LETTERS

Re “Spreading the atheist word,” Jan. 12

It’s refreshing that Richard Dawkins meets many atheists or intellectuals on his book tours and believes America’s religiosity or intellectual dwarfism is exaggerated. I disagree.

It would seem that dangerous religious superstitions would decline worldwide as greater scientific knowledge is gained. In fact, religious nonsense is declining in all industrialized nations except this one.

Richard Feldman

Pomona

--

The interview raises a significant issue regarding Dawkins and his kin: Does science per se logically lead to atheism?

Despite Dawkins’ atheistic dogma, a negative is notoriously difficult to prove, especially if the subject is as amorphous as God.

Scientists, almost by definition, are beyond their expertise in questions of theism/atheism. Science achieves its truth claims by taking something that has defined boundaries and can be tested by replicable experiments. The scientific method is a godsend, and it has planted men on the moon.

But life’s biggest questions -- about meaning, love, joy and good -- are not scientific. They are deeply human questions; it’s no wonder that diverse answers are given.

Jim Walters

Claremont