Modern standards

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 16

Modern standards

Sir,—The claim that God ordered and approved of Old Testament violence is made by Jews writing their history. The Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledge that Christian roots are in the Jewish religion. This acceptance is not necessarily of a god of massacres. In World War I British and German ministers of religion claimed that God was on their side. Could He approve of His creatures maim-

ing, gassing and killing one another? Ancestral families acknowledge herpes and villains in their long history; their claims to God’s approval are open to question. The Holy Bible has an Old and a New Testament. Arthur May (July 11) so enjoys violence in the Old, he does not need the modern TV brand. I suppose the New Testament is too sissy for him. Tunnel vision?—Yours, etc., V. H. ANDERSON. July 11, 1986.

Sir,—To claim that Christianity is the only viable moral authority is as arrogant as it is erroneous. Ethical behaviour is quite possible without recourse to one of 16 crucifixions or the multi-billion dollar mega-cor-poration founded on the last one. Morality is the natural product of social necessity, adequately catered for by abiding by secular civil law, which will guarantee civilisation long after the religion of superstition, fear and threat has passed away. The Old Testament has the same barbaric violence in at least 12 separate editions and is proven out of words attributed to the Christian God. Refute this, and God’s alleged authority for the Bible collapses completely. Anyone considering detailed Old Testament violence as acceptable for TV, just because it originates in the Bible, is in no position to knock modem standards. Supposed champions of truth and justice should not resent a critic’s right to factual public contention.—Yours, etc., ARTHUR MAY. July 12, 1986.

Sir,—ln view of the continuing letters of some correspondents, it is time perhaps to give reasons for one’s faith in the Bible. The alternative, to believe in blind evolutionary processes, leads inevitably to despair and meaninglessness — a fact that is becoming increasingly evident In our society. People should be aware that, far from modern science disproving the Bible, it has in fact virtually proven God’s existence. For example, the charge on an electron is a fundamental constant of the universe. If its strength was only slightly more or less than it actually is, molecules could not exist. No chemical compounds would form, and life would be impossible. How does it come to have the requisite charge? The only reasonable explanation is that God created it so, in order that life could exist. The Christian faith is a reasonable faith, able to be adequately defended, scientifically and otherwise — Yours, etc.,

M. E. VAN VOORTHUIZEN. July 11, 1986.