How entertaining it was to open The State News and find yet another article by John Bice about the absurdity of the Christian faith ("Science relies on confidence, strength of evidence, not faith" SN 1/27). I must commend Bice for being thoughtful in his contributions, but it seems as though he has a definite agenda - to disprove Christianity, largely by citing science. Science aims to learn truth about the physical world, but it cannot disprove the supernatural, which lies outside of its domain.

I would also like to add that Bice has chosen the Roman Catholic and Lutheran doctrine of transubstantiation (which states that during Communion, the bread and wine become the physical body and blood of Christ) to bolster his case for the irrationality of Christianity. However, this doctrine is not biblical and cannot be used to refute the Bible's claims. Catholics and Lutherans might cringe at this, but let me provide my case, so that another argument against Christianity can fall by the wayside.

During his last meal on earth, Jesus broke a piece of bread and said, "This is my body which is for you" (1 Corinthians 11:24). He then followed this by taking a cup of wine and saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:25).

Since Jesus was, for a time, a man in the flesh who spoke to other humans, we shall assume that he is speaking in normal speech, that is, he used idioms and symbolism. By saying the bread was his body, it is the same as a woman pulling a picture of her daughter from her purse and saying, "This is my daughter, Sarah." She obviously is not saying that her daughter has become incarnated in the photograph and that the photo has become real flesh. No, what she's saying is, "This picture represents my daughter." Furthermore, Jesus illustrated that the cup was not his actual blood, but rather represented God's covenant to love and save all people who trusted in his bloody death on the cross as the only way to be restored to a right relationship with God.

The use of transubstantiation as an argument against Christianity will not suffice. I urge all of you reading this, if you have access to a Bible, to read it and determine the validity of Christ for yourself. Start with the gospel of John. I think you might very well be surprised at what you see.

Drew Hall
biological sciences senior