By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Added: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:00:00 UTC

Reposted from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/opinion/l05kristof.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Published: December 5, 2006
To the Editor:

Re "A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion," by Nicholas D.
Kristof (column, Dec. 3):

Contrary to Mr. Kristof's opinion, it isn't "intolerant" or
"fundamentalist" to point out that there is no good reason to
believe that one of our books was dictated by an omniscient deity.

Half of the American population believes that the universe is 6,000
years old. They are wrong about this. Declaring them so is not
"irreligious intolerance." It is intellectual honesty.

Given the astounding number of galaxies and potential worlds arrayed
overhead, the complexities of life on earth and the advances in our
ethical discourse over the last 2,000 years, the world's religions
offer a view of reality that is now so utterly impoverished as to
scarcely constitute a view of reality at all.

This is a fact that can be argued for from a dozen sides, as Richard
Dawkins and I have recently done in our books. Calling our efforts
"mean" overlooks our genuine concern for the future of civilization.

And it's not much of a counterargument either.

Sam Harris
New York, Dec. 3, 2006
The writer is the author of "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a
Christian Nation."

•

To the Editor:

Nicholas D. Kristof is one of many commentators to find the tone of
the newly resurgent atheism "obnoxious" or "mean."

Ubiquitous as they are, such epithets are not borne out by an
objective reading of the works he cites: Sam Harris's "Letter to a
Christian Nation," my own "God Delusion" and
www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com (I had not been aware of this splendid
Web site; thank you, Mr. Kristof).

I have scanned all three atheist sources carefully for polemic, and
my honest judgment is that they are gentle by the standards of normal
political commentary, say, or the standards of theater and arts critics.

Mr. Kristof has simply become acclimatized to the convention that you
can criticize anything else but you mustn't criticize religion. Ears
calibrated to this norm will hear gentle criticism of religion as
intemperate, and robust criticism as obnoxious. Without wishing to
offend, I want "The God Delusion" to raise our consciousness of
this weird double standard.

How did religion acquire its extraordinary immunity against normal
levels of criticism?

Richard Dawkins
Oxford, England, Dec. 4, 2006

•

To the Editor:

To Nicholas D. Kristof, all I can say is thank you.

Science and engineering provide the technical means, but religion
(and morality in general) acts as the governor of the will. These are
the tools of mankind, and the proper tool should be applied to the
correct questions.

One without the balance of the other would result in the collapse of
civil society; you can see it in human history when one took control
exclusive of the other: the Dark Ages, the Middle East, fascism,
Communism, eugenics.

Larry Louie
Plano, Tex., Dec. 3, 2006

•

To the Editor:

My clinical observations on the role that people's various notions
of God play in their lives support many of Nicholas D. Kristof's
observations.

There are those whose ideas of God provide for them useful
experiences of comfort, structure, authority and inspiration. There
are others who are ostensibly atheist but on deeper psychological
scrutiny are revealed to be similarly committed to constructs endowed
with magical power, now labeled as rationality, nature and so on.

Then there are those whose emotional and intellectual needs do not
incline them toward supernatural considerations.

Harvey J. Schwartz, M.D.
Philadelphia, Dec. 3, 2006
The writer is a psychoanalyst.

•

To the Editor:

Nicholas D. Kristof points out that atheists like Mao and Stalin
committed atrocities. But their atrocities were not committed in the
name of atheism, whereas atrocities committed by organized religious
groups were committed in the names of their religions.

This is a rather important distinction.

Paul R. Waldman
Tarrytown, N.Y., Dec. 3, 2006

TAGGED: ATHEISM, COMMENTARY