Madam, - I have never quite understood why religious people insist that atheism is also a faith except perhaps that by claiming the atheist as one of their own, however bizarre the logic needed to do so, they do not have to properly face up to the fear that there is an alternative to believing in supernatural beings.
Prof Reville, however, demonstrates an astonishing sleight of hand in his attempt to show that atheism is a belief system ("I find no evidence for God, which goes a long way towards persuading me that there is no God and I am prepared to go the whole way by making an act of faith").
He conflates the positive and irrational act of faith of a believer ("There is no evidence but I believe anyway") with the Humean sceptical position that we can never know anything for certain ("Just because the sun has risen every day so far, does not mean that it will tomorrow") to argue that the atheist makes a positive act of faith also.
By this logic, "faith" becomes so general as to be meaningless. Under this definition, science is also a religion, as science needs to be able to generalise from specifics.
While acknowledging that yes, it cannot be dismissed as an impossibility that the sun will not rise tomorrow, everything we know about physics indicates that to seriously entertain such a position is pointless.
Equally, the atheist says "it is so improbable that God exists that I'm not going to waste any more time on it until you come up with some better proofs".
This is not an act of faith by any normal definition.
Finally, replace faeries or yeti into the professor's logic and you find that it equally treats a lack of belief in faeries or yeti as an active faith, like a religion.
As with the atheist, most people don't waste time actively not believing in such things.
- Yours, etc,
SEÁN MULLIGAN, Woodbrook Glen, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - In his letter today (November 2nd), Mr Michael Furey quotes out of context snippets from three of my science columns in The Irish Timesto illustrate his claim that I am self-contradictory, bordering on the hypocritical, and seeking to justify irrational religious belief.
Of course, using such a flexible investigative tool, he could equally easily illustrate that I am a self-consistent, sincere and committed atheist.
- Yours, etc,
WILLIAM REVILLE, Department of Biochemistry, University College Cork.