re: "The faith of atheists" (PostBag, July 16)
Dear editor,
In speaking up for theists, Eric Bahrt did not get it quite right with his assertions about atheists. Atheists certainly have faith: they have faith that humans are capable of much good, although they also acknowledge the fact that when whipped up by religious fervour, humans are also capable of great evil, as in holy wars, pogroms, inquisitions, xenophobic genocide, and the like horrors that dot human history.
But the faith of atheists on what is real is radically different to that of theists. The faith of atheists is based solidly on evidence and reason: there is a vast and growing body of solid evidence that evolution is real; there is also an ever expanding body of solid evidence that helps us better understand the past, present and future of the universe we live in. In contrast, the faith of theists is, as Luther insisted, necessarily the epitome of blindness, having not a single shred of evidence or of reason to support the idea that any of the myriad gods and goddesses that delight us in uplifting stories, except when those stories are truly depressing, has the virtue of actually existing.
Atheists also have the humility, when confronted with the mysteries of the universe, to honestly say, "We don't know," unlike the facilely fake answer that "God did it."
Felix Qui
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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.
The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 18, 2018, under the title "Keeping the faith" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1505502/give-boys-thai-id
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