LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Atheists, religious are both heroic

Editor, I am an atheist. I’m not the only atheist on Whidbey Island, though I am probably the noisiest, most assertive one. As peculiar as it may seem — upsetting both believers and atheists I know personally — I consider atheism to be my religious belief. With no empirical evidence for the existence or the non-existence of the entity known as God, from a purely logical point of view, agnosticism may make the most sense.

November 6, 2013 2:36 pm

Editor,

I am an atheist. I’m not the only atheist on Whidbey Island, though I am probably the noisiest, most assertive one. As peculiar as it may seem — upsetting both believers and atheists I know personally — I consider atheism to be my religious belief. With no empirical evidence for the existence or the non-existence of the entity known as God, from a purely logical point of view, agnosticism may make the most sense.

An atheist since the age of 10; now 69 and perhaps approaching the end of my life, my “unfaith,” for lack of a better term, is stronger than ever.

Hometown Hero is an excellent series worthy of continuing in The Record, written with great skill and talent, and contributing to the pleasant life and culture most of us appreciate about Whidbey.

I also consider the series to be a very clever, subtle, and imaginative way of proselytizing for deism in general and Christianity in particular. I have no objection to the author using this strategy to support and spread her faith. When decent people believe they know of a wonderful truth of “good news,” it makes sense that they want to share it.

However, as far as I can tell, there has never been an overt atheist profiled — I hasten to add that I am not nominating myself.

I infer that one of the underlying themes of Hometown Hero is tolerance and acceptance, as far as such values can be reasonably applied. In terms of my own values, I would exclude murderers, torturers, rapists, and extreme thieves. Also, I would not consider an indifferent, uncaring, selfish person as an appropriate nominee. Does overt atheism make a person intelligible to be nominated?

We human beings are amazing creatures. We are aware of our own existence and our own mortality. We are spiritual and carnal, noble and wicked, altruistic and vicious, capable of the most amazing and inspiring creativity and insight and likely to fall on our faces in the mud at any time.

We are very dangerous, capable of murdering each other and perpetrating genocides. Values such as courtesy and respect, values implicit in Hometown Heros, imperfectly support our uneasy better nature.

I am hoping to see, an overt, unapologetic and unabashed atheist nominated soon as a Hometown Hero.

STEPHEN KAHN,

Langley