Dear Editor,
It is always the decision of an editor as to which letters get used and I understand that. But reading John Abelseth letter extolling the virtues of his misogynist, capricious, and violent man-made god makes so glad to have read the bible in Grade 5 which sent me down the road to becoming an atheist.
I’d love to show believers the origins of their holy book right back to the plagiarisms by the early Israelites of the far older Epic of the Gilgamesh written by the Sumerians. But alas no, that would hurt the feelings of the believers to allow facts that run counter to those wishing to live in a bubble of make believe.
Religious people confuse their freedom to believe in which ever man-made god(s) which they follow with a right to push their faith with the mistaken certainty that their particular totem is above reproach and must be given deference to the exclusion of all others, including atheists like myself. You see, Mr. Abelseth, while most people are simply born into their faiths, it takes work to become an atheist as we follow the facts to where they led us to.
As for the tone of his letter, he is taking what already exists in our very genetic makeup and giving his god all the credit. Those good qualities he lists our already exist within us. Our earliest ancestors never would have survived had they not known instinctively how to cooperate with each other.
Yes, there is a lot wrong with the world today and much of it can be traced right back to religion. That it was largely white evangelical Christians who put Trump into the Oval Office is an obvious example. There is no difference between the Christian Taliban and the Muslim Taliban except our laws, written by men (and of course, women now) and not based on scriptures written in the age of the ignorance of the men who wrote them who had no knowledge of how the natural world around them worked. Our laws have moved us to a society where human rights and equality could develop. Much of the Muslim world needs to have its own Reformation and Age of Enlightenment.
No doubt, Mr. Abelseth truly finds comfort in what he believes. But just because something brings comfort doesn’t make it real. It is just too bad that secular humanists still aren’t treated on a par with those that still believe in magic, myths, superstitions, and invented stories devoid of facts.
Thoughts and prayers to you, Mr. Abelseth, as we soon will celebrate the annual pagan picnic which was culturally appropriated from the Romans and turned into the birth of Jesus, for whom there isn’t any proof other then one forgery in a scroll written by the Jewish historian in the 1st century that your saviour was even born. Finding an editor to allow me to say what I just did, well, while miracles don’t exist, random chance does although the odds are not in my favour.
Robert T. Rock, Mission City
