Sir, Sam Harris (Comment, March 19) makes some palpable hits in his polemic against what he calls religious moderation, which does have its inconsistencies. But God will not disappear as he hopes.

The difficulties and dangers of believing in God are great, but a world without God presents just as many problems, even more. Conceptually, morally and existentially a sense of God will not be eradicated.

So-called moderate religion does not provide succour to violent religious extremism. It opposes it. Better still, it provides a positive, powerful alternative. Non-extremist religion is not a weak compromise of “secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance”. Nor is it best described as moderate.

There is plenty of non-extremist religion which is fired by radical faith, reason and imagination, all hard at work and deeply committed to serving the world: in fact just the sort of religion to be a good ally to Harris’s own quest and deepest concerns.

As he says, we badly need realistic ways to talk about ethics, spiritual experience and human suffering. God neither can nor should be pensioned off in that quest.

Yours faithfully,
VERNON WHITE,
19 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EE.
March 19.

From Dr Brian Posner

Sir, Sam Harris presents a view of religion and its role in fostering human conflict which is undoubtedly shared by many rational people, including, one suspects, some of the more enlightened leaders of all faiths. Unfortunately, human history tells us that his aspiration for us to abandon these beliefs in order to create a more harmonious world will never be achieved.

Adherence to religion is one example of a universal urge to belong to a group, whether family, national or any other, for the purpose of economic advantage and self-preservation. This is self-evident in many of the examples which he quotes and biological behaviour does not change.

Moreover, even those who think that religious belief is illogical are prepared to recognise that religions provide a code of moral behaviour for their adherents which would be difficult to achieve in other ways.

Yours sincerely,
BRIAN POSNER,
39 Moor Crescent, Gosforth,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 4AQ.
March 22.

From Professor Emeritus Paul Foster

Sir, Sam Harris argues that religious moderates are “failing to live by the letter” of the Bible or the Koran and thereby “betray faith and reason equally”. But, as any rationalist knows, the call to moderation is not a matter of the “letter” of anything, for that is the path of the fundamentalist and of jihad. Rather, the religious moderate believes in a person, in the example of a life lived with passion and compassion, not for oneself but for others.

It is such a life that is celebrated on Good Friday and Easter Day — for it is the Word that lives, not the letter of this text or that.

Yours sincerely,
PAUL FOSTER,
University College Chichester,
College Lane,
Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE.
March 23.

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