Madam, – John Waters expressed annoyance with what he experienced at the AGM of Atheist Ireland and by Michael Nugent, the meeting’s chairman, in particular (Opinion, July 17th). I was not there, so I cannot comment, but the article also contains very all- embracing assertions about atheism/humanism which are at variance with my experience over 60 years.
Humanism is old. There were humanists before Plato and Aristotle in classical Greece. Lucretius, whom some would describe as the greatest poet of ancient Rome, was an atheist. Giordano Bruno, in renaissance times was also one, and was burned for it. “Heretics” kept quiet if they wanted to survive, right up until the French revolution. The debate is an old one and it won’t go away. And it is not helped by misrepresentation. From his article he appears to think that atheists believe that “life is simple and [is] capable of being grasped through an ideological programme”. I never ever met an atheist who believed that.
Mr Waters has a nuclear physicist friend who shares his world view. But one individual case proves nothing. And there is serious research in the US which indicates that as you ascend the scale of scientific eminence, religious belief diminishes. (Yes, facts again, which are stubborn).
In response to Mr Waters’s final challenge I would be very happy to debate atheism for 10 minutes or much longer, before any audience, without mentioning the Catholic Church. I would be very happy for Mr Waters to put the other side of the case. I promise to be neither snide nor abusive. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – John Waters and Richard Dawkins (Opinion, July 17th and "Blasphemy law a return to middle ages – Dawkins", July 13th) should again read the gentle words of Max Ehrmann's Desiderata, a tract that was very popular in my younger days. Its message can guide one to a placid acceptance of life's vicissitudes. In part it advises, "As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all people. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit." It ends with ". . . in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudger, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy." Both Waters and Dawkins seem driven by a need to hurl abuse at those who spurn or advocate religion.
Like most other atheists that I know, I was not at the AGM of Atheist Ireland. If Mr Waters’s report of that meeting is correct, I would be disconcerted. It is unnecessary for atheists to use offensive means by which to defeat the silly proposal of a new, unnecessary and divisive blasphemy law. Do the framers of that proposal know that phrases such as “Mary, the Holy Mother of God”, and “Jesus, the Son of God” are very blasphemous to most religious people, particularly Muslims? Are such phrases to be forbidden in Ireland?
Mr Waters seems to have been miffed that the meeting chairman Michael Nugent wants Ireland to be free of superstition and supernaturalism. I believe that to be a good aspiration. He also asks where secularism has succeeded.
Would he consider that the secular US, as established in 1787, to be successful? I do. Also France after 1790 when Deism, a “religion” earlier invented by Voltaire, and based on Aristotle’s unknowable “first cause”, and with reason, humanity and justice being the only principles expected from adherents, was to the fore; and where, as is proper in republics, separation of church and state is still maintained. – Yours, etc,