Dear Editor:

There are a variety of reasons people have for believing and disbelieving in God. When talking about God in the Christian sense of the word, there is one reason that stands out in my eyes as a reason for disbelief.

Hell.

In a column last week for the Stater, Vanessa Opoku claimed that “God is not here to condemn you, but to save all of us. I mean all of us.”

I find that hard to believe considering God’s track record.

Every Sunday, and all throughout the Bible, God is touted as full of nothing but compassion, love and mercy. Yet every single person in the world who decides to believe in something other than the divinity of Jesus Christ “will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

Now, maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me like sending the roughly two-thirds of people in our world who don’t believe in an eternal hell for ideas they formed in one lifetime isn’t all that merciful.

Many people will argue that it was the person’s own fault they went to hell. Yet, what about people who never hear about Christ? What about the Buddhist who leads a life devoted to helping others? Why is he sent to hell, while the serial rapist who accepts Jesus on his deathbed gets to hang out with God for the rest of time? More importantly, God created us, and in his omnipotence, knew that many of us would end up in hell. Would you have children if you knew they’d just end up suffering for eternity?

Others will argue that we just have to have faith in God and his wisdom. To me, this is like an old friend throwing my grandmother down a flight of stairs, and then telling me to trust that it was happening for a good reason. Also, please feel free to enlighten me as to what God’s good reason is for miscarriages.

Personally, even if the Christian God does exist, and you could prove it to me, I still wouldn’t worship him. Anyone who has read the Old Testament for more than 10 minutes can see that God is more of a tyrant than a saint.

More importantly, if I have even the slightest chance of spending an eternity in a “lake of fire,” then I’d rather this loving, merciful, savior of a God never gave me life in the first place.

Matthew Wayman

Sophomore biology major

Dear Editor:

By the age of 50, 80 percent of women will have acquired it, many who are college students. It has many strands, but the “high-risk” types cause cervical cancer, which is deadly. In fact, more than 3,700 women will die from cervical cancer this year.

It is the human papillomavirus, the most common STD that 20 million people are living with. You may have not heard much about it. You may also not know that there is a vaccine, Gardasil, which can prevent the most dangerous forms of this disease, preventing cervical cancer. It is available to anyone who can afford to pay for it.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that many people cannot afford it. For the full series of shots, it can cost around $450.

Kent State’s Student Health Insurance Plan does not currently cover it but is considering doing so for the upcoming school year. They need to hear from students. It will not get covered if there is no interest.

You can have a say in this. Please contact the University Health Services at (330) 672-2443, and tell them you want the HPV vaccine covered by student health insurance in 2008-2009.

For more information, log onto http://www.uhs.kent.edu and visit the Women’s Clinic page.

Melissa Jenkins