I read the letter by Jan Wyles (August 3) asking us to be honest about our religious beliefs in the Census. She was not beating the drum for or against religion. She was simply implying that government needs an accurate census to plan services.
So why does Anglican Bishop Peter Brain rush to the battlements with his laptop, telling us if we knew our history we would be Christian.
I know about The Crusades Peter. I know Christians expelled Muslims from Spain. I know that amid the carnage, both sides prayed to the Christian God during the First World War and I know that Christian Serbs drove Muslims out of Croatia in very recent times causing enormous loss of life, which brings me to their own conflicts over shades of belief.
The French drove the Protestants out. The British drove the Catholics out. They went to the Netherlands and became a tolerant society, free of metaphysical claptrap.
Peter, if the Bible is the word of God, why wasn’t it the word of God when Luther was a Catholic and why isn’t Catholic scripture the word of God.
The Jews say Jesus was just a prophet. The Islamists say Allah is God, so why is Peter Brain correct.
The Enlightenment rejected religion completely. The children of the Enlightenment study religion on a comparative basis to learn what it has to offer in terms of its contribution to culture
To make judgments about the superiority of one religion over another is absurd. To suggest its absence leaves a void in our lives is merely scaremongering.
Why does the Bible condemn philosophy Peter. I suggest it is because the philosophers know the truth about religion.
John Bergin,
Armidale
