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Thursday, October 14, aoio | Thb Red * Buck
Campus has little faith in religion study
By NATHAN SORENSEN
The Red & Black
Questioning your faith? You
may want to ask an atheist for
help.
Atheists, Jews and Mormons
scored the highest averages on a
recent survey concerning
Americans’ religious knowledge,
but the results shouldn’t be taken
as the word of any god, said one
University religion professor.
“You have to ask yourself, is
this really the most appropriate
test for gauging how much people
know about religion in general or
other religions?” said Sandy
Martin, University professor and
head of the religion department.
“Someone who gets the answer
wrong is not totally ignorant of
that religion."
The survey, conducted by the
Pew Research Center, contained a
32-question quiz on the basic
tenets and history of the world's
FAKE: Police stop must be based on ‘specific’ facts
► From Page 1
discovered and what the offender is doing
with it, Greene said.
It's not always illegal to possess a fake ID if
it’s not “being presented as an official state
identification or driver’s license” and the
offender is not “trying to identify themselves”
as someone or an age they are not, according
to Greene.
“If you’re trying to represent yourself as
someone or a different age than you are, it
could fall under obstruction or giving a false
name,” he said.
University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson
said he feels University police officers also use
discretion in charging, but people don’t hear
about it.
The best way to avoid an arrest, however, is
to simply never be approached by police.
According to a 1968 United States Supreme
Court case, Terry v. Ohio, which set the stan
dard for investigative stops, an officer can
legally approach any individual on the street
and begin asking questions.
The court’s opinion from this case goes on
to say the person “may refuse to cooperate
and go on his way.”
However, Williamson said he would not
advise students to do this.
“They may say, ’I don’t want to make any
statement.’ They can do that. That's definitely
within their rights," he said. “But that doesn't
mean that they’re not going to get arrested. I
don’t know if I would advise everybody of
that. If you've done something wrong, maybe
that’s the stance you take. If you haven’t,
answer a few questions and you may be sent
on your way.”
The suspected individual may, however, be
briefly detained if the officer has reasonable
suspicion that a crime is being committed.
This suspicion cannot be based off a hunch,
but rather “specific and articulable facts.”
according to Terry v. Ohio.
“The question bouncing around the down
town area has been is it reasonable suspicion
just because someone appears youthful and
has been drinking.” said Matt Karzen, an
Athens criminal defense attorney. “There’s no
way that's enough, in my opinion.”
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major religions, including
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and
Hinduism.
After administering the survey
to 3,412 Americans, results indi
cate atheists, Jews and Mormons
answered three to four more ques
tions correctly than white evan
gelical Protestants or white
Catholics.
One question on the survey
asked when the Jewish Sabbath
began, for which the correct
answer was Friday. Many partici
pants in the survey probably
answered Saturday, which meant
they were aware and not totally
ignorant of Judaism. Martin said.
On average, Americans
answered 50 percent, or 16, of the
questions correctly.
Atheists and agnostics scored
highest on the survey, with a score
of 20;9 out of 32.
Most atheists have left a reli
gious tradition and studied reli
gions of the world, said Randall
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▲ A cab picks up a group of students
after a late night. An officer might
stop a young drinker seen staggering.
On multiple occasions, University and ACC
police have cited “youthful appearance” as
the reason for stopping suspected underage
drinkers.
Connor and Nicholas Dillon are examples
of two such students who were stopped by an
ACC police officer after legally crossing a
downtown street. According to the report, the
officer “observed two white males with youth
ful appearances, in addition to appearing
intoxicated, stagger across the street.”
In another case, Lauren Danielle Tharp, 20.
was approached by ACC police on Sept. 4
after she was seen “staggering on the side
walk,” according to the report.
Karzen compared these kinds of investiga
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NEWS
Bourquin, chief officer of the
UGAtheists.
“I’ve found that the large
majority of people who are active
ly atheists have often had kind of
a break with a religious past; and
it’s usually a process of inquiry
and investigation lots of read
ing, lots of You Tube videos and
lots of discussions with friends,
and that leads to a more broad
and comprehensive understand
ing of a lot of religious issues,” he
said.
Jewish Americans also scored
high on the test, according to the
survey results.
“Asa Jew, it’s important to
know about the world around us
and take an interest in other reli
gions to help build bridges to
other communities,” said Mami
Bronstein, director of social jus
tice and awareness for Hillel at
UOA.
And of the seven questions
focused on knowledge of the Bible,
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Mormons scored the highest.
