Solution to our problems will not be found in irrationality

Re: The world is a gift of the Creator — Feb. 2

The claim that “awareness of the immensity of the universe has coincided with the belief in a Creator” is incorrect. Indeed, it is only recently we have deduced that the observable universe is about 93 billion light years in diameter.

This was an achievement of science, not religion, and scientists are much more likely to be atheists than the average person.

Similarly, the claim that “human beings (are) at the centre of the universe” is not a creation of the modern world, but a fundamental teaching of most religions. In Genesis 1:26, for example, man is explicitly given domain over the animals, a view directly responsible for our ecological crisis. And the view that man cannot possibly change what God has ordained has led to our failure to act on threats such as global warming.

In contrast, in the modern scientific view of the world, humans are merely one species among millions on a small planet orbiting a nondescript star in one galaxy among billions, with the capability of altering Earth’s environment in ways that will make it uninhabitable.

The solution to our problems will not be found in irrationality and retreat to ancient false beliefs, but in recognizing that reliable truths can be found through skeptical inquiry, and not adherence to dogma. Jeffrey Shallit

Kitchener