Editor:
As I read the last few sentences of Chris Yeates’ Oct. 13 column on atheism, all I could do was chuckle. I kept having this vision of John Lennon with chirping technicolored birds flying around him, singing about all the people living life in peace in a perfect little atheist world.
I began pondering all the attempts to create a Godless yet moral society, and again I laughed as I realized what total flops they truly were. I will concede the point that Yeates made in his article, that religious people can be bigoted, warmongering and intolerant. However, I don’t see that atheists have shown themselves to be a whole lot better. Could it be that the problem is not in religion, but in human nature?
I spent time as a missionary in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Seventy percent of the population of the Czech Republic has declared itself to be atheist. However, it was paradoxically in this environment that I realized that atheism rarely, if ever, truly exists.
Frequently I would speak to a self-proclaimed atheist. “Do you believe in God?” “No. Well, there’s probably something out there, but I just don’t care.” Answers invariably came like this. These people weren’t atheists, they were agnostic. I finally understood.
For most of these people, it’s not that they don’t believe in God. It’s just that they can’t understand him. Religion is an attempt to change people’s view of themselves and the world around them. Admittedly it has led to abuses.
On the same token, I don’t think we can say that atheism has been devoid of problems. In the end, whatever we think will save us and make us happy becomes our god, be it Jesus, or Allah, or philosophy. You see, atheism is a religion too. As for me, my belief in God is the only thing giving me hope for this planet, because, as believers and non-believers in God, we haven’t been doing that great of a job so far.
Chris Rich, Freshman, History