Evolution & Aquinas

Sir: Re your excellent review of The Phenomenon of Man by the late Father Teilhard de Chardin [Dec. 14], it is interesting that this perceptive priest has restated so clearly a number of old ideas: 1) His concept of a "thinking envelope" or"noosphere" surrounding the earth, 2) the evolution of consciousness culminating in self-awareness, 3) the apparent plurality but fundamental unity of everything in a universe held together by an inexorably harmonious binding force (love).

For some years, I, as well as others, have been writing and speaking on precisely these matters--attempting to show that every individual and, in fact, every atom are rooted in a Perfect Infinity or God-consciousness beyond the range of space and time. The Church would do well to adapt to these realities and thereby strengthen its position as a true gateway to the God-source.

JAMES CRENSHAW

Los Angeles Herald-Express Los Angeles

Sir:

It is unfortunate that Father Teilhard neglects consideration of the Creation, when physical science continually demonstrates the Creator's hand. The intricate organization of matter 'and energy that physical science has shown to exist is proof enough that this organization was created. The unanswered question is "Why?"

JOHN WARD SMITH

Laramie, Wyo.

Sir:

It is true that friends and opponents alike may find it hard to understand that Teilhard's conception of evolution is not in disagreement with the traditional Roman Catholic outlook. But this comes from a misunderstanding that could have most unfortunate consequences.

Teilhard, drawing both from his scientific experience and from the mystical vision of his faith, reached the conviction that Christianity, and Christianity alone, in its Catholic form could save the modern world from intellectual despair by revealing the full spiritualizing significance of our scientific and technical endeavors. To accomplish this, communications had to be re-established between the two distinct worlds of science and of the Church. A breach between them has not always existed. In the days of Aquinas, for instance, science and religion were not yet alienated. But since then, a gradual process has drawn them apart. Teilhard has attempted to reverse this movement. And he has succeeded.

I am a Christian and a neurophysician. I hold Teilhard's opinions to be confirmed in my own field of research. I am particularly aware of the kinship of Teilhard's scientific views and of the philosophy of Aquinas.

PAUL CHAUCHARD* Paris

The Miracle Worker

Sir:

Your Dec. 21 profile of Anne Bancroft caught much of the charm of her impetuosity. Indeed, when the theater's elite gathered to celebrate her triumph at the opening night party for The Miracle Worker, many were not surprised to find her completely absorbed singing and playing "Clap Hands" with young girls of the cast, some of whom are blind.

CLARENCE E. HOUSMAN

Brooklyn

A Real Daisy

Sir:

Nobody who has seen Pull My Daisy by Jack Kerouac [with Beat Poets Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Peter Orlovsky in the cast] can agree with the distorted impression you have given of it in your Dec. 14 issue. You have completely neglected to mention that Putt My Daisy is an attempt at spontaneous movie making and does not pretend to be anything else. You attempt to compare it to a home movie because the narrator speaks for the characters; yet even your obvious attempt to make Kerouac's prose seem humorous cannot dim its haunting poetic quality,

IVARS LAUERSONS

New York City

Sir:

The fact that these delinquents and the ideas they represent are not only not laughed off the face of the earth but are supported by certain more respectable persons is an indictment of present-day American culture.

H. MEYERS Rome

How to Save the Railroads

Sir:

I was startled to read in your issue of Dec. 14 a direct quotation attributed to me, which, while accurate in itself, when taken out of the fabric of the discussion in which it was made, gave a completely inaccurate impression of my position on the question of federal subsidies for commuter railroads.

In a story covering the recent Denver meeting of mayors and railroad presidents, I was quoted: "I'd rather see a subsidy than to see our major cities strangled in the face of dwindling fares and high taxes."

My position against such subsidy is so well known that this quotation gives the impression that I have now reversed my often stated stand against federal handouts to commuter lines.

I told the assembled mayors that it was up to New Jersey and other eastern states, now taxing the railroad commuter lines out of existence, to put their own houses in order before asking for federal assistance for commutation services. This would mean cleaning up their present confiscatory taxing policies and modernizing their regulatory philosophies.

I said that until such action was taken on the state and local level, there was no reason for the citizens of such states as Colorado, Utah and Kansas to subsidize the well-to-do residents of the eastern commuter areas. Even though my railroad would benefit by these subsidies, I would be the last citizen in the land to recommend inequitable treatment for the nation's taxpayers.

A. E. PERLMAN President

New York Central System New York City

Playola

Sir:

Re your Dec. 14 article "Brass Island": if ever the TV and the record industry should investigate the Pentagon high brass guesting under the auspices of Martin Co., they should label it playola.

HERB E. JENNEMANN Hollywood

Best--or Bad? Sir: In regard to your Dec. 21 magazine: I am pleased to read the story on Artist Henry Koerner. I too am convinced that H. K. "is one of the nation's best living painters."

DONG KINGMAN* New York City

Sir: Although I have admired Henry Koerner's TIME covers, I was disappointed in his paintings. Ugliness is never beautiful. Nor should -- Whose own painting has been reproduced in color in TIME (May 28, 1951, and Dec. 8, 1952). content ("the basic human condition, especially in America") ever be a criterion for artistic vision and expression of an individual.

GEORGIANA CHAPPELL Chesterton, Ind.

Sir:

How can an otherwise sane and balanced TIME pontificate that Henry Koerner "is one of the nation's best living painters"? Lost in a washed-out pink and blue world, Koerner is something between a Madison Avenue slick-magazine treatment and Salvador Dali, and that is a mighty bad place of residence for an artist.

MERLE ARMITAGE Yucca Valley, Calif.

Freedom v. License

Sir:

Re your Dec. 21 article on the "Pope and the Press": It is too bad that many Americans have the wrong notion of freedom and liberty. Freedom is not license. Freedom accepts responsibilities; license ignores them. Pope John is attempting to preserve freedom of the press by helping to prevent its reversal into license of the press.

TONY CHESSICK Notre Dame, Ind.

Statements about India

Sir:

Congratulations to Artist Boris Chaliapin on his cover for your Dec. 14 edition. Nehru in pensive mood, with the Himalayas in the background and the symbolic red dragon of China on the rampage, exactly depicts the situation.

COLIN CLARK Sydney, Australia

Sir:

You quoted Nehru's daughter's observation: "No statement about India is wholly true."

She might well have added, "including this one."

ROBERT L. TEBEAU Huntington, N.Y.

Sir:

Your sermon on India proves once again that Indira Gandhi is correct in her observation.

C. A. ISAAC

London

Sir:

Your brilliant Nehru cover story, I am sure, will lead Indira Gandhi to at least reconsider, if not change, her statement. PARVEZ HASAN Lahore, Pakistan

Could He Ask For More?

Sir:

Thank you for your Dec. 21 review of my Civil War novel, Theirs Be the Guilt. I am sorry you do not like "molasses," but I do not believe there could be "smiling Negroes" on a Southern plantation without plenty of that delectable. Sorry, too, that you do not like my "Lanny Budd" device for presenting history. I can only assure you that millions of people all over the world do love my Lanny. It is enough for a historian to ask of any reviewer to admit that "Most of the speeches and conversations of the great sound authentic . . . All the arguments in America's great debate are in the book."

Ask your readers if I could ask more.

UPTON SINCLAIR Buckeye, Ariz.

* Director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne). Professor of Psychophysiology at the Ecole des Psychologues Praticiens (Institut Catholique, Paris).

* Whose own painting has been reproduced in color in TIME ( May 28, 1951, and Dec. 8, 1952).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.