Letters: Reflections About Faith and Atheism

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To the Editor:

Re "The Blessings of Atheism" (Sunday Review, Jan. 6):

On Sunday while I was driving, my 9-year-old daughter and I were discussing religion and God. I bluntly told her that I did not believe in any religion or God, angels or the devil, heaven or hell, or a soul or a spirit.

And then she asked, "Then what do you believe in?" I replied, "I believe in humanity and what we do for one another here on earth." Then we got home and I read Susan Jacoby's essay on atheism and her statement that the "atheist is free to concentrate on the fate of this world."

MICHAEL HADJIARGYROU
Old Westbury, N.Y., Jan. 7, 2013

To the Editor:

I have never thought of an atheist as a "bloodless intellectual robot." Most of the atheists whom I talk to are, like Susan Jacoby, people who have rejected religion based on a childhood experience of tragedy befalling a good person.

Tragedy befalls good people every minute of every day, and realistic, mature people of faith understand that whatever God is or does, God is not a puppeteer or a superhero who prevents tragedy.

The world's enduring religions offer much more wisdom and meaning than a child's idea of God as a superhero. As a Presbyterian minister, I often say to self-proclaimed atheists, "Tell me more about the God you don't believe in; I'm pretty sure I don't believe in that God either."

Ms. Jacoby states that atheists "need to demonstrate that atheism is rooted in empathy as well as intellect," but atheism is rooted in neither. A lack of belief in one concept of God is nothing more than that. Ms. Jacoby also presumes that faith in God necessarily includes belief in an afterlife, complete with angels in heaven. Here again, atheism ignores the great diversity of the world's religious traditions.

The church that I serve welcomes all people, including atheists. We are a caring community founded on Jesus' teachings, dedicated to working for a world of justice and peace for all people.

BEVERLY BREWSTER
San Anselmo, Calif., Jan. 7, 2013

To the Editor:

Susan Jacoby, like many atheists, bases her argument on a highly limited concept of God and religion. She states that "all people of faith" believe in "an all-powerful, all-good God." What a narrow view of religion for a self-described freethinker to adopt!

As a religious liberal, I find no comfort in the concept of an omnipotent God personally intervening in the lives of mortals. But I do find meaning in less concrete concepts of God — as the power underlying human goodness and creativity, as the force that dwells in the close relationship between two people, as the "still, small voice" within us — even as I continue to struggle with these concepts.

Atheists who see a choice between only fundamentalist religion and atheism are looking at the world through much too narrow a lens.

JEFFREY S. SALTZ
Wynnewood, Pa., Jan. 6, 2013

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