Boy Scouts and Atheists

I got a kick out of Kogel’s article.

I got a laugh from the way her first sentence started out, “There is absolutely no evidence that atheists, agnostics and just plain nonbelievers are any less ethical or have a weaker sense of morality than believers. . . . “ While history does record some periods where shameful acts were committed by Christians and other believers, nothing can compare with the 10 million Ukrainians murdered by famous atheists Stalin and Khrushchev, or the 50 million Chinese murdered by atheist Mao Tse Tung. In all, conservative estimates are that more than 100 million people died, this century alone, under atheists.

Kogel also states that “history demonstrates that belief in a god does little to inhibit immoral acts.” Yet all of recorded history’s religious atrocities do not equal what these atheists have done.

Weighed against that, it seems a small thing for the Boy Scouts to stand on their constitutional rights, as a private organization, and insist that membership requirements include a belief in God.

CHRISTOPHER PENROD

Whittier