Your Published Letters

Your Nov/Dec '06 Published Letters

From the December 28, 2006 edition of The Other Paper (Columbus).

Columbus looks unenlightened

Todd Baker is absolutely correct that Columbus's lack of public-access TV is shameful (Letters, Dec. 21). Such disregard for public discussion makes the city look narrow-minded, smug and even un-American.

By placing the right to free speech at the beginning of the Bill of Rights, the founders of the U.S. gave the highest priority to an open marketplace of ideas.

The founders also believed that the public sector is responsible for ensuring the availability of forums where all voices can be heard. That's why the government provided massive, content-neutral postal and printing subsidies to support free speech throughout the first half of the 19th century.

Because public-access TV is an excellent forum for the public discussion that the founders advocated, numerous American cities fund it. By refusing to do so, Columbus looks far less patriotic and enlightened than they do.

Joseph C. Sommer

From the December 23, 2006, edition of the Anniston Star:

No mention of God

The letter states that our nation was "founded on faith in God." But those who were present during our nation's founding were distressed that it was not.

In 1787 and 1788, the Constitution, which made no reference to God, Christ or Christianity, was attacked by its detractors as a deist conspiracy to overthrow the Christian commonwealth. A pamphleteer Aristocrotis contended that the delegates in Philadelphia created a government that for the first time in world history removes religion from public life.

Many witnesses to the formation of the United States, including a delegate to the Connecticut Ratifying Convention, William Williams, were appalled that the document did not requisition divine guidance or vow to build a Godly nation. In fact, it did not even mention God. It especially grieved Williams that the Constitution did not demand a religious test for office holders that required "an explicit acknowledgment of the being of God, his perfections and his providence."

In 1812, Timothy Dwight, Yale University president and congregational minister, lamented, "We framed the Constitution without any acknowledgment of God; without any recognition of His mercies to us as a people, of His government, or even of His existence."

David N. Miles
Orange Beach

From the December 15, 2006, edition of the Montgomery Advertiser:

Disproving not fruitful

In her Dec. 1 letter, "Belief creates conflicted choices," Sherry Garner states, "I don't think you can say that something doesn't exist merely because many of us don't yet have the correct tools to accurately measure the phenomenon." This is a rephrasing of "You can't prove that God doesn't exist." The logical response, "Prove the tooth fairy doesn't exist and I'll apply the same argument to the nonexistence of God."

It cannot be proven that something that doesn't exist doesn't exist, be it the tooth fairy, a green unicorn, the Easter bunny, Quetzalcoatl or any god. The onus is on the person claiming that something is fact to provide empirical evidence for the truth of the proposition. If we had to devote our intellect to disproving every unsubstantiated fantasy that pops into existence, the halls of knowledge would be empty.

I question why it is more virtuous to rely on faith (belief that is not based on proof) rather than knowledge which is based on empirical evidence.

As for Carl Sagan, who Sherry Garner implies is now residing in a rather unpleasant place, it seems cruel and irrational that her God is persecuting Carl because he wanted to know rather than believe.

David N. Miles
Orange Beach

From the December 8, 2006, edition of the Washington Times:

'Apples, oranges and schools'

Terence Jeffrey's comparison of private and public schools ("Bad apples and public schools", Commentary, Dec. 6) is faulty, like comparing apples and pineapples. Faith-based private schools have an advantage over public schools in that they are selective in various ways while public schools must accept all children. As surveys of Catholic schools, the largest nonpublic system, show, Catholic schools serve fewer minority children, and serve, on average, children from more affluent, well educated and intact families.

As for money, as public schools serve all children, including many with handicaps and poverty related problems, they need more money. Yet public funds are distributed very unevenly in many states.

As for school vouchers, they have been on the ballot in 25 statewide referendums from coast to coast and have been rejected by millions of voters by an average of two to one.

Edd Doerr, President
Americans for Religious Liberty
Silver Spring, MD

From the December 1, 2006, edition of the Charleston Post and Courier:

Board and prayer

I agree with new school board member Arthur Ravenel Jr. when he says, "If any political entity needs help, it's the Charleston County School Board." I certainly hope the board will find ways to improve the quality of public education in Charleston County.

However, I disagree with Mr. Ravenel's proposed solution: To begin school board meetings with a prayer. When acting as private citizens, school board members and teachers are free to pray or not pray as they see fit. But government officials acting in an official role must not use the power of government to promote or endorse particular religious views.

Mr. Ravenel, unlike me, is a Christian. I don't believe that Jesus (or anyone else) is Lord. However, I do find wisdom in many passages attributed to Jesus.

Here is one of my favorites, which perhaps shows that leaders a couple thousand years ago may not have been much different from some of our leaders today:

"When you pray, be not as the hypocrites who love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. When you pray, enter into the closet, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret." (Matthew 6: 5-6)

Herb Silverman
19 Wraggborough Lane

From the December 2006 edition of More Than A Paycheck:

The era of Empire is coming to an end, one way or another, because for human beings great concentrations of power are self destructive. We need egalitarian democratic culture, what David C. Korten (The Great Turning ) calls "Earth Community", to survive.

