Sir, – Further to the article by Joe Humphreys on Richard Kearney (Arts & Ideas, "How Atheists Can Still Believe in God", May 2nd), I'm so tired of people misunderstanding the very simple concept of atheism.
The key to understanding atheism is to embrace its simplicity.
Theological debates can get so absurdly complicated that people can’t accept that there is this beautiful, fabulously simple approach to accepting what we know and don’t know. It’s called atheism.
It’s like that old sketch, the woman trying to understand the man’s silence on the way home from a party. She reads all kinds of things into his silence, ponders their relationship, worries about their future. When all he’s really doing is thinking about football.
Stop trying to overanalyse atheism! And stop trying to tie it up in knots as some kind of theology, which it isn’t. Read the bloody dictionary.
Atheism is blissfully simple! – Yours, etc,
OLAN McGOWAN,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.