From Reg Le Sueur.
THE letter from B Launder (JEP, 20 December) has a certain plausibility about it if we accept the cherry-picked nice references to Jesus, and ignore the less quoted ones; eg:
‘I say unto you, that unto every one that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him. But these mine enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.’ (Luke 19:26-27).
I believe that as an atheist (am I allowed to say that?), it is high time that humanist and moral principles be decoupled from highly improbable beliefs about the existence of the Judaeo-Christian, or indeed any, god and the popular supernatural myths which became accredited to the person of Jesus – if he existed. Values of love and forgiveness pre-date Jesus by centuries. I know this is ‘our’ tradition, but it is increasingly the case that we have to pay lip-service to these strange stories in order to justify behaving towards each other in a civilised, even loving, manner.
In today’s world of increased general education and worldwide communication, these alleged miraculous events are less and less credible to more and more children, and it does them no service to be taught that they cannot be responsible members of society unless they accept lock, stock and barrel primitive myths belonging to another age, and another very small and troublesome middle-eastern country.
Do we really want the baby of humanity to be thrown out with the bathwater of outmoded supernatural beliefs?
This is only a ‘Christian island’ because it was a small outpost of the forcibly Christianised Roman Empire in the early days of the faith. We rightly criticise Islamic extremism for doing the same sort of thing. Double standards?
We can all enjoy the Winter Festival in our own ways, secular, Christian or pagan, without any one trying to preserve an undeserved monopoly. Any faith with blood on its hands (just look at Christian history) can be considered to come under the definition of ‘undeserving’.
La Petella,
Rue des Vignes,
St Peter.