Where Korten goes wrong is in basing his "new story" on goofy New Age spirituality. Ambiguous obscure concepts don't work for teaching cooperation and shared responsibility. Esoteric ideas give the upper hand to con artists and charlatans. He says, "Earth Community enjoys the ultimate advantage, because the natural human drive - if not blocked - is to grow in capacity and understanding and to connect with ever expanding circles of life. Political extremists must engage in manipulation and deception to thwart this natural impulse". (p.330).

To the contrary, the natural human tendency probably is to form dominance hierarchies as do all other social apes. Manipulation and deception to gain and hold power is the norm, the default condition, where people have not been carefully taught to practice egalitarian democratic principles.

Dale L. Berry
AHA Member
Grants, NM

From the November 29, 2006, edition of the Christian Science Monitor:

Both religious and atheistic ideologies have motivated murder

In his Nov. 21 Opinion piece, "Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history," Dinesh D'Souza claims that the death toll from history's greatest religious wars and persecutions "are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century." But in making this claim, Mr. D'Souza mentions this fact only in passing: "[O]f course population levels were much lower" in earlier times. Yes, they were. The world population didn't reach a half billion until 1650. Today it is more than 6.5 billion. And modern mass murderers aren't limited to the swords and arrows of the past; the 20th century gave us weapons of mass destruction.

Also, D'Souza counts Adolf Hitler as an atheist. But raised a Roman Catholic, Hitler identified himself as Christian all his life and strongly maintained that Providence guided him in his cause. His followers felt likewise. Moreover, Hitler was able to recruit leading members of the German clergy as supporters. Thus traditional religion remains capable of mass murder - a fact of which 9/11 should serve as a reminder.

Fred Edwords
Director of Communications, American Humanist Association
Washington, DC

From the November 27, 2006 edition of the New York Times:

Re: Atheists Agonistes

Just as there are obnoxious Protestant, Catholic, Muslim and other fundamentalists at one end of the spectrum, so, too, are there obnoxious atheists at the other. Those atheists misidentify all religious people as ignorant fundamentalists, disdain all religion, regard Unitarians and agnostics as wusses, and place the promotion of atheism ahead of any other interest. The reality is that there is a vast middle ground of moderate to progressive Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, humanists and others who share a wide spectrum of values: protecting democracy, civil liberties, civil rights, women's rights, the environment, planetary sustainability; working for peace; ending poverty, colonialism, racism, homophobia, the growing gap between rich and poor nationally and globally. It is important that the vast middle keep both extremes at arm's length and work together on what is important to all of us and our children and grandchildren.

Edd Doerr
Silver Spring, Md.
The writer is the immediate past president of the American Humanist Association.

From the November 15, 2006, edition of the Birmingham News:

Christianity more than a slogan

Last Friday's Religion section reported that contention over "Merry Christmas" has begun. As an atheist member of four groups supporting church/state separation, my response to somebody wishing me "Merry Christmas" is a hearty "Merry Christmas."

The expression neither offends me nor these groups anymore than "hello" or "goodbye." The attack on those allegedly crusading against "Merry Christmas" is little more than the right-wing Christian tradition of using scapegoats (communists, homosexuals, secular humanists, religious moderates) to rally support.

I have never been instructed not to use this salutation, and I certainly have never admonished anyone for expressing this sentiment. I question if any of these "persecuted" souls has ever been told, "You can't say that." They are merely mindlessly parroting the falsehoods of Jerry Falwell and his ilk who rely on fear to help line their coffers.

It is a shame zealots have such an intolerance of anyone using "Happy Holidays." It must be an embarrassment to those who believe Christianity is more than a slogan.

David N. Miles
Orange Beach

From the November 12, 2006, edition of the Pensacola News Journal:

To trust, or to think

Chrys Holley ("Our only hope," Letters, Oct. 24) states, "America's only hope: Trust in God!" But it is folly to trust a deity who:

Saddled us with sin because His first humans innocently ate a piece of fruit; sanctioned a cruel human sacrifice in a failed attempt to relieve us of this sin; created a world replete with disease, natural disasters and hungry children; "designed" a savage, predatory system of survival for His animal kingdom; went into a rage, destroying innocent man and beast when people displeased Him; condoned slavery, sexism, intolerance, mass murder, rape and plunder; has allowed humans to burn, torture, fine and imprison in His name; as an act of "love" gave the Nazis "free will," then stood by as they murdered six million Jews; condemns to eternal damnation America's best and brightest, e.g., Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Steven Weinberg, Warren Buffet, because He cannot convince them that He exists; needs governmental help in coaxing us to acknowledge Him; advised our president to wage an ill-conceived war of aggression; can't defeat Satan and evilness; and allows animal and human suffering to persist.

I don't know one reason to trust in God. America's best hope: THINKING!

David N. Miles
Orange Beach, Ala.

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