Vail Daily letter: More good than bad
Dear Richard (Carnes),
I read your article titled “No more time for tolerance” (Valley Voices, Jan. 31). You seem very angry.
I must apologize to you for any harm done to you in the name of God. I am speaking as a Christian.
I agree that throughout history, and especially now, incredible evil/harm has been done and is continuing to be done to humans by other humans in the name of God.
One must realize that there is a lot more good than bad coming from religious believers.
Support Local Journalism
I see that true in the long and short term in our human societies. To be mundane and obvious, just as many people die from auto crashes, we understand that the auto is still a worthwhile, valuable asset in our culture.
So it is with witnessing the moral value to human societies from Godly beliefs. Our current “moral code” is derived from Christian values. Because one sees daily the bad from religious believers does not mean the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater.
This discussion on human nature is extremely old with one of the more recent worldwide discussions being held between Martin Luther and the pope (15th century).
Luther held to “total depravity”; the Pope argued in the “goodness of man.”
Total depravity simply states that left alone without divine guidance, humans will turn to base conditions or evil. The pope argued that man is inherently good, and left to his own nature would do what is right. “Bondage of the Will” is the name of Luther’s book. This got him excommunicated and in fear of his life.
The point is, without an external point of view (God), man will make his own morality, and guaranteed it will not be what we currently call good.
This should motivate most humans to study and understand the true point of Christianity, the real story, the real truth behind the belief, not the easy way out of condemning the entirety by the actions of some individuals that have their own agenda.
Education helps in the discernment of history and truth. Hijacking a religious system for one’s personal gain is ubiquitous in the grand scale and in the daily personal scale of intolerance and anger. I value the opportunity we all have to discuss our world views. Thank you for your thoughts as it has made me think about our place in time and history.
Darryl Bangert