Letters: Look to the ‘Nones’ for guidance

Re “Spiritual but not religious,” Opinion, Dec. 28

Corinna Nicolaou looks backward in her quest for a “special kind of wisdom”; it is the religious who should look forward to her and other like-minded “Nones.”

She contemplates the pervasive myth that Nones are “missing out.” I ask: Can religion propagate kindness without intolerance? Does it incline people “to see the big picture,” or is a church a group of people encouraging each other that they no longer have to wonder? Does religion help a person in times of great difficulty, or can believing what one wants to believe get one past any hardship?

Nicolaou asks, “What do I have to lose?” How about grace? Nones exist in an ideal place: We are thankful for its own sake. We do not suffer under a belief that our natural impulses are “bad.” We are not threatened into proper behavior; rather, we make positive choices according to the golden rule.

Kevin T. Freeman

Anaheim

I think the increase in the number of Nones in America is due, at least in part, to the demise of the Soviet Union. Before then, atheism was equated with communism and was considered unpatriotic. Many Americans who may have been apprehensive about religion were reluctant to call themselves atheists for fear of being considered unpatriotic.

Communism is an economic and political system that has been proven to be unworkable. Atheism is a philosophy that is thousands of years old and is still valid.

Now that the Soviet Union is gone, belief in a god is no longer considered a requirement to be a patriotic American or to have a happy and fulfilled life. Younger Americans are realizing that.

Charles Wilson

Oxnard

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