Religion 'cop-out' to ex-atheist
By SUSAN FOHRMAN
Kansan Staff Writer
Arthur Katz, once a Jew, an atheist, a member of the New Left and a member of a Communist front organization last night testified how he became a Christian.
Previous to finding God, Katz said he had considered religion a concoction designed to substitute for courage. He said it was a "cop-out" for those too weak to face the world.
He said the problem of religion is based on reality versus appearances. Katz described his life as a Jewish young man as a struggle to see where reality stood against the background of false appearances in the world.
Dropping out of high school at 16, Katz called school a training ground designed to fit man into the "conspiracy of life."
Terrible travesty
"It seemed a terrible travesty that so many were content to spend their whole lives making a living-satisfying their own vanity ... I wanted a socially consequential occupation."
Katz said he then became a member of the New Left because the world desperately needed a revolution to change corrupt values and disparities in life.
The draft was Katz's next problem when he was called for duty in the Korean War, a war he termed "the first of the 20th century's absurd wars."
Katz was sent to Germany, something he said was ironic since he was a Jew.
He said he imagined the Germans to be brutes but found they were similar to him. He said Germans had gone "berserk trying to repudiate the system." The Germans, he said, were the
first to realize failures of civilization and were idealistic men seeking a new order that would be an improvement.
Visited camp
On Yom Kippur, one of the Jewish high holidays, Katz said he went to a concentration camp instead of a synagogue.
There he was "treated to a revelation... What does it take to shatter and pierce our shallow understanding?" Katz asked.
It took first hand proximity at the concentration camp to have the horror permeate his soul, he said.
Man fails to grasp God, "because we're utterly shallow and don't understand what God is really like . . . The fact that God is obscured from our sight is our fault."
Later he realized that given the proper circumstances it could have been him shoving bodies during Hitler's regime.
Katz said nothing can alter the condition of the human heart, and explained that an individual be willing to rid himself of vanity and humble himself to find God.
World changer
Katz said he wanted to be a world changer dealing with the "uncorrupted" younger generation.
After serving in the armed forces he went to the University of California and became a history teacher. He discovered the students weren't as innocent and uncorrupted as he had thought.
They, too, were ruled by vanity and greed.
He described the classroom as "a miniature universe." There was no answer in the classroom and, as a result, no answer for the outside world.
He took leave of teaching, still
an atheist, and began a 14-month European trip seeking an answer. He said his pride had been broken, and he was now in a position to hear the "still small voice of God."
God always takes the initiative to seek man, Katz said, adding that God found him. He said he learned from his European travels that the world needs "to have men wash one another's feet."
God found him
By this spirit of humility, the world could be changed.
But Katz said he still tried to avoid accepting religion. While in Jerusalem he met a group of Hebrew Christians who showed him the Old and New Testaments could be reconciled and also showed him the power of God.
Katz said he was still unconvinced because, although he knew it in his mind, he didn't know it in his heart. But he said he was able to receive God when
he knew him to be true and faced him.
As a result Katz said he was able to "cast out the spirit of anxiety and despair through love of God."
He concluded saying men need "courage to die so that they might live."
The speech, held in the Kansas Union Forum Room, was sponsored by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
SUMMER STUDY IN RIO
BRAZIL
AMMER STUDY IN RIO
EIGHT WEEKS JULY-AUGUST 1969
UNIVERSITY COURSES: Brazilian History, Govt., Literature, Anthrop, Econ. Devel., Portuguese, etc.
EXCURSIONS: Bahio, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, etc.
— FACULTY: Harvard, Columbia, M.I.T., N.Y.U.
WORKSHOPS: Cinema, Architecture, Music, Art
ENROLLMENT FEE includes: Air Passage, lodgings, Tuition, Excursions, Workshops=$1220
editions, workshops — $1220
WRITE INTERAMERICAN SUMMER STUDY ASSOC.
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APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: MAY 15, 1969
KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUTE Announces Its 6 Week Summer Session
From June 9 through July 18.
Credit and non-credit courses offered. College level day and evening courses available. For information write:
Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
c/o Admissions
4415 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City, Mo. 6411
or Call LO 1-4852
Chancellor reviews ROTC Friday
The annual review of ROTC cadets and midshipmen by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe will be at 3:45 p.m. Friday in Memorial Stadium.
During the ceremony outstanding military students
18 KANSAN May 7 1969
will be presented awards for their achievements.