Rudy Anderson, president of
the Latter-day Saint Student
Association, said this result was
because of the focus Mormons
place on personal study.
“A big part of our message and
what we teach is finding out for
yourself, and is focused a lot on
study and personal knowledge,”
he said.
The report pointed toward
education as the most determin
ing factor for religious knowledge.
However, education and other
demographic traits were equal,
the report said people who do not
live in the South scored higher
than Southerners.
But for Martin, the results of
the survey should not be taken as
a definitive result of American
religious knowledge.
“Asa matter of principle, a test
or survey is only as good as that
test or survey take it with a
grain of salt,” he said.
tions to questioning someone of a certain
race, on a certain block, at a certain time of
day simply because statistics say they are
probably committing a crime.
Although he wasn’t present for these
arrests, Williamson said he trusts his officers
acted properly.
He also said many stops are made in order
to protect students.
“If we go downtown and stand at 2:30
[a.!n.] and watch people leave, we will all
agree we see a lot of staggering. But there will
be some other people we see that we know are
just way over the top. They’re just bad,” he
said.
“Do we just look the other way and not do
anything and then we wait for them to get
raped or robbed or step out in front of a car?...
Tell me what you think I should Just walk
away from, and I’ll walk away from it. But
don’t hold me accountable for when it goes
bad too.”
Although officers may be trying to protect
students, these stops are - often cited as the
reason charges should be dropped.
After Thomas Hale Avery was arrested and
charged with possession of a fake ID on April
3, 2008, his lawyer submitted a motion to sup
press the evidence because the stop was made
“without a reasonable articulable suspicion of
criminal activity."
Asa result, the motion claimed all evi
dence, including the ID, was not admissible
because it was “the product of an illegal stop,
detention, frisk, search and arrest."
Although the courts never made a formal
decision on this motion, Solicitor-General
Carrol R. Chisholm submitted “amended
accusations" which did not include the fake
ID charges a short time later.
Although Athens has been home to debate
on what constitutes a proper stop, the
Supreme Court defined it pretty simply in its
opinion on Terry v. Ohio.
Anything short of “specific and articulable
facts” which indicate an indiscretion “would
invite intrusions upon constitutionally guar
anteed rights based on nothing more substan
tial than inarticulate hunches, a result this
Court has consistently refused to sanction,"
the opinion reads.
CRIME
NOTEBOOK
Boggs Hall bandit !
Between Oct. 5 and
Oct. 7, S4Q-worth of food
merchandise was nabbed
from a vending machine in
Boggs Hall.
University Police Chief
Jimmy Williamson said the
company that owned the
machine claimed the items
were missing and devel
oped the potential time
frame of the theft.
Douglas Ross, director
of Auxiliary and
Administrative Services at
the University, said vend
ing machine break-ins are
not common, but are not
impossible.
“I’m aware there have
been a few of them on
campus,” he said. “It’s like
the old police saying if
somebody wants to break
into a house, a business or
a vending machine, they’ll
find a way. [The machines]
are certainly designed to
make it difficult, but it
does happen.”
Ross said his depart
ment was cooperating with
University Police and stu
dent judiciary to help
track down any potential
offenders.
“You know you’re steal
ing. This is not an acci
dent. You know you’re per
petrating a crime,” he said.
“This is not something we
just overlook.”
Ross said stealing from
a vending machine was no
different than shoplifting
and said the cost of the
items stolen wasn’t the
only thing an offender
might have to pay for in
the event he or she is
caught.
“If there’s damage
caused to the machine,
that is totaled up and
added to the value of the
theft,” he said.
Harassing phone calls
University student John
Binamira was arrested and
charged with aggravated
stalking on Wednesday
afternoon, according to
the University Police
Department.
Binamira was also
wanted in relation to a
harassing phone call com
plaint. The complaint was
reported by a female stu
dent in Oglethorpe House
Tuesday.
“This female student
has had incidences with
this individual in the past,”
Williamson said. “She’s
filed complaints with us in
the past and he’s been
arrested by us in the past.”
Underage possession
An arrest warrant was
issued for University stu
dent Caroline Wingate on
Tuesday.
Wingate is charged with
underage possession.
“If there’s a warrant
issued it usually means the
person can’t be arrested at
the time," Williamson said.
He said these circum
stances usually involve the
need for medical treat
ment, but he was unable
to comment on the specif
ics of this case.
“I don’t know if she’s
turned herself in or not,”
he said.
Wingate declined com
ment.
Compiled bp
Dallas Duncan
CORRECTIONS
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