Rational Life Is Part of Religious Life

It is disappointing to see Robert Scheer, in his Aug. 21 column, “You Can Use God to Justify Anything,” make the common mistake of separating one’s rational life from one’s religious life. The idea that a person’s religious convictions are not informed in a rational framework is a common fallacy that simply begs the question.

The whole stem cell debate is more than just a medical issue because it goes right to the heart of what we should do, not just what we can do. Bottom line: Creating life only to destroy it and then justifying the act in the name of medical research is not only religiously and morally suspect but rationally suspect as well.

Darrin Mariott

Santa Monica

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Scheer is right to remind us that God can be used to justify anything, but he ignores the fact that humanity’s bloodiest century was characterized by secular people using their quest for sociopolitical utopia (communism) and national/racial utopia (Nazism) to justify immeasurable horrors. “The end justifies the means” was written directly into their manifestoes. Yes, we should be wary of zealots of all stripes, including, if not mostly, secular people who have turned their politics into a religion.

Vince Basehart

Los Angeles