(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

This is not an anti-religious letter. However, its purpose is to present a non-religious approach to life, to human existence and the solution to the problems and difficulties of such existence. Unlike religion, which promotes one, all-encompassing, solution to life’s experiences — either some god or supernatural being caused it or such a being can remedy it — a non-religious approach argues that every aspect of life has both a rational and logical, cause and effect.

The starting point is that no one knows the truth. What is known is that which can be proven with some reasonable degree of scientific certainty, and even that is subject to disproof by subsequent scientific discovery. What cannot be proven is not true and therefore does not exist except, perhaps, in the human imagination.

Despite having slaughtered each other for millennia over the issue of the existence of a true god, humans have yet to prove with any scientific certainty the existence of any god, ghost, goblin, or fairy. Those imaginary beings, although often the object of much adoration and worship, do not exist.

What is true, at least until it is proven to be untrue, is that everything has both cause and effect. The watch, which religious apologists employ metaphorically to support their argument for creationism, was not created — it was the product of an infinite number of causes and effects: a highly intelligent man was born from an impregnated mother whose mechanically astute father taught him the basics of gears and other mechanisms, encouraged him to tinker with such mechanisms and a host of other factors one day caused the man to make something which is now called a watch.

As applied to human existence, this means we live in a rational world with rational explanations. It means we humans should stop believing and acting stupidly, and by stupidly, I mean irrationally. Stupid beliefs and behaviors are common traits among the planet’s 8 billion relatively uneducated, ill-informed, and generally gullible people. Besides the millions who have perished in the senseless wars over the existence of imaginary deities, many millions more have been subjected to manipulation and exploitation by the super greedy, mainly politicians and religious leaders.

“Stupidities” are the source of immeasurable human grief, and the only protection is understanding. Most human suffering can be avoided if people simply question the rationality of their beliefs and require a reasonable level of credible, unbiased proof.

Patrick Radcliff

Marietta