We should agree to disagree

Sir, - Your correspondent Mr Morrison of Brechin asserts that “refusing to accept that God exists will not make him go away”, but I argue instead that insisting that God does exist won’t make him real. Neither view is provable in our lifetime.

Believers in God and an afterlife are arguably better off than the nonreligious because if they are wrong they will never know as they will no longer have the consciousness required for knowledge.

On the other hand, if God does exist and there is a life beyond this one, Mr Morrison and others will have the satisfaction of knowing that they were right.

As a lifelong atheist, despite the efforts of Christian teachers throughout my childhood, I shall never have the satisfaction of knowing that I was right as I will cease to exist when I die.

On the other hand, I might come face to face with an angry deity and know that I was completely wrong.

That would be an interesting, or even terrifying, experience.

I won’t waste time worrying about it, but nor am I going to try to talk others out of their faith.

Cannot all of us just agree to disagree and get on with trying to be decent human beings in the one life that we absolutely know exists? Moira Symons. 17 Woodlands Gardens, Dundee.