From STEVE CURRIE
To reduce belief to a single word, fear, is surely a gross oversimplification.
I have the advantage over Atkins, in that I don’t have to imagine being
terminally ill. I am currently fighting an illness with science-derived
technology, love and compassion; believe me, there is no room in my world-view
for his ‘harsh reality of extinction on death’. Belief in the survival of
something beyond death requires no more suspension of reason than belief
in some of the fantastic theories Atkins’s colleagues tried to drum into
me about nuclear physics. Does he have any direct evidence for the existence
of neutrinos?
One thing that a science degree taught me was to be open-minded and
not dismissive of others’ belief structures, however unreasonable.
Surely the ‘answer’ (and why should there even be one?) lies somewhere
in the vast expanse of middle ground between Midgley and Atkins. Meanwhile,
I’m going to continue fighting ‘extinction’ to the ‘bitter end’ because
my life depends on it.
Steve Currie Camberley, Surrey
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