In my view, you are being contradictory (From Worcester News)

In my view, you are being contradictory

3:03pm Friday 27th January 2012 in Read

SIR – John E Iebole describes science as “lacking in any ethical and moral compass”

(Worcester News, January 16) yet says that “evolution and experimental science... is the creatorial and gubernatorial work of God”.

That is a rather glaring contradiction.

On his own terms, man’s capacity for reason and logic are God-given.

Essentially, Mr Iebole’s argument is that religionists differ from atheists in their moral intuitions.

Anthropological studies have found that isolated peoples with no prior contact with formal religion or missionaries were found to exercise strong moral and ethical principles.

Prehistoric man needed no churches or witch doctors to found families and live in communities under codes of conduct.

However, the evidence of religion fermenting conflict and immoral and iniquitous acts of degrading and inhuman practices is vast.

That is because religion is an invention created in the absence of an explanation for our existence in ancient times.

It is also a political tool and a control mechanism. Thus different religious faiths and sects clash about something neither can prove.

Christendom is the perfect example and the tower of Babel the perfect analogy.

Atheists are no less compassionate or caring than religionists, nor lack the capacity to love and cherish in personal and universal terms.

The truth, Mr Iebole, will set you free.

PETER NIELSEN Worcester
Editors’s note: This correspondence is now closed.