Letters on congressional budget, evolution, Obama, Eagle photographs

Dissolve Congress if it can’t pass budget

One of the most important functions of the Congress is to pass a federal budget each year. Yet for the past several years we have seen gridlock that has resulted in Congress only passing continuing resolutions to keep the government functioning while relying on sequestration to put off the hard choices in determining what needs to be funded.

As if this weren’t bad enough, we have members of Congress who do their best to shut down the government as a means of making a statement, trying to force compliance with one of their pet ideas or gaining notoriety for themselves rather than compromising. Even though the 2013 shutdown cost the U.S. economy an estimated $24 billion, we have congressional members threatening another shutdown if they do not get their way on issues such as Planned Parenthood funding and the Iran deal.

To prevent these occurrences in the future, we need a constitutional amendment stating that if a budget is not prepared and passed by a date certain each year, or if the government goes into shutdown because of a lack of compromise, the Congress as a whole shall be dissolved immediately with new elections to be held within a short period of time, and members of the dissolved Congress will not be eligible for re-election until the next natural election cycle for their district. I believe we would see an immediate improvement in the way the Congress functions.

Explain origin

The writer of “No creation required” (Aug. 29 Letters to the Editor) maintains that creation never happened and that everything always existed without any beginning. He enlisted Richard Dawkins, the famed evolutionist, to support his position. But in an interview with Ben Stein, Dawkins suggested the possibility that a long time ago somewhere in the universe, a superior civilization designed a form of life that it seeded on this planet and that we might find evidence of this designer.

I might begin to consider taking evolution seriously if and when evolutionists explain the origin of the remarkable self-replicating single cell, which some purport is the ancestor of all life on Earth, and if and when all evolutionists finally settle on just one of the myriad of theories that they now espouse.

Science and religion

There’s confusion over the roles of religion and science.

Science is a discipline that works to understand how our world developed and behaves by gathering as many facts as possible and coming up with the best explanation that is consistent with all those facts. That is a theory. As new facts are discovered, theories change to accommodate those if necessary. A theory that is consistent with all known facts is the objective of science – e.g., theory of gravity.

The facts support an Earth that is 4.5 billion years old. Life forms became increasingly complex and diverse as time passed. When we dig into older and older layers of earth, the fossils we find become more primitive, less complex. Charles Darwin knew nothing about DNA, but 133 years after his death, analysis of genetic data confirms his theory of evolution. As the bumper sticker says: “Evolution – It’s why we get a flu shot every year.”

Science is the best tool mankind has to understand the world. What science cannot answer is “why.” It is not equipped to, nor does it try.

Religion addresses “why.” Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What does it all mean?

Proud of Obama

I am so embarrassed for my country. When we put someone like Donald Trump on a pedestal for supposedly representing the values of our country, what can the rest of the world be thinking of us?

I am also embarrassed for Kansas. I was born in Topeka 82 years ago into a very different type of Republican Party family. None of my ancestors is still around to see what has been done to our great state.

I am extremely proud of President Obama. He has included our country, along with several others, in a pact to avoid another Iraq-type war. And what our president has done for this country is amazing. Our economy is up, and many more people now have jobs and finally have health care.

I fear that too many Republican politicians would rather go to war than try to get along with the rest of the world.

Great photographs

I would like The Eagle to know how much I appreciate its photographers. Their photographs are technically excellent and enjoyable to look at. I especially appreciate the pictures in Mike Berry’s weekly Wichita on Wheels articles. I find the backgrounds as interesting as the cars in his pictures. He gives me lots of good ideas to consider when I’m out taking pictures.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Letters on congressional budget, evolution, Obama, Eagle photographs."