Sir, – David McConnell (Opinion, August 31st) who I remember with great fondness and respect from my days in Trinity College, makes a compelling case that atheists possess strong moral virtues without religious instruction or education.
But from where did these virtues, fulfilled in “secular” declarations of human rights, arise?
Not from a moral wasteland, but 2,000 years of Christianity, the radical sect which spread all over the world preaching a gospel that there is no Jew and no Greek, that all were born equal in the eyes of God and the lowest in society are the most loved by Him.
This creed is the air we breathe and the ground we walk on. The doctrine that we owe the poor and the hungry our aid and love may have been decoupled from faith in God, but it is impossible, even ludicrous, for the most ardent atheist to argue these values originated anywhere except Christianity.
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Even the entire concept of “secular” – a separate sphere of power distinct from religion – is a medieval notion first planted by St Augustine and embraced by Pope Gregory VII to sever church from state.
I can heartily recommend Tom Holland’s wonderful book Dominion for anyone interested in the extraordinary influence of Christianity in ways we take so deeply for granted; even the most learned of men, presume their “values” have no basis in Christianity.
Faith is not required to believe nor live the values of the UN Declaration of Human Rights; but to pretend it is not a Christian document requires epic levels of denial about the reality of humanity’s moral progress.
– Yours, etc,
SARAH CAREY,
Enfield,
Co Meath.