Madam, – With regard to Joseph F Foyle’s letter (July 20th) I should like to make a few points. Not all secularists are necessarily atheists or agnostics. Secularism is merely the assertion that church and state should be separate and this view has been historically held by both believers and unbelievers. Indeed some theists have felt that it would be a benefit to the churches to be separate from the state. Secularism makes no claim about the existence or not of god or of the reality of an afterlife.
As to Mr Foyle’s wish that the media and other organisations should pander to his (and others’) mere superstitions by placing the word “earth” into the phrase “end of life”, this is a nonsense. No solid evidence or compelling argument has ever been advanced to support belief in an afterlife and I fail to see why organisations should have to accommodate such beliefs.
Finally, I wonder what is the utility in using euphemisms such as “end of life” when there is a perfectly good word to describe the event: death. Time to grow up as individuals and face our mortality head on. – Yours, etc,