Sir, – Dr Hugh J Masterson (October 17th) writes in relation to the existence of god that “The onus is on the atheist to prove that God does not exist, not on the believer to prove that he does”. He couldn’t be more wrong. The fact that he calls himself a “scientist” simply makes it laughable.
How would one even go about proving the non-existence of something? Scientists put forward theories and back them up with observational empirical evidence. If they didn’t, they’d be dismissed out of hand. What a scientist doesn’t do is to put forward a theory with no supporting evidence saying “prove me wrong”. He also says that he finds “no contradiction between science and faith”; where do creationists fit into this finding?
Michael Nugent (Rite and Reason October 11th) has it spot on when he says, “Every generation we patiently move more explanations from ‘a god did it’ to we ‘now know how it happens naturally’. And we never move explanations in the other direction.”
Dr Masterson also invokes the tired mantra that Albert Einstein was a fellow believer. The following is a quote from a letter Einstein wrote to philosopher Eric Gutkind in 1954, “The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this”. – Yours, etc,