Madam, - John Waters ( Opinion, March 5th) rightly echoes the Taoiseach's warning about the dangers of disparaging religion. In his address last week to religious leaders Mr Ahern acknowledged that religion had a very important role in the life of the person and the State had no right to ignore this.
Moreover, the modern secular state, and not just its individual citizens, has itself a great need for religion if it is to perform its task adequately. The state rightly functions on reason and in accord with democratic principles (including the primacy of the majority view). But reason does not always function in a comprehensive way, and the majority principle can be inappropriately swayed by powerful influences. Religion has a vital role in helping reason to perceive the truth of things, as well as in warding off cultural amnesia.
Our understanding of God can be a guiding light in understanding the creation He has left to us. Ultimately, religious influences operating independently of the State help prevent the State becoming the new God, and thus avoid the totalitarian mistakes of the last century. Not only should citizens of the modern secular state be encouraged in their religious belief but all society should value ethical-religious insights as guiding lights on the path to the future. - Yours, etc,
MARK HAMILTON, Foster Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - John Waters makes some valid points but also writes a lot of nonsense, including the unsupported assertion that "there is a religious dimension inherent in the human being, faith comes from within, and without these we are less than human".
Leaving aside the philosophical argument, to be told that one is "less than human" is personally offensive to those of us who are not religious and do not have "faith". Mr Waters should retract those words and apologise. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK CARRIGAN, Beaubec, Drogheda, Co Louth.
Madam, - Thanks be to God for John Waters and Bertie Ahern! The Taoiseach's speech on the place of religion in society last week and John Waters's reflections thereon could be a much more significant sign of national maturity than anthems and "foreign games" in Croke Park.
Our reaction to the excessive religious zeal of previous decades has produced an irrational secularism that is in its own way every bit as dangerous as what went before. The baby, the bath-water, and even the bath itself are half-way down the drain.
Raising the issue of faith in public dialogue has been like inviting the first wife to the second wedding - not really acceptable. But the idea that faith has no place in public dialogue ignores the fact that everyone believes something. Banning faith from the public arena is itself a position based on a particular set of beliefs.
Not all religious believers want to force their values on others. Forcing people to behave instead of offering them a reason to believe is, for example, the antithesis of the teaching of Jesus. The only compulsion for him was the compelling beauty of the message. If the Taoiseach's initiative creates a space for conversation on issues of belief then the challenge will be for believers to make both their message and their lives a compellingly attractive alternative to secularism. - Yours, etc,
SEÁN MULLAN, Evangelical Alliance Ireland, Foley Street, Dublin 1.
Madam, - Contrary to what John Waters, or Bertie Ahern's speechwriters, might think, it is not a goal of secularism to denigrate religion.
A truly secular society would guarantee freedom of religion, which also means freedom from religion. Freedom for all taxpayers to send their children to schools run and paid for by the State where they would not be isolated by the so-called ethos of the school. If there is to be an ethos in State schools it should consist of respect for the civic duties that make people good citizens. It should encompass equal treatment of all citizens.
This is most certainly not achieved by making the sons and daughters of secularists, humanists, agnostics and, yes, even atheists, sit apart when all other pupils are being taught the principles of one particular religion which, because of an accident of history, happens to conform to the "ethos". - Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA, Farrenboley Park, Dublin 14.
Madam, - I'd like to congratulate your columnist John Waters ( Opinion, March 5th) for bringing to your readers' attention the speech delivered by the Taoiseach on the dangers of disparaging religion. I hope that, some day soon, public representatives will come to accept that religion is as much part of the human constitution as is sport - for which so much public funds and resources are available. - Yours, etc,
LUISON LASSALA, Cunningham Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.