To the editor:

Sheldon Wilson’s letter contending that people “believe in” evolution is similar to saying people “believe in” germs or the solar system. Sadly, when we are ignorant, willful or otherwise, everything is reduced to belief.

Wilson doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know that the physical world contradicts certain irrational beliefs to which he seems to be emotionally addicted. But the real problem here is not evolution; it is a problem of self-awareness.

Whether in Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome, Benares, Salt Lake City or wherever, people are addicted to the illusion that by worshipping their own moral traditions, their own books, their own rituals, their own inner thoughts, their own feelings, they are actually worshipping God. And if you “own” “God” and others don’t, then they can only be “evil” and thus deserving of discrimination or punishment.

In fact, although such irrational beliefs promote tribal solidarity, they are a pact with the “devil” for they undermine global civilization and trivialize the concept of God. Religious traditions do contain much wisdom, but like everything else, if they don’t evolve with the times, they will become increasingly obsolete and finally, extinct.

It is so tragic, so ironic, that so many who seek a meaningful concept of God lose themselves instead in superstition and cultural self-worship.

Eric Smith,
Lawrence