LETTERS: My life is not meaningless

“For the atheist, life appears to be meaningless and without hope.” (DJ’s Records, The North Coast Courier, October 21). Mr Reed, where does that assertion come from?
I became an agnostic and then an atheist after 20 years of heartfelt prayers (on my own and with others), regular church attendance, Bible study, Christian counselling, studying Christian books, reading the Bible cover to cover and silent introspection, which led me to the unavoidable (and, at first scary) conclusion that I did NOT believe. I decided to stop lying to myself and others and ‘came out’.
What a lot of flak and arrogance I had to endure from people (including my then husband) who arrogantly assumed that it was merely that I hadn’t tried hard enough and castigated me and denigrated me!
Despite this, I felt an enormous sense of relief and peace; I was acting with integrity for the first time since I’d started my journey to try to become a ‘real’ Christian when I was confirmed at 13. I have been a much nicer, kinder, less judgemental person since I’ve acknowledged that I’m an atheist.
I realise I am a sample of one but I have a large circle of friends – many atheists and agnostics but also Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. I have also counselled a number of people who have realised that they don’t believe and, instead of just saying nothing as (I think) the majority of agnostics and atheists do, they wanted to ‘Be true…’ ‘To thine own self’ (Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3) and ‘come out’.
This is generally a very painful decision and can have the consequences I’ve spoken about above but none have regretted it although many have had to endure abuse and it would have been much more comfortable to just lie by omission as so many people feel able to do.
Mr Reed, I live a full, joyous and meaningful life as do most of the atheists I know. I’d be interested to know where you got your data on atheists from and why you feel you can ignore such a strong tenet of the Christian religion.
Atheist, agnosticism, no belief (call it what you will) is, after all the fastest growing ‘belief’ system in most censuses conducted around the world (with the exception of those repressive regimes where apostasy is outlawed) so it must have something going for it! I doubt whether the attraction is a meaningless and hopeless life!
I am surprised that The North Coast Courier would publish a gratuitous and unsupported attack on people for their belief system – is this not against the Code of Ethics?

JANE WILTSHIRE
Chakas Rock

Columnist DJ Reed replies:
Thank you for your honest and interesting letter. There are some facts you appear to be unaware of:
1. This article is part of a series in which I hope to point out that faith in God has much rational evidence to back it up. These submissions were in no way intended to judge any person, but this, in my view, does not mean that I have to suspend all rational judgment.
2. If you had taken the time to read my previous submissions to The North Coast Courier you may have been able to ascertain my motive for writing on this interesting topic. See the editions dated 02/09/2016 and 23/09/2016.
3. In this context I totally disagree with your attack on my views and stating that my views are “unsupported” and “gratuitous”. I have, however, observed that there is a concerted and gratuitous attack on the Christian faith as well as all faiths in general by some extreme atheists, who do so with an evangelistic and fundamentalist fervor.
4. By “unsupported” do you mean to imply that you would like me to document all of my sources? This is not possible since I am only allowed 400 words per submission.
5. From my training in the scientific field I have found that most of the scientifically minded, highly qualified people I have engaged with, do believe in God. Some of these people hold chairs in the scientific field at reputable universities. Furthermore, I have many close friends who have post graduate or doctoral qualifications from universities such as Cambridge, Harvard and MIT.
6. My work during the past 50 years has taken me to countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, the USA, Canada, France and the UK. So I have had many happy and interesting conversations with Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists.
7. In recent years as a pastor I have had to attend to and hopefully provide hope and help for grieving, dying, and suicidal people.
The only source of hope I have to offer, is the hope that I believe God provides. I would like to know from you, Jane, what kind of hope or comfort do you have to offer? In all sincerity, I would like to learn this from you.
If you had read my articles I mentioned above, you should be able to realise that I have no intention of attacking anyone or their belief system, but to give some small, meaningful support for people whose faith has been under severe attack from atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss and the popular media, in some cases.
Having said all this, I would trust that any future engagement would be in an attitude of mutual respect and appreciation.