Dear
Mr. Hoskyns,
I
discovered today your blog,
through
David Healy's blog, http://davidhealy.org/study-329-big-risk/ .
Congratulations
for your attentive and courageous work on psychiatric abuses. Much is
still to be done.
I
noticed also that you are member in a Christian community.
As
an aware terrestrial citizen, I want to warn you that religions are
imperfect traditions,
that
can dangerously mislead their followers. It is prudent to analyze
rationally their contribution to the
human
culture, in order to keep what is valid and to correct what is
erroneous.
The
atheist communities are not perfect, but they are nevertheless the
keepers of important evidence
for the human history, since
Democritus and Lucretius
(http://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.html )
to Galilei, D'Holbach, Paine, Ravel
Russell
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwTk8v78pdw ),
Mayr,
Chomsky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f02gcRrdK2I )
and deGrasse Tyson
(http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/listen/2011/05/25/an-american-atheist ).
Hopefully,
these rational proofs will be understood by all the humanity,
allowing the progress
of
comprehension and peace.
Hoping
that these links will be useful to you and looking forward to your
answer,
I
wish to you all the best.
Sincerely,
Ioana-Noemy
Toma
Dear Iona-Noemy,
Many thanks for your message.
I base my spiritual beliefs on a reasonable interpretation of the synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, since I believe that both St. John and St.Paul have a tendency to either misrepresent or distort Christ's teachings. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that Jesus may have been a grass roots anarchist!
If Jesus's teachings about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 are to be believed then it is possible for atheists to be christian with a small c by performing good works and deeds and hence to achieve their 'Kingdom of Heaven' e.g,in their own lifetime, However..Christians with a large C who focus on faith rather than good deeds run the risk of being 'sent to Hell' e.g. at the Second Coming.
The important thing is to be decent to each other, and that's all that most reasonable religions are actually trying to say, albeit in highly convoluted ways.
I would agree that many churches effectively advocate evil by not condemning it, See for example my blog post
With all best wishes,
Tom Leonard
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