as "Mainstream" Protestant denom- Research Cen- "undevout" in their early- twenties inations (particularly the Method- ists) lost members, while Evangel- ter. His latest as are the young today. Just as ical Fundamentalist denomi- novel is An Oc- every young adult thinks he or she and has discovered the pleasures of nations gained membership. sex for the first time in history, so This shift, however, did not involve every twenty-year-old thinks he or a change in doctrinal attitudes she has for the first time discov- among those joining a new reli- ered the pleasures associated gious group. The evidence sug- with rejecting religion. The "re- gests that the denominations from their members Everyone who reads the feature ligious revival," about which I re- moved away articles in the national press ceive a phone call at least once instead pf vice versa. knows there is a decline in Amer- a month, is nothing more than the Three decades ago, about a ican religion. Everyone knows maturation (aging, if you will) of fifth of Americans believed in the that within this' "trend" there have people from the late Sixties and literal inspiration of the Bible; been lesser trends: a "religious re- early Seventies. they were born-again and tried to for vival" in the Fifties, a religious de- Looking at the survey data for persuade others to "decide Je- Ameri- cline in the Sixties and Seventies, the last half century, more than 95 sus." That proportion of and then another revival in the Rea- out of every 100 people believe cans has neither increased nor de- gan, conservative Eighties. in God, three out of four are cer- creased but has always been an When we consider the fluctu- tain about life after death, three important component of Ameri- ating age structure of the popu- out of four believe in the divinity can society. The first great awak- lation and the changes in the Cath- of Jesus Christ, three out of five ening, like the born-again move- olic Church, however, none of believe in hell, two out of five go ment, occurred in 1744. In the these much-heralded phenome- to church once a week (three out 1980's the national media redis- na ever occurred. American reli- of five of those are over forty), covered this religious sect and gion hasn't changed much in the nine out of ten pray every week, aligned these Americans with the last 60 years and it's not likely to one out of two prays every day, Reagan era. shift for the rest of this century. and one out of four prays more All these developments are in- Religious attitudes are reflect- than once a day. teresting and indeed important, signifi- ed within a life cycle: Devotion be- It's true that church attendance but they do not imply any gins to decline in a person's mid- declined in the late Sixties and ear- cant long-term decline—or long- dle teens, reaches bottom in his ly 'Seventies, but this phenome- term increase —in American reli- or her twenties, then begins to non was limited to Catholics and gious belief. pick up again, and reaches a pla- was a result of a reaction to the If American religion hasn't teau when someone reaches his controversy over the Catholic changed, then why do so many or her mid-forties. An analysis Church's rejection of birth control. journalists and academics, who that Michael Hout, chairman of In addition, the decline in church have easy access to the data and the sociology department at the attendance correlates with politi- ought to know better, think that it University of California at cal loyalty; there was only a 6 per- has? Perhaps the answer is that they themselves have for one rea- Berkeley, and I have done dem- cent decline among those who onstrates that the shape of this strongly identified with a political son or another drifted away from age curve has not varied in any party, and a 30 percent decline their religious origins and project age group for the last three dec- among independents, This de- their own experiences on the rest ades, except for a onetime de- cline ended in 1975, of us. DO onnruiBUS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS: Spurred by ageless riddles, our writers plumb the infinite depths of space and mind During the great age of dis- for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mas- erican Dreams focuses on the covery in the fifteenth sachusetts.