To the editor:

Richard Smith (Public Forum, Jan. 15) states that theism (belief in a god) is the only position that “tells us what morality is.” Many Christians think that God-believers have a corner on the market for morality and atheists (who do not have a belief in a god) lack morality. This bigotry toward the nonreligious is unkind and inaccurate.

To support this position, many Christians tout the Bible as a “God-inspired” moral guide. The Bible is full of murder, rape, incest, slavery and child abuse. Read it. God has children mutilated by bears as a form of punishment. Another verse says: “The bluer the wound cleanseth away evil.” How sick is that! And how about a father figure that allows for his son to be murdered when he had the power to stop it. What immoral, sadistic, and unhealthy stories to follow. The 10 Commandments don’t even include: Don’t commit child abuse or rape. The first four rules of biblical morality simply spin around God’s vanity.

Even the morally salvageable parts of the Bible, such as the Golden Rule, come from pre-Christian times (Confucius 500 BCE, Zoroastrians 1500 BCE). Sorry, morals don’t come from a belief in a mystical being, but from responsible decisions and behavior that some of us humans make to try to better society for our children’s children and so forth. Put simply, some religious people are moral some of the time and some are immoral some of the time. The same goes for the nonreligious. Have a nice day.

Brenda Frei,

Lawrence