You allow your columnists to write whatever they feel, including attacks on Christians and theists who believe in some kind of higher power, however you provide no chance for rebuttal. As a source of information for the bulk of campus, I find it appalling that the Nexus doesn’t stick to the most basic of journalistic standards, which is to give all sides of an argument a fair and equal representation. All you allow for is a very rare and occasional religious article.
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[/media-credit] If you feel that you are a fair news source, then I say stop running these one-sided articles and provide some kind of debate rather than an unchallenged bashing on the faith of a significant portion of your readers. I know many of my Christian friends refuse to read your paper for no other reason than the fact that you have a weekly, or even bi-weekly, article which is focused entirely on proclaiming the silliness, foolishness or ridiculous nature of our belief system.
I am all for free speech, but if you want to be anything better than Fox News, which only presents the news that the hosts empathize with, rather than allowing all sides to voice their opinion, then create an article which allows both atheists and theists to answer your weekly questions. Rather than a one-sided assault, create a forum for discussion. You allow Republicans and Democrats to debate an issue from both sides, so why do you not allow for that same kind of forum when it comes to religion?
While the Nexus has a rather elevated reputation, due to recent issues, I feel it has reduced itself to only a bathroom read with weekly articles on sex and near daily opinions on marijuana — which, to be frank, have just gotten repetitive. Can’t you be more original? Here’s a thought: Stop publishing the same stoner rag every week.
Our campus has a terribly low voter turnout rate and is incredibly uninformed on both world news and county and local politics. When I look in a daily newspaper, I want to see articles that have true journalistic integrity and are concerned with actual news about the world around us. The closest thing I’ve seen to world news in the Nexus was the recent articles on the uprisings in Egypt. But even the coverage of Egypt only received two pages. While that is a large step forward, on Feb. 4, the only column that didn’t involve this campus was one small article about Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney coming to the Reagan Ranch. That is not news but a lazy excuse for an article.
Provide me with real news, hard hitting articles that require at least a little investigation. Give Christians and theists a fair chance to defend themselves. Give us a chance to say how we feel rather than let atheists give their uneducated opinion on how our belief system works, which is the equivalent of allowing an English major critique quantum mechanics. I challenge you to stop your decline and turn around, to write articles that are fair, balanced and without one-sided slander.
Wow, this is really very progressive of the Nexus to be willing to print something like this, and I’m glad they’re willing to put this piece in their paper. I feel like the opinions of this group are largely under-represented and misunderstood, and it’s good someone is finally speaking out. It’s eye-opening, to say the least, to be able to hear from the mentally challenged around our local area. I knew that there were campus support groups, but I’ve not been able to hear from one of them until now. It’s good to see the mentally handicapped are being given… Read more »
Replace “mentally challenged/handicapped” with “sociology majors” and you’re pretty much spot-on.
Replace “sociology majors” with “students” and you’re pretty much spot-on.
On the one hand, I agree that the religion articles in the Nexus have been problematic. I’m a Christian, but I was perhaps most offended by the recent (and I hope satirical) column on paganism. This is CA, there are earnest pagans, university is for learning about people’s faiths, not mocking them. On the other hand, I have to call out the letter writer on saying we have low voter turnout. Actually UCSB voter turn out is high. Between the AS efforts and the organized Campus Dems, UCSB had the highest university turnout in the country. For reference I suggest… Read more »
It is called the opinion page for a reason. It consists of opinions, not news and it is therefore not governed by the same journalistic standards as news. Got it? Good. Now go pray for forgiveness to whatever higher power you put stock in for your angry albeit uninformed opinion.
Way to be close minded. Nothing like selling yourself down river with an attacking, unintelligent comment such as, “Now go pray for forgiveness to whatever higher power you put stock in for your angry albeit uninformed opinion.” Really?
Never before, in the entirety of my existence, have I been so turned on. The writer of this letter is a man of passion, elegance, and raw testosterone-filled badassery. I say “HAZAH!” to him. He reads this news paper and recognizes the flaws throughout, and based on observation and deep thought, recommends ways for the paper to even itself out and become a “forum for discussion”. This is a man who knows what he wants from his paper. When he wakes from slumber every morning and makes his daily voyage to present his sacrifice to the porcelain god, he’s going… Read more »
Oh please, get over yourself. This is pathetic. I am so unbelievably sick of the religious playing the victim – “We’re being oppressed!” “Our views aren’t given equal airtime!” “Atheists are attacking my beliefs and I’m all alone with no one / nowhere to turn to!” A quick search on OSL’s website for religious student organizations yields 27 unique results. And how many secular student groups exist on campus? Just one. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey revealed 76% of American adults (~173,402,000 people) identify as Christians, while atheists account for a mere 0.7% of the population (~1,621,000 people). Moreover,… Read more »
Oh, and before I forget… Regarding your claim that atheists can critique religious belief systems with authority analogous to “allowing an English major [to] critique quantum mechanics,” I call massive bullshit. Most of us came from religious backgrounds, and the Pew US Religious Knowledge Survey concludes the following: “Atheists and agnostics … are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions” (src: http://pewforum.org/other-beliefs-and-practices/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey.aspx). Seems like we tend to know more than you do. I must admit,… Read more »
Oh, good! Tyler learned how to use Google!
I really wish that the comments above would put wit and sarcasm aside and actually consider what the point of Alex’s response was. There is a difference between reporting and commentary and what Alex was trying to say, as it seems to me, that recent articles on religion have been more of commentary – full of wit and sarcasm that do little but annoy those that it doesn’t amuse. I think that fair reporting on all religions or lack thereof from an informational standpoint are perfectly fine and extremely interesting, but often, in a college atmosphere, people decide that putting… Read more »
I cant help but disagree with you. The articles themselves are an invitation to dialogue. If Christians like Alex are responding by huffing and puffing about how offended they are by what atheists write in their own column and prefer to boycott a free campus wide newspaper, then they have failed to RSVP to the challenge. And every week there is a new opportunity for them to respond to the comments, and every week they prefer to ignore it. “people decide that putting people down is a more worthy pursuit than knowledge and awareness of others’ opinions.” -what if my… Read more »