When This Issue Went to School

The publishers of Awake! have received many letters expressing appreciation for this special issue of September 22, 1981. Many are reports on the distribution made to high schools and universities in the United States​—a few of which are presented here.

High Schools

We visited all five principals and vice-principals in the Cape Coral area. All thanked us repeatedly for the information and accepted extra copies for their administrative staffs. Eleven of the students who are Jehovah’s Witnesses presented copies to all the teachers. Magazines placed, 123. At one high school eight Witnesses met the students as they left and placed one hundred magazines.

D. M., Florida

We were informed that we could not call on the principals of the Lancaster city schools without the permission of the superintendent of the schools. Soon after we submitted our request, the assistant superintendent called and said that at a meeting that morning it was decided that each principal and science teacher should have a copy. They said that students should be given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether to believe in evolution or creation. He requested 30 copies of the magazine for this purpose. Two weeks later we visited his home. All the teachers had received their copies, and he subscribed to Awake!

D. M., Ohio

Mr. D— referred your request to furnish enough copies of the Awake! special issue for September 22, 1981, for our district staff. We would provide each district teacher with a copy if you deliver 150 copies to our District Office on South Market Avenue in Mount Joy.

Is it all right to duplicate information from the magazines and books? We visited the school superintendent with the special issue of Awake! He and the principal accepted eight copies and two Youth books. They are interested in copying specific articles and chapters for teaching.

J. G., Wisconsin

For this noncommercial use, permission was given to make copies.​—ED.

The science supervisor of the Boise public schools examined the special issue on evolution. He said that they were always looking for material from the creation viewpoint, but that most of it was devoted to defeating evolution rather than providing scientific reasoning for belief in creation. He felt that this Awake! provided such reasoning. After the magazine was considered by a screening committee for the Boise school system, the science supervisor arranged for 40 copies to be distributed to all the science teachers.

S. F., Idaho

Those who made these calls stressed that we were no part of the “scientific creationism” movement, but were providing some fresh information as reference material. This approach was appreciated by the school officials.

E. R., Ohio

We had a one-and-a-half hour discussion with the science adviser of the Montgomery County School Board. He was familiar with our Evolution book and knows teachers who have used it in their classes. He was keenly interested in our position and asked if we believed that creation took place in six literal days​—which did not seem scientific to him. We indicated that those days were more like epochs. He also appreciated what we had to say about everything reproducing ‘according to its kind.’ He feels strongly that there has to be a Creator. He was willing to discuss this Awake! with the rest of the school board, and took 35 copies and two more Evolution books.

G. M., Washington, D.C.

Universities, all in the Washington, D.C., Area

At American University we spoke with the head of the Marine Biology Department for two-and-a-half hours. He believes life on earth is not explainable without a First Cause, God. But he does think God started everything in the beginning​—wound the clock, so to speak—​and then used evolution. He was impressed when we showed him that the creative days were epochs, and that the order of appearance of life as given in Genesis agreed with the order science postulates. He was also intrigued to see that Genesis 1:1 shows that the physical universe existed before the creative days began. We have since called on him again.

In another part of the campus we had a discussion with the chairman of the Department of Religion and Philosophy. The conversation turned to religious organizations that capitulated to evolutionary thought, absorbing it in their theology. He took seven issues of Awake! for the professors in his department, and we are invited back next semester to participate in one of the courses on comparative religion.

Possibly our best results were at Georgetown University. The head of the Theology Department took the Awake! and referred us to another professor who taught “Religion and Science.” We have a commitment to speak for over an hour to one of his classes next semester.

At this same university we talked with the head of the Biology Department. His field is the study of cells. “What was the chance of the first cell developing by chance?” we asked. “Not very likely,” he said. “We don’t even understand all that goes on inside a living cell, it’s so complex.” We next asked: “What probability of the universe getting here by chance?” His answer: “Not much.”

This issue of Awake! has been a powerful instrument for reaching those in these institutions of higher education.

M. R., Washington, D.C.