"Religion isn't only source"

Well I'm finally published. The Columbian published my first letter to the editor on Thanksgiving. Here it is.

Author Sam Harris, featured in the Nov. 18 AP story, "Christianity crux: Author questions role of religion in America," beleives the world would somehow be better without religion, particularly Christianity. While it is true that religion has been the source of numerous conflicts, the same is equally true of all stronly held beliefs including atheism.

The greatest causes of human misery in the 20th century were not motivated by religion but rose instead from communist and fascist states bent on eradicating traditional belief in God. It therefore cannot be argued that religion is source of the world's pain. Instead Harris must argue that a secular world offers something more than a religious one. And this he cannot do.

When one abandons the notion of God, one must also abandon such "mythological" notions as love, beauty, morality, justice, hope and equality. For like God, these ideas are immaterail and cannot be verified through science. Harris wants us to reject God and therefore to reject meaning.