Madam, - John F. Deane acknowledges "aggressive indifference" to religion in Irish society, and the loss of the religious imagination in the face of emphatic scientific and technological takeovers (Features, January 4th). However, as a scientist I would consider my view of religion neither aggressive nor indifferent.
The locking out of the religious imagination in this country is a symptom of mass disillusionment, and is directly related to the attitude of our priests and our Church. In the past, neither were required to answer for their actions; and when faced with the horrendous nature of some of those actions, they chose silence and ignominy rather admitting that something in the core of a religion which forces celibacy on its chief practitioners is not right. This has fostered a loss of confidence in them as spiritual leaders. That is not an act of aggressive indifference on the part of scientists and technologists.
"Science" and "technology" are abstract terms. But we are people too, - scientists, engineers, doctors and all those who work for the benefit of humanity at its most basic - the physical being. In a way we are making the same journey as the poet: we too seek the truth and we too face indifference and, sometimes, the anger of the public.
But we too work at the front line of humanity, and I don't think there is one of us who does not think of the deeper spiritual meaning of our discoveries - discoveries which force us to question the very nature of life and the meaning of our existence.
Time and time again I have come up against the false dichotomy that science is "bad", religion "good", and one is out to subsume the other. What few people recognise is that both have as their root the seeking of knowledge, understanding and a way of life - the imposition of order on an otherwise insane world.
The best science takes on board the spirituality of religion, just as the best religions accept scientific truths as compatible with long-held beliefs.
People did not stop practising religion when Galileo found the earth not to be the centre of the universe. Science cannot be to blame for today's indifference. - Yours, etc.,
Dr EILIS FORAN, Department of Biochemistry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.