Letter: Reason or religion

From Jonathan Shearman

One of the jarring things about the whole discussion of atheism is that it seems to proceed on the assumption that the word “religion” has an agreed definition (10 November, p 6). It does not.

It covers a vast gamut of human experience, literature, culture and reflection. It might involve belief in a god; or in many gods; or in no god at all. It includes wild-eyed fanatics and sober rationalists, staid conservatives and fire-breathing radicals; holy-rolling preachers and reclusive lamas; the learned, the intelligent and, yes, even the determinedly ignorant.

There is a scholarly, if not scientific, approach to the study of the world religious traditions, namely comparative religion, about which we can safely assume the materialist proponents know very little.

From Lawrence D’Oliveiro

Let us accept the idea that, for large parts of the human population, atheism is unworkable. Let us accept that there is a widespread human need to believe in something that in some sense transcends ordinary day-to-day human experience. So even those who do not believe in religion need to realise that it is an inescapable part of the reality of the human condition.

Then what about other similarly transcendental beliefs, such as in astrology, the occult, mediums and so on? Certainly, among the monotheistic religions, such beliefs tend to be frowned upon as somehow heretical. Yet they persist throughout history, just as the organized religions themselves have persisted throughout history. If science must accept the inevitability of religion, then both must in turn accept the inevitability of the occult.

It seems to me that atheism – the idea that a recently evolved large-brained ape with some clever technological extensions to its limited senses, knows the secret of life, the universe and everything and just needs a bit more time to fill in the gaps – requires as much faith as any religion. I would describe myself as an agnostic, but the dictionary defines agnosticism as a belief that we cannot know. Can anyone suggest a term for those of us who just try to keep an open mind?

Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, UK

Terrey Hills, New South Wales, Australia