I must say that Alex Lishinski wrote an interesting criticism about people of faith in his letter to The State News, "Belief in god wasteful, necessitates blind faith" (SN 2/1). A letter in which he completely degrades anyone who isn't as socially enlightened as he has proclaimed himself to be. Personally, I was raised as a Catholic and generally consider myself to be agnostic. I cannot comprehend, however, how someone such as Lishinski can be so disrespectful of other people's faiths and of people in general.

Lishinski begins by saying he does not "respect Christian beliefs." I suppose this means Lishinski has no respect for Christian beliefs such as valuing your family, being charitable toward others and forgiveness. Lishinski has no right to be disrespectful toward anyone, simply because they disagree with his opinions. I think Lishinski's biggest problem is unfairly lumping all people of faith with hard-liners on the far Christian right who view themselves as morally superior toward others.

It seems to me that he is being hypocritical, however, because he himself is claiming superiority over people who "not only set (themselves) back, but also (they) set back the progression of human ideas and understanding." Lishinski claims logic and reasoning can be used for any argument, even though religion addresses inherently unanswerable questions. He says faith is flawed because your "beliefs cannot be proven." At the same time, he essentially claims through logic and reasoning that he has single-handedly disproved the existence of a god. If you don't mind, I would love to read your grand unifying theory of physics, as well as your explanations of human consciousness.

I think above all, religion is something that can give a lot of people hope. Whether their beliefs are right or wrong — which may never be fully proven to each of us until we die — I don't see what is wrong with any belief system that teaches people to treat each other equally and helps them live fulfilling lives. You don't have to agree with their beliefs, but you also don't have any basis to claim that millions of people in the world are wasting their lives because they have faith in something that makes them happy.

Mark Mouland
mechanical engineering graduate student