Letters to the Editor
-
Two more thoughts...
...then I'll shut up.
Sami: I think that your confusing secularism with atheism. Secularism is the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In other words, you can be secular and religous. They are not mutually exclusive.
Atheism is, on the other hand, an absence of belief in the existence of god. This covers true atheists as well as non-deity religions like Buddhism. I like to joke with my atheist friends that they've made a religion out of not believing in God. Funny only if you know one: they are as fervent as any Fundy/Episcy/Penty, etc.
That being said, it would be wrong to suggest that anyone who resolves not to be party to an organized faith is automatically without spirtuality. That's like the old Fundy arguement that someone without religion cannot have morals. I highly recommend some sort of spirituality in anyone's life, even if your spirituality takes strange forms (like mine: Golf!).
Tobbar: Thanks for the link. I'm not sure whether its that I'm generally an easy going guy or that I have a smile on my face alot, but I've been "witnessed" to nearly hundreds of times in my life. Some of these stories remind me of the people I've talked to in these enconters – alot like most Republicans – well meaning but really clueless...