To the editor:

B.J. Ammel’s letter about “Chosen people?” (Public Forum, Nov. 2) had me laugh out loud. Something that outrageous must certainly be a hoax, I thought. But then I started wondering if the writer was expressing his or her true beliefs. If so, it seems he or she has some blatant racial issues.

So let me get this straight: According to Ammel, first God created primitive humans, without souls, and their descendants live on, presumably descended from Africa or any part of the world outside of northern Europe. Next God created His Chosen People, beginning with Adam, and breathed a soul into him, and Adam’s descendants originated in Scandinavia and Germanic regions of the Caucasus mountains, begetting the European white races with souls.

It appears Ammel’s solution is that primitive humans without souls evolved, whereas Christians (and their forebears, the Jews) were created and vested with souls. So both sides of the evolution debate are right, according to Ammel. That’s the most ridiculous theory I’ve ever heard.

Steve Cowell,

Lawrence