Madam, - Is Fr Paul Clayton-Lea serious (August 25th)?
He describes religion as a "bulwark of reason" against "quasi-supernatural salespeople". Maybe this is some kind of religious humour the rest of us cannot get. Was it this bulwark of reason that imprisoned Galileo for his ideas, or burned thousands at the stake for heresy, or fought (and still fights) tooth and nail against Darwin's theory of evolution?
Was it this "God-given reality and reason" that has supported book-bannings and censorship throughout history, that imprisoned women in Magdalen laundries, that supports the lie that condoms actually worsen the spread of HIV/Aids?
If some religions have abandoned their more medieval attitudes and practices it is only because secular advances in society and science have made these positions impossible.
Fr Clayton-Lea uses a number of quotations to support his case. There are two other well-known expressions that are relevant to religious-inspired attacks on psychics and astrology. One involves a pot and a kettle, the other glasshouses and stone-throwers. - Yours, etc,
LORCAN McNAMEE, Rathedmond, Sligo.
Madam, - Fr Paul Clayton-Lea decries, without any apparent sense of irony, the "quasi-supernatural salespeople" who have made a "multi-million euro industry out of people's insecurity and gullibility". I submit that this statement could apply to any number of religious institutions as easily as to mere peddlers of astrological nonsense.
Fr Clayton-Lea would have us believe that religious faith provides a "bulwark of reason", yet is it any more reasonable to believe that the alignment of certain planets affects our lives than to believe in an omnipotent, omniscient entity who created the universe despite all kinds of logical constraints?
Far from being a call towards reason and away from superstition, Archbishop Brady's remarks on astrology leave one with the distinct impression of a salesman worried by new competition. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN CAREY, Wheatfields, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
Madam, - What about the Three Wise Astrologers? - Yours etc,
GREG BROPHY, Osprey Drive, Templeogue, Dublin 6W.