COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : An Atheist’s Response to Paulist Father Kieser

Paulist Father Ellwood E. Kieser’s Counterpunch, “TV Finally Finds Religion” (Dec. 26), cries out for an atheistical response.

First of all, his quote that “94% of the American people say they believe in God” is no doubt based on a Gallup Poll or some pro-religious poll. When people are phoned and asked if they believe in God, very few would say that they don’t. I would say that 20%-30% of Americans are nonbelievers.

Kieser suggests the possibility that “many people, in the entertainment community as well as the viewing public, have confused God with their own super-egos, pushing the tenderness and compassion of God into eclipse, leaving only a vindictive and fearsome tyrant that has nothing in common with the God of the Old and New Testaments.”

Nothing in common? Kieser must be kidding or woefully ignorant of the Bible. The Old Testament in particular reveals a bloodthirsty, cruel and vindictive God.

As to Kieser’s silly declaration that “God is the beginning and the end, the meaning, the purpose, the ground and the horizon of all human life,” neither I nor any free thinker I know of needs the crutch of religion to support a fragile ego or to put meaning in our lives.

Apparently, Kieser has never noticed all the air time sold to slick televangelists and religious hucksters. Where are the skeptics? Why are they never seen on TV or represented in mainstream media? Can you imagine the outcry from the religious community if a network presented a show critical of religion? America deserves better.

JON NELSON

Panorama